- 1. Which flowers are seasonal (which seasons), which are all year round and are in high demand for wedding bouquets? For boutonnieres?: What I've discovered, while focusing on Summer season florals and weddings, Roses, Carnations, and Orchids would be available nearly all year round; and for the time frame of my project, Dahlias, Hydrangeas, and Lilies were ample. Using the same flowers in the bouquets and boutonnieres only made the most sense in coordinating.
- 2. What are the various bouquet shapes, and the various ways to put a bouquet and boutonnier together?: From what I can understand there are, Round, Pageant, Crescent, Cascade, Nosegay, Pomander, Hand-Tied, Posy, & Composite. But the best way to figure out what style someone wants, is to use photos. Lots and lots of them. There are also a number of ways to decoratively tie them together, but I only had time to do a simple spiral wrap with ribbon for the most part.
- 3. What materials will I need for keeping the arrangements together, for hand tying bouquets and boutonnieres?: Garden wire helps immensely and was easy to use throughout the whole process of assembling. I found that a sort of foam lining (the type you line shelving with) helps smooth out the handle and makes it softer to hold. Pins definitely helps to keep the tied ribbon in place and prevents it from unwinding.
- 4. What are the various fillers, greens, and wild plants I could include that are long lasting?: Using the trims (leaves) from the flowers themselves help layer the underside of the bouquet. Various grass and foliage are better found in Garden Stores than in florist shops. Wild plants around the neighbourhood are great too, depending on your location and available gardens.
- 5. Where can I source out locally discounted/warehouse flowers for making my own arrangements?: The best options I found are warehouses that are open to the public, although, once committed, I'd recommend getting a business license to have access to a supplier with better quality and quantity of flowers. Costco has great rose options at a reasonable price (Costco requires membership though). Avoid internet purchases, you can't handle the flowers or know how well they hold together.
- 6. What resources are available from farmers and distant suppliers?: Online shopping is great for supplies, but in terms of flowers, I would still have to explore this area and learn more. It may be a possibility to connect with those at farmer markets instead of having to travel so far.
- 7. Which shops will provide the materials needed?: My best option so far is Michaels, using their 40% or 50% coupons along with educator's discount.
- 8. Where are the best ideas and examples to use for myself and my clients?: It works really well to refer my clients to my Pinterest boards. However, if some do not have an account, they can simply forward their own images of what they like. Then I could build a board for them to confirm. Continual meetings are essential to understand what the client visualizes for themselves.
- 9. What is the time frame for each step required for each type of bouquet or boutonniere?: Different bouquets take different amount of time. Cascades, Crescents and Pageants are especially difficult because the flexibility in the flower stems need to be considered. I haven't had a chance to use the floral handles with the wet foam but at least I know how it could really help make arranging the directions of the flowers a lot easier and to decrease the amount of stems bundled together to hold such a large arrangement. Boutonnieres are a lot easier and quicker to make, but will definitely require the use of wire to keep them altogether.
- 10. What technical skills are required and need the most practice in able for me to succeed?: How to maintain the life of the flowers before using the flowers is my greatest struggle. The next biggest skill to improve on, is understanding how each type of flower stem works and which type of bouquet they fit in best. Last but not least, how do you get clients?
At the end, despite what I think, my final client was happy to see how her suggestions were recreated. I'm glad I had something to show before I dove into making something for someone other than myself. The four weeks really did help prepare me for my last week. Thank you to everyone who helped me through this great learning experience!
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To start off this week, I needed some realistic ideas that geared towards clientele and their ideals. Rather than focusing on what I wanted to create, I sought out a few friends and asked them what they would want as a bridal bouquet for their own future weddings. I asked the following questions:
1. What season/month would you like your wedding to be? 2. What colour(s) theme would you like? 3. What location would you hold it (city/indoors/outdoors)? 4. Check out my Pinterest boards of "bouquet examples" and "categories" and tell me, what kind of bouquet shape you'd like and what type of flowers you might want?
