Sunday, August 26, 2012

Floral Jewelry "Broaches"


Floral jewelry is contemporary and popular in the industry.  It's also a great way to practice and improve your hand skills.  This is a way floral designers can create a trademark design.   I pay particular attention to retail stores such as J. Crew, Anthropology and Nordstroms for observing trends and design inspiration.  I've noticed more broach style jewelry displayed throughout these stores.  The classic broach styles are being shown with color trends and upbeat twists.

City College of San Francisco Students made the above broaches for a project we were involved with recently.   These armature structures are made out of aluminum wire, bullion wire, pearls, beads and ribbon. A broach style pin and clasp were wired on all the backs to make them authentic.  All they need are floral accents to complete the design.  Fresh floral adhesive works great for gluing the materials on.

These are fantastic to have displayed at the sales counter in your flower shop or in the consultation area in your design studio.  They can be displayed with and without flowers.  Great conversational pieces and keepsakes with your customers and clients.  I hope this inspires you to explore floral jewelry and even make your own line.

 

Friday, August 3, 2012

Floral Trend "American Gypsy"

Oxana Sanukova and Talmage McLaurin

City College of San Francisco presented in Talmage McLaurin's 2012-2013 American Floral Trends Forecast program.  We were requested to design a wedding bouquet for the  "American Gypsy"  Trend.