Botanical Couture Workshop
October 19th & 20th

Woodland Workshop
November 9th & 10th

The locally grown amaranthus is simply magnificent at this time of the year. Vibrant Valley Farm grows a plethora of the most stunning varieties in quite the selection of colors. Some of the flowers are 2-3′ long! I bought a couple of bunches to make headpieces for a photo shoot.

The first one was designed with 2 halves of Holly Chapple pillows secured to a headband. It was decorated with amaranthus, mini phalaenopsis and a plethora of textured. For the second one, a gnarly grapevine branch was perfect to drape many long stems of amaranthus; several varieties of foliage, seedpods and other textures embellished the headpiece. The mask was covered with hydrangea petals from the garden.

Many thanks to Christopher Ber for modeling and Sheryl Tynes for the photography.

VVF is one of the numerous flower and veggie farms located on Sauvies Island at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers just 10 miles NW from downtown Portland.

We spent an enchanting afternoon and evening in a delightful garden, where we all reveled in nature’s offerings, including beautiful flowers, plants and delicious food. After demonstrating how to create a woodland/floral-themed table-scape, attendees created their own table-scape to join the collective creations on the table.

Many thanks to @rootsofjoybotanicals for hosting this woodland workshop and magnificent dinner in her gorgeous garden on Saturday! What a memorable experience!
It could not have been a more beautiful and inspiring setting for students to design great centerpieces that later decorated the dinner table.

The grilled fish and vegetables were delicious, the dessert was superb – the best ice cream I have ever eaten! Thank you chef @chris_dishes for preparing such a special meal!

Everyone received a copy of my new book, “Wonder of the Woodlands”.

A couple of years ago I started to decorate plain gift boxes with botanicals from the garden or the cooler. My friends loved it! Sometimes I decorate a box, either with blossoms and some textures, or I create a woodland scape. Sometimes I simply decorate tissue paper.

This botanical fascinator was fashioned with 2 half pillows from @syndicatesales that were secured to a headband.
The back of each was covered with torn pieces of cork. The front of one was covered with foliage of cotinus and a couple of stems of ripsalis; the other one was covered with seedpods of lunaria and decorated with green blueberries, alchimella, blossoms of digitalis, baptisia, cerinthe, dogwood, pansies, allium bulgaricum and christophii, seedpods of mahonia,…
Photos @ted.mishima
Model @alexistrilliams

A few weeks ago a few friends and I got together to build fairy houses in the studio. We picked pieces of bark, branches, moss and lichen covered wood etc and created the sweetest fairy houses; The following week we took them to a woodland setting on the property of my friend Linda where Saskia took fabulous pictures. I cannot wait to see hers. In the meantime I decided to post the ones I took with my Iphone.

Earlier this month I made some fun pocket boutonniers for prom. The blossoms of foxglove were so perfect for this bright one. Deconstructed pincushion protea, succulents, green woodland strawberries, some lichen and sweetpea tendrils added lots of detail

On April 2nd, we celebrated the book launch of “Wonder of the Woodlands – the Art of Seeing and Creating with Nature”. Jessica and Aaron Grimmer hosted this special event at their fabulous restaurant High Noon in Portland.

Writing a book takes a village and I could not have asked for a better team; my deepest appreciation goes to many who made this book possible:

Theresa Bear, who not only took the exquisite photos, but also spent endless hours finding the perfect locations and directed the photo shoots impeccably. Her energy is magical!

Jen Rich and Gwen Severson who helped brainstorm the details of every shoot and styled each one perfectly.

Julie Michaels, who instinctively understood my love of Nature and wrote the stories and descriptions so eloquently for each chapter.

Leslie Jonath, my agent, who was so helpful and supportive throughout the 3.5 year process and who connected all the dots so well.

The team of Clarkson Potter Publishing, especially to editor Deanne Katz for the thoughtful guidance and stewardship – and to Mia Johnson for her beautiful designs.

And a heartfelt thank you to so many friends for their unfailing support and to those who gathered special textures for many of the designs.

Last month, Alison Ellis hosted a great workshop at her favorite venue, The Round Barn, in Waitsfield,VT. Hitomi Gilliam taught her simple approach to structural techniques for bouquets and installations, Alison Ellis and Phebe Higgins taught business strategies, from website tips to the power of social media. I shared mechanics on how to make framed woodland designs and botanical fascinators. We could not have done it without the fabulous support of Lori Bley of The Hidden Daisy and Sarah Jo of Creative Muse. Many students had traveled from far away to attend this informative and fun workshop. Many thanks to photographer Isora Lithgow for the beautiful pictures. And we could not have had better accommodations and food at the Round Barn.

Inspired by a floral design inside a wide metal circle, I connected two 14″ wreath frames with chickenwire to create an 8″ wide circular base, which I covered with paper thin birch bark and woodshavings.

The heavy, very dense piece of wood was the base for the woodland scape, as well as those fabulous grey shelf mushrooms. The structure was was decorated with fungi, tillandsias, dhydrated ferns, calathea leaves, begonia leaves and mushrooms, succulents, cacti, lichen, moss, huckleberry branches, turkey tails, seedpods of poppies, nigella, nicandra and sweetpeas.

This piece also can be hung on the wall as a 3d wreath!