So the next day, unfortunately I lost most of my orchids, the roses got frost bit, the lilies began to sag, the water was frozen! I have no clue why that is because none of my food was. It was disastrous. Especially, since it all cost money. Working with real plants is not the same. I proceeded either way, with my wilted half dead flowers, but that wasn't the end of my troubles. I had to undo and redo the bouquet more than enough times because they wouldn't hold together right, and I had no way to place them down once I got a certain number of stems together or they'd crush each other; the whole bouquet got heavy fast. I also had to use my stem wire for the first time to reinforce the lili stems because I discovered they were hollow, which made them pretty delicate. I ended up with no orchid blooms, no use for the vines, but extra stems. I'm not sure if this was a successful trial.
Next time, for a pageant/crescent bouquet, I'm going to have to think of lighter flowers and fewer stems. For fuller bouquets like cascades, I would have to definitely use a floral bouquet holder, that way, the flowers could be angled easily, and it won't be too heavy to hold. The images at the top of the post is the end result. I also created two types of boutonnieres. Some of the additional blooms I used were from the plants growing around my building. Let's see what my client's response is and let's see how long my bouquet will last in water, OUTSIDE of the fridge.
This week I focused on using up all my materials to make a couple more bouquets with matching boutonnieres.
As previously included in my YouTube Playlist of Boutonnieres:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFhyNG6m0OqgPgY11QWejpscDcwlt7j-A
From all the weddings I've been to, florists only provided 1 pin for the boutonnieres. This video shows how 2 pins are used appropriately.
I laid out the florals into the desired look, and taped them together with floral tape, adding a bit of the lace with a string of beads hanging off the right. Then I added a decorative beaded wire to include a bit more detailing to the stem to complete the boutonniere. This boutonniere was made to match the following two bouquets:
I would consider these two bouquets as "hand-tied" bouquets, using the same beaded lace I used earlier for the matching boutonniere. For the bridesmaid bouquet on the left, I used the white "weeds" as the centre (which could easily be replaced with the trending "baby's breath," and surrounded it with some lily grass and blossoms. I added a couple stems of "veronica" as accents. For the bridal bouquet in the centre of the image, I used the same florals except, I added a couple steps of roses, with blossoms near the centre to show depth, and decorative beaded wire on the outermost layer of the bouquet. Both were trimmed at bottom ends to create an even base.
For my next and final week of this project, I will gather real florals and make one bouquet and one boutonniere. If possible, I'm going to try to budget myself a max $40 and see what I can get. Creativity comes when boundaries are placed. SD Floral Warehouses here I come. Reference: Pollen. (2013, May 2). How to pin a boutonniere. http://www.pollenfloraldesign.com. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0n3x7gani0
Making my first bouquet took longer than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, my first attempt was the only one I had time for. This week, I intend to play around more and see what other bouquets I can come up with, with the left over materials. Hopefully, this time around I will get to the boutonnieres as planned as well.
After tracking my efforts with many pictures, I decided that the best way to present them was through a slide. However, I thought it would be even easier for my viewers to access it via YouTube, since it is a "how-to-video." In using Google Slides for the first time, I was surprised to see how easy it was to upload images directly from Google Drive, which I was able to quickly send from my iPhone. Anything fast and efficient, I like. Afterwards, with my experience from creating my first app smash, I used Screencast-O-Matic to record the slides. However, I eliminated the audio. Hopefully, it's not too bleak and gets to the point. During the whole process, I realized how grateful I was to be using faux flowers to start. I couldn't help but be aggressive in getting the flowers to fit into the shape I wanted them to. Even they were losing their foliage! Clipping the plastic and trying to pin through them was also no easy task. In the end, I'm just glad I even have something slightly resembling a wedding bouquet.
This week, I ventured out to a few stores to look for supplies and tools needed for my DIY flower bouquet. To get started, I went to (a Canadian) Michaels craft store (top right), then I continued to look online to compare prices. The various resources I found are pinned on a new board I created on my Pinterest account, called Floral Supplies / Materials. Furthermore, these items could also be ordered on Amazon and Walmart by looking up each item independently.
