After Kathryn's first diary entry was welcomed and appreciated by so many of you, we are delighted to reveal her second. We love reading the entries and are so glad Kathryn has decided to share her journey with us all.
Diary of a Master florist in the Making
Kathryn Delve
16th Oct 2018
It’s October and the trees are full of autumn colour, this has inspired one of my designs for this lesson, it’s entitled ‘autumn leaves’. This module is all about demonstrations and presentations and I have chosen to take my inspiration from one of the ‘floristry greats’ Constance Spry. For those of you who don’t know, she was the society florist of the 1920's and 30's providing flowers for Edward and Mrs Simpson’s Wedding and the Queen’s coronation. Whilst I am inspired by her, I don’t want to just replicate her work, so I start with her famous all white Urn arrangement but move on to a ‘Cabbage’ arrangement and a very modern arrangement inspired by Pim Van den Akker.
Constance Spry was, in her day, breaking the then rules of floristry, and coming up with new ideas. So whilst her style is being copied widely and is very ‘of the moment,’ I think if she were producing floral arrangements in today’s market, they would be new and exciting designs, not the designs of the 1930’s Britain. The morning of day 2 and it’s time to do my ‘autumn leaves’ design, which I demonstrate live on Instagram. I wonder what Constance Spry would think of that!!
You can watch that video here.
Our in class discussion centres around how we can use the Fibonacci sequence to plan our designs (I have been asked by my mathematician niece, what maths has to do with floristry? you may well ask), as well as considering the principles and elements of design. I am a very instinctive florist, as I am sure that many of you are, however this can only take your designs so far. At level 4 and 5 we are guided to plan designs using Gregor’s order category, principles and elements of design, along with the Fibonacci sequence. This methodology really focuses the thought process and pushes your designs to the next level.
At the end of our second lesson, I drive home thinking of evaluations! If like me you want to complete the City and Guilds level 5 Masters Diploma, you have to produce a portfolio of approx 40 designs which all need to be evaluated. I know from painful experience at level 4 that unless I start now it will create hours of work condensed in to the final months of the course. So far I have done 2 evaluations!! Only 38 to go.
http://www.kathryndelveflorist.com/
http://academyoffloralart.com/product-category/city-guilds-level-5-floristry/
For more diary entries and 'behind the scenes' insights into the floristry world, check out our Industry Insiders section. We would love to hear about your experiences as you grow and learn as a florist, or imagery of what you get up to day to day. Share it with us by tagging @countrybaskets.