When my friend Jen gave me a stem of fritillaria imperialis that she had grown, I knew that I wanted to make it shine in a special headpiece. I used a heavier mesh for the vertical piece, and hid the mechanics with a palm leaf in the front and salal leaves in the back. The base is covered with deconstructed dingo ferns. Kumquats, deconstructed kalanchoe and protea added some whimsy.

Many thanks to our fantastic team who made this photo shoot happen.

Photographer: Theresa Bear

Models: Makena Rich

Stylist: Jen Rich

MUAH: Event Cosmetics

Wardrobe: Aleo Moda

Studio: Beast Daylight

After teaching the workshop in Norfolk last month, Sheryl and I drove up to Waitsfield, VT where Alison Ellis with Real Flower Business hosted her first live Floralpreneur Workshop for floral designers and farmer florists at The Inn At The Round Barn with Phebe Robinson Higgings and myself. From business strategies, including how to host successful pop-up shops, to botanical jewelry and sustainable woodland design techniques, attendees walked away ready to implement new tips and mechanics to propel their business forward.

The accommodations at The Round Barn were exceptional and the 3 chef prepared meals per day were a real treat!

Many thanks to Isora Lithgow for documenting the workshop.

Aluminum wire is so flexible and easy to manipulate and it is perfect to make the bases of any kind of jewelry, including these different ideas for facial decorations.

In the next few blog posts, I will share more of the spring fashion botanical couture that I designed. As always, coming up with new ideas and figuring out mechanics is a favorite part of this creative journey!

Many thanks to our fantastic team who made this photo shoot happen.

Photographer: Theresa Bear

Models: Makena Rich and Chloe Williams

Stylist: Jen Rich

MUAH: Event Cosmetics

Wardrobe: Aleo Moda

Studio: Beast Daylight

What a great group of designers who attended the workshop hosted by Sheryl Tynes in Norfolk,MA last month! Floral designers and flower enthusiasts alike participated and designed fabulous pieces.

It was a treat to design with gorgeous seasonal flowers from The Floral Reserve and of course we also foraged in the area.

Many thanks to Jenny Murray for the photos and models Emily Grondine and Kiley Murray.

When make-up artist Katherine Sealy sent me a video showing how to use a recycled plastic bottle to design the base for these eye decorations, I had to give it a try. So fun how it turned out after decorating it with snippets of moss, hyacinth blossoms, succulents and small rex begonia leaves.

Photography: Theresa Bear

Model: Brenna Nelson

Venue: Studio Northwest

Silverleaf protea is only available for a couple of months during the winter at the flower market. It is a favorite – each stem has dozens of soft leaves that are perfect to layer to make fascinators or any kind of wearables.

The fascinator was decorated with pieris, rex leaf begonia, bromeliad, kangaroo paws and deconstructed cymbidium orchids.

For the base of the necklace, I used the silverleaf and decorated it with deconstructed cymbidium orchids, kangaroo paws, pieris and seastar fern.

The grey tillandsia xerographica leaf chimes infor the grey accent. Gorgeous alocasia leaves are decorated with cymbidium orchids, kangaroo paws, succulents and ming fern.

Photography: Theresa Bear

Model: Sabrina

Venue: Studio Northwest

Last month I had been invited to make a variety of designs for a photo shoot. One of the requests was to design a botanical stiletto. This shoe was covered with blossoms of bells of Ireland, calix of carnations and aspidistra foliage. It was decorated with blossoms of cyclamen, violas, African violets, hyacinths, kalanchoe, buds of ranunculus and eucalyptus as well as spider plant starts.

Many thanks to Nacre Magazine in France for the invitation to submit pictures of spring centerpieces. The hellebore fritillaria, epimedium and pansies are such favorites!

Thank you Theresa Bear for the beautiful pictures!

Inspired by a couple of pictures I had saved for a long time, I finally decided to figure out the mechanics to design these 2 headpieces. It took quite a bit of trial and error, but as usual, curiosity, patience and perseverance won -and I learned a lot!

Many thanks to Theresa Bear for the fabulous photos and Rika for modeling so graciously!

Thank you Katherine at Event Cosmetics for the perfect make-up!

As always, the light at Studio Northwest was magical!

Earlier this month I taught a workshop in San Diego; it was a fundraiser for “Amazing Mini Miracles“. Donna and Paul have 4 mini therapy horses. Their vision is : ” Bringing happiness, joy and social support to our community with unique and creative visits for each individual’s need”. They offer creative horse interaction programs for children and adults.

I was very much looking forward to escape the cold,gray weather in Portland for a few days. We harvested lots of succulents in Donna’s magnificent garden and foraged many other treasures on the first day. I soaked up the sunshine and the magnificent views in the area. The day of the workshop, it poured …

The students made a variety of beautiful woodland and botanical couture designs and as always I so enjoyed the outstanding results.

Many thanks to Donna and Paul for hosting and Michelle for helping organizing this special event.