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.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach another 4 day workshop at Wild Rice Retreat in Bayfield,WI last month. Just like last year, it truly was a memorable experience! This modern retreat destination is located on Lake Superior in the middle of the woods. The Scandinavian modern lodging accommodations are stellar and every day we savored healthy locally sourced meals.

A layer of moss was hot glued on a wooden frame and I created a small woodland scape using a variety of textures: a wooden piece, bark, seedpods, tillandsias, succulents, shelf mushrooms, abaca paper… The maidenhair ferns require a water source; they were inserted in a small water tube, which was covered with moss. They can be replaced when needed. If you would like to add some flowers too, it is important to use flowers with thin stems to avoid much water displacement in a water tube. A 2″ plant of birds nest fern was covered with paper thin bark.The beautiful shelf mushrooms were harvested in the woods in Bayfield, when I was teaching a workshop there last month.

Thank you Jason Hill for inviting me to design a dozen woodland headpieces! Here are a few for a photo shoot that we did in March at Studio Northwest.

Many thanks to to the fabulous models Jonny and Lexi

Earlier this month I was invited by the Garden Club of Cleveland to do a presentation and teach a woodland and botanical jewelry workshop. What a fabulous experience it was! I arrived on Sunday morning and we spent the day foraging in a couple of gardens and on the woodland property of Cece, one of the garden club members. Did we ever find treasures!

The students designed quite the selection of woodland centerpieces and magnificent jewelry!

Thank you Deb for this wonderful opportunity to teach at your wonderful garden club!