When I taught a workshop at Cohim in China last month, the students made botanical dresses on the last day. A short video of their beautiful dresses posted on social media was very well received. Students have been requesting this class and I am excited to be able to offer it to you!

I will teach a 2 day botanical couture workshop at Brannan Street at the flower market in San Francisco on March 3-4 and one here in Portland on February 20-21 at studio Tendue. My studio is too small to accommodate students and mannequins, so I decided to teach at the brand new studio Tendue, which is located 5 minutes from my studio.

For more information about the workshops, please click here

Whether you would like to make a floral garment for a show-stopping window display, to participate in a competition or even to wear for a special occasion, the techniques you will learn can be adapted and applied to a myriad of ideas. As this is a very time consuming project, students will work in pairs to make the dress form for a mannequin and collaborate on the design and application of leaves, flowers and textures.

All the beautiful designs will be documented by a professional photographer

Here is an example of a dress that I made last week. I created the base of the dress on a mannequin and decorated it with silverleaf, rosepetals, lilies and orchids, foliage of pepperonia, rex begonias and cyclamen, succulents, pieris and berries. There are endless possibilities for the styles of dresses and how to decorate them.

Many thanks to photographer Ted Mishima and model Raven Surratt

If anyone is interested in hosting this workshop in another city, let me know!

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Last week local photographer Stephanie Jarstad contacted me, asking if I would like to collaborate on a shoot. Recently her 8 month old husky had been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease. She and her husband were heartbroken as they would have to put Kolohe down soon. She wanted to do one last photo shoot with him, surrounded by flowers. We decided to use treasures from the forest floor, as he used to love to run around in nature – as all puppies do.

I realized how emotional this collaboration would be, as we had lost our sweet Tanner last summer. 

In the studio I made different sections with beautiful pieces of bark and wooden discs and embellished them with evergreens, moss and lichens and many forest floor treasures and assembled all the pieces in their living room in a horse-shoe shaped woodland-scape; the center was a soft bed of small pieces of evergreens and  some rosepetals.

Kohole slept peacefully during the photo shoot and Stephanie captured so many peaceful images of him. You can see many more pictures and Kohole’s story on her blog post: ‘Copy of the Letter to Our Puppy in Heaven’ http://www.stephaniejarstad.com/blog/

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A plethora of textures and some early spring flowers framed by a mixture of dogwood, magnolia and lichen covered branches makes for a striking centerpiece or a distinctive frame as a back drop for a photo shoot.

To make this detailed woodland design I used hellebores, double tulips, bells of Ireland, succulents, tillandsias, lichens, mushrooms, berzillia, kale, parsley, ferns, blackberries, seedpods of nigella and eucalyptus, buds of ranunculus, club moss, calix of carnations ,…

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I must say that recently I have been a bit obsessed to work with bark. @Grovfor in Wisconsin has been supplying me with a fabulous selection.

The intent was to make a mask – but during the photo shoot we realized that the piece also could be used as a headpiece and even a shield.

And the necklace could be re-purposed as a small headpiece. We had a blast during it all!

photos: Ted Mishimahttp://www.mishimaphotography.com/

model: Ella Con Tessla

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Here is the sequel to the first part of the photo shoot  that was posted a few days ago.

Photos: Gwendolyn Severson (@botanicallyinspires) and Alba Betancourt

Model: Nicholas Lemere (@nicholaslemere)

Space: Tendue

Bracelets, rings and earrings designed by Gwendolyn Severson

Mask/headpieces and necklaces designed by Françoise Weeks

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A few weeks ago I posted pictures of a woodland mask, flower crown and bow tie that I had made for a commercial for Oregon Bride Magazine. The video announced their annual bridal show Urban Unveiled  that took place earlier this month at Montgomery Park. It was thrilling that the magazine hired me to do woodland masks, headpieces and jewelry for their fashion show. I look forward to receiving their pictures, so I can post them in the near future. Before going to the event, photographer friends and 2 models did a photo shoot at the fabulous event place Tendue, located on SE 11th and Division.

Rings, earrings and bracelets designed by Gwendolyn Severson

Headpieces and necklaces designed by Françoise Weeks

Thank you @grovfor who provided all the fabulous bark.

A heartfelt thank you to you all for participating. The results are fabulous!

Photos: Gwendolyn Severson (@botanicallyinspired) and Alba Betancourt

Model: Sarah Meyer

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Photographer Elisa Cicinelli documented so beautifully  the 2 day botanical couture workshop, hosted by Barbara Colvin! Here are some images of the demos that I made ahead of time as well as some of the teaching in action.

Thank you Elisa!

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Last spring, when Barbara Colvin attended a wedding workshop hosted by Brannan Street in San Francisco, she invited me to teach a 2 day botanical couture workshop at her gorgeous property in the wine country.

After buying an incredible selection of seasonal flowers and textures at the Flower Mart we arrived at her beautiful home in the wine country and started to prep and set up for the classes in her spacious barn. Barbara was the most generous hostess and she spoiled all of us with delicious lunches. I have so much appreciation for her generous spirit and for the opportunity to share a lot of mechanics, as well as how to look at botanical materials through different eyes, with her friends. It was a delight to observe them all create gorgeous botanical jewelry, purses, shoes and headpieces.

Elisa Cicinelli  documented the atmosphere of the workshop and the exquisite designs in a magical way. Merci!

And as always I very much appreciated the generous  sponsorship from oasis.

Special thanks to Mindy Rosenberg  for all your delightful help.

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The Bloom Project provides fresh floral bouquets to hospice and palliative care patients on a weekly basis. This non profit organization was started by Heidi Berkman 10 years ago.

Their annual fundraiser at the Multnomah Athletic Club last week was attended by over 300 people attend and the event was a great success.

‘Bouquets of the Heart’ became part of the Bloom Project’s fundraiser last year: several months ago the board of BP selected 5 artists and floral designers. Each one of the 5 artists  was paired up with a florist and we interpreted their beautiful painting or photograph or sculpture with floral presentations. Debra Prinzing was the emcee.

Many thanks to Gwen Severson (@botanicallyinspired) for the photos.

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The day after the presentations I taught 2 workshops;  the students made gorgeous and unique woodland centerpieces and a botanical necklaces. 

Thank you to the photographer at Koehler & Dramm for capturing these great images!

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