Next, I went to a Garden store, just right outside my city, of Vancouver, in Burnaby. Apart from floral wholesalers that sell to licensed retailers, in the long run, buying plotted plants and florals may be an alternative source for certain flowers and greeneries.
During my visit to Michaels, there was a 80% sale on some faux summer flowers. Since I had some left over from my wedding, I figured I could reuse them, and with the new stems, create a number of bridal bouquets. Although, they are not fresh cut and handle differently, I figured I could start practicing colour & shape arrangements and hand tying for next week. I will also collect the needed supplies and tools to start understanding how to work with them. Due to time constraint, I may decide to buy the materials from Michaels with their often occurring 40% or 50% online coupons plus the additional 15% discount for teachers. Stay posted!
This week I've been focusing on finding various on-line resources in regards to a number of my "Inquiry Questions" and was able to attack the following:
1. Which flowers are seasonal (which seasons), which are all year round and are in high demand for wedding bouquets? For boutonnières? 2. What are the various bouquet shapes, and the various ways to put a bouquet and boutonnière together? 8. Where are the best ideas and examples to use for myself and my clients? and touching base on: 10. What technical skills are required and need the most practice in able for me to succeed?
For the first time, I spent hours looking through the Pinterest app. I created 4 boards to help answer my questions:
1) Wedding Bouquets - for links that showed how to DIY steps, including hand tying and cascade bouquets. 2) Boutonnières - for links that showed how to make Boutonnières, and the various styles. 3) Bouquet Samples - of images of different bouquets already made. 4) Wedding Flowers Category - that provided information on flower bouquet types, symbolic meanings of flowers, types of flowers per season/month and per colour theme. In the process, I was able to learn how to search for various sites outside of the app, and then pinned them to my boards. Furthermore, I tried to find YouTube videos that could help as well (that were not already pinned in Pinterest). I don't use YouTube religiously and only ever posted videos for school or work. I created my own first ever playlists. 1) How to make wedding bouquets
2) Boutonnières
Week 2 will focus on researching materials and based on this week's find, deciding on a particular bouquet and boutonnière to make. Pinterest Learning Moments: Create a board - click on the icon to "Create a board" - fill in Name, Description, Category - click on "Create" icon Search - Typing in Keywords, but also using the prompts given at the top to add more details - Using "weekly board/Pins recommendations" provided (via email as well) Pin it - select interested link, then click "Pin it" - which will prompt to add to one of the boards I created Edit - hold down on the item/link of interest, then select "Edit" - change location of item/link into another board
I will now officially proclaim, Brainstorm 1, will be the 20% Project I will pursue. The quilt, will once again have to wait. I must admit, the prospect of a possible side business has been a yearning desire, and to be able to provide a service that is of high demand will allow many opportunities for success. Furthermore, the skills of flower arrangements could be used in so many other occasions. Flowers are for celebration, for mourning, for appreciation, for affection. Flowers change communication and words to mean more than if it was only said or written. I hope that I will be able to help others in finding their own style and persona in the beauty of such delicate life.
This has been a considerable learning experience for me, using Twitter for the first time, using Kindle reader for the first time, and now Storify for the first time. This book is already having me learn so much and I can't wait to put this into the classroom. I know there will be a many struggles for myself that I will have to surpass and learn from to be able to successfully integrate this type of project-based learning with curriculum. Time to be creative.
The image I've included here is of a collection of different clothing pieces I've accumulated over the years, from elementary school up until now, each baring a significant story. Too precious to throw away and simply too small or too old to wear, I ended up cutting out the main prints of each item to save space in my tiny home. With the hopes of putting them together in some form to keep them for many more years to come, I promised myself that when I had time, I would creatively stitch them into a quilt. I've never made anything like this before; I've only ever sewn dresses, pyjamas, aprons, pillow cases, and a bunch of other knickknacks.
