There is a long history of flowers being offered as a tribute to the deceased. These days, bouquets are often placed at the scene of a fatal car accident or a shooting. There was a large display of orange blooms at Toronto City Hall and at the constituency office of the late Jack Layton when […]
CAFA Design Show
September Wedding Flowers
We recently created bridal party flowers for a wedding near the lakeshore . The bride loves hydrangeas! So we were pleased to bring in “antique” hydrangeas from Holland for the bouquets. Here is how the Bride’s bouquet looked: The shades of colour in these hydrangeas are breathtaking. We added “Cool Water” roses that are a […]
New Bridal Bouquet Designs
In the quieter summer months, we have had some fun trying new techniques for bridal bouquets. Inspired by Rene van Rems‘ new book, Rene’s Bouquets for Brides, we created these stylish designs: This took quite some time, as lily petals were glued in concentric circles to form one large “flower.” The handle is made of […]
Floral Art Demonstration at AIFD Symposium 2011
Natasha Lisitsa demonstrated floral art in ‘Exuberant Floral Art on a Large Scale’. Natasha studied Sogetsu, a free and creative style of Ikebana. Then she developed her own style, a fusion of Eastern and Western design. Her company Waterlily Pond Floral Design Studio is based in the San Francisco Bay area. Her work at the […]
Inspiration in Sogetsu at AIFD Symposium 2011
Another interesting presentation at AIFD Symposium 2011 was that of Soho Sakai AIFD. A practitioner of the Japanese art and discipline of Ikebana since 1957, she currently teaches and demonstrates in the San Francisco Bay area, and mentors the Soho Sogetsu Study Group. Her presentation “Inspiration in Sogetsu” was indeed an inspiration. Sogetsu is the […]
Design Presentation at AIFD Symposium 2011
One of the design seminars was presented by Rene Van Rems, ‘Designing through the Centuries’. Rene covered period design from western regions of the world: Britain, Germany, Italy, Holland, France and USA. Here are a few examples of his work: Rene travelled through history right up to modern and contemporary design. Here is an example […]
AIFD San Francisco Flower Market Tour
At 6:30am we were on a bus trip to the San Francisco Flower Market. Greeted with fresh coffee and donuts, we meandered through Brannan Street Wholesale Flowers and many other vendors taking in the visual feast. It was the floral equivalent of being a kid in a candy store. Throughout the market J Schwanke AIFD […]
San Francisco Touristing
My second day at the AIFD Symposium was a tourist day. After perusing the ‘must see’ brochures, I decided to take a walking tour of Haight/Ashbury, the hippie mecca of the 60s. Stan, the tour guide was a walking encyclopedia. Everyone we passed seemed to know him, there was a real community feeling in this […]
Floral Designs at AIFD Symposium 2011
At the beginning of July I had the good fortune to attend the AIFD (American Institute of Floral Designers) National Symposium in San Francisco, a working vacation you might say. The theme this year was ‘Imagine – Dream, Create, Share.’ When I arrived at the hotel I immediately knew that I was in the right […]
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