Françoise is coming to Ghent, NY!
photo Kim Thomas
Monday & Tuesday, August 1 & 2, 2016,
9AM to 4PM each day
Hosted by Kim Thomas, owner, grower and designer at
Flower Blossom Farm
Located in Ghent, New York – see map
Wedding Workshop
Please bring your own tools, i.e. clippers, scissors, wire cutters and knives.
A professional photographer will document the workshop as well as everyone’s designs.
Loshinsky Catering will serve a light breakfast and lunch both
days and on Monday evening August 1st there will be a scrumptious farm to table dinner!
photo Françoise Weeks
I am very excited to announce that Kim Thomas, owner, grower and designer at Flower Blossom Farm is hosting a 2 day workshop at her gorgeous farm in upstate NY. You will design with dozens of varieties of her flowers, foliages and textures.
This workshop offers practical, hands-on experience that will further develop your own skills and increase your confidence to explore outside the box. You will create new designs with strong emphasis on the commercial and saleable value of the designs.
photo Katie Collins
Monday, August 1 – Cascading Bridal Bouquets, Wrist Corsages, Hairpieces and Botanical Jewelry
Join us to learn how to create gorgeous romantic cascading hand-tied bouquets using the most beautiful flowers and textures freshly harvested from Kim’s farm. In the afternoon we will explore chic, wearable floral jewelry. Your brides will love botanical rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets as alternatives to the traditional pin-on corsages. You’ll also learn how to create extended flower combs and delicate wrist corsages.
photo Joni Shimabukuro
Tuesday, August 2 – Woodland Centerpieces
For Françoise, the Woodlands sprouted from a childhood memory that took a life of its own. Using foliage, bark, berries, seedpods, twigs, mushrooms, herbs and flowers, we’ll explore how to make a variety of centerpieces. In the afternoon you will create your own containers using bark and branches. You will hone your artistic talents and will be encouraged to listen to your own intuition and further your own vision.
photo Ted Mishima
to RSVP or for more information
Workshop Info
Françoise Weeks
francoiseweeks.com
francoise@francoiseweeks.com
503-236-5829
Lodging Info
Kim Thomas
Flower Blossom Farm
967 Cty Rt 9
Ghent, NY 12075
518-567-9266
email contact
Workshop at Cohim in Beijing (day 1)
It was such a thrill when last year in July I was invited by Cohim – a design school in Beijing – to teach a 6 day botanical couture/woodland workshop in September 2015. Not in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined that I would have the opportunity to go to the Far East to share my passion with other designers. From the get go, my friend Jo Jarvis was on board. Preparations were much more extensive than for any other workshop, as lots of the materials that I needed were not available over there. I was very grateful that Jo created a fantastic power point for each day – a request that we got less than a week before we left.
The experience at Cohim was absolutely incredible. Judy- -a fantastic translator – helped made this teaching experience go so very smoothly; the language barrier never was an issue. She was constantly at our side to make communication with the students seamless. They were a real delight and were super creative. At the end of each day Chris came by to take pictures of their work.
The flower market offered an extensive selection of flowers, textures, succulents and house plants and as you will see in the pictures in the next few blog posts, the students designed the most fantastic purses, shoes, headpieces, jewelry and woodland with all those botanical treasures.
Botanical Parasol
Last Sunday Ted Mishima and I teamed up again to do a photo shoot. Model Kari Renée brought an impressive ward robe – and I loved her work!
Lots of seasonal textures and some flowers covered this parasol – Many of them were sponsored by Rose Hill Flower Farm. Thank you Elizabeth for your wonderful gift!
Botanical Jewelry with Orchids and Texture
The wedding that I did 10 days ago was all about orchids – as I had a few stems left over , I made some botanical jewelry and added some pokeweed berries and elderberries for textural accents. This was such a fun project and I learned a lot!
Demo Pieces for the Wedding Workshop at Filoli
Selection of designs for the demos during the workshop at Filoli last June.
pocket boutonnier
Workshop hosted by Filoli in the San Francisco Area in June 2015
I was thrilled to be invited to teach a 2 day wedding workshop at Filoli in the San Francisco area early this summer. It is such an amazing estate with glorious gardens where classes of a wide variety of subjects are taught all year. It was another opportunity to go to the San Francisco Flower Market to find a great variety of exquisite flowers and textures – and to visit flower friends in San Francisco. Thank you Mindy for spearheading this opportunity, for driving me around and for being such a wonderful hostess.
Feast your eyes on the beautiful selection of designs from the students!
Phalaenopsis Headpiece
Thank you Ted Mishima for inviting me to another photo shoot and thank you Fayren for the fabulous modeling!
Demonstration at the Florida State Florist Association’s Annual Convention
It was such an honor to be invited last fall by the Florida State Florist Association to do an on stage program, and teach to a hands-on workshop at their annual convention in Orlando in June 2015.
The presentation on woodlands and botanical couture and the workshop were sponsored by BloomNet.The topic of the workshop was woodland bouquets and the students created fantastic designs. Mayesh sponsored the flowers for both events and Oasis provided the european bouquet holders as well as all the cold glue.
A heartfelt thank you to these companies for their generosity which made this opportunity a reality. I am also very grateful for all the help and coaching from my friend Jo Jarvis for this event.
For 2 days we prepared woodland and botanical couture pieces in a workroom that we shared with Dutch designer Pim Van den Akker. Creativity was unleashed to make the many designs for the program. I enjoyed watching the program of several of the designers and it was fantastic to meet such a great group of creatives!
Here are some photos from the demo. Courtesy FSFA.
Botanical Headpiece with Fans
Last Sunday was a great collaboration with photographer Ted Mishima and model Sarah Pardini.
Inspired by a picture of a couture hat that incorporated fans, this project was a interesting learning curve which involved some interesting mechanics…