This year, my home economics colleague showed me a couple of quilting projects she was in the middle of completing for a quilting association she was part of. It was simply amazing! Very delicately and carefully planned out and stitched together by hand and machine. Although inspiring, it was also quite discouraging to think of how my first attempt may not result in the same astonishing outcome, especially when all the fabric pieces I have have no colour coordination. This 20% Time Project might be the motivating factor to get me finally started. Some of the "Inquiring Questions" that have kept me procrastinating are: 1. What are some patterns that are basic enough for me to follow? What is the standard size of a quilt? 2. What additional materials will I need? What fabrics should I add to allow colour coherence? 3. What are the cost comparisons from various stores, including fabric stores? 4. Are there quality differences that need to be considered to prevent wear and tear? Which materials are ideal for a quilt and not just visually pleasing? 5. What additional personalizations could I include to improve the piece? Which appliqué technique would fit well? 6. How could I get my family involved so that the piece can becomes more meaningful and adds to the already existing stories for each fabric piece? 7. Where could I find examples that are appropriate for my skill level? Where or who can I go to for additional help if I get stuck in the process? 8. What are the best resources that could direct me through each step, that are also easy to follow? 9. Are there specific themes that need to be considered? Are there traditional meanings behind each type of pattern? 10. What steps are needed to complete the process? I know that when I get this project going, once and for all, that it will be a piece that I will keep for as long as those materials will hold. Instead of taking up space, it will become a piece of article that could be used again, with the stories behind them ready to be told. Hopefully, it will also be another skill that I can now pass on to my students in the classroom.
When I got married last August 7, 2014, I had a DIY wedding. It was a small celebration with about 50 people off the coast on Pender Island, British Columbia. Extremely isolated, the perfect getaway for close family and friends, we had to bring a lot of our own things on to the ferry. With my passion for art, I took it upon me a very big project. I created my own wedding emblem that I then carved into a rubber stamp and used on inking my favor boxes and welcome draw-string bags. Each of the favor boxes also had a flower as its bow that I had sewn together. I had also cut and sewn together the welcome bags that came with my personally labelled bottled water. I designed my own envelopes, invitations, and response cards. I designed and sewn all my bridesmaid dresses (x4) along with the pocket squares for my groom and groomsmen (x5). There were a number of other things I did myself including the the centerpieces for each table at the reception.
The photo on the left are flowers that I gathered from a number of shops and warehouses to fit the theme of my wedding. These however, were fake flowers (because we were travelling the day before, I didn't want to have any problems). On the other hand, the bridal and bridesmaids' bouquet, and all the boutonnieres were real. At the time, I really wanted to make my own bouquets, (especially since my original florist cancelled on me last minute!), but I didn't have any of the supplies and hadn't tried to make any before, I was simply short of time. Since then, I've had the longing to learn and make bridal bouquets and boutonnieres. With this 20% Time Project opportunity, I now have a great reason to pursue this desire. My first attempt at ever putting a bouquet together is the image on the right, for this past Mother's Day. In my opinion, it's not the same as a hand held bouquet, and it's obviously done by an amateur. Ideally, if I could succeed in making hand held bouquets and boutonnieres that look professionally done, I could have it as a side business, as a hobby. To begin, I would consider the following "Inquiry Questions": 1. Which flowers are seasonal (which seasons), which are all year round and are in high demand for wedding bouquets? For boutonnieres? 2. What are the various bouquet shapes, and the various ways to put a bouquet and boutonnier together? 3. What materials will I need for keeping the arrangements together, for hand tying bouquets and boutonnieres? 4. What are the various fillers, greens, and wild plants I could include that are long lasting? 5. Where can I source out locally discounted/warehouse flowers for making my own arrangements? 6. What resources are available from farmers and distant suppliers? 7. Which shops will provide the materials needed? 8. Where are the best ideas and examples to use for myself and my clients? 9. What is the time frame for each step required for each type of bouquet or boutonniere? 10. What technical skills are required and need the most practice in able for me to succeed?
My wedding photos by Jennifer Ballard.
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April 2016
Kay's Books
Some very interesting concepts of how the education system needs to be adjusted.
Very informative. Although quite repetitive and a few oddly worded parts.
by Austin Kleon
Easy read. Interesting perspective and reminder for many aspects of how to look at one's own work and work habits.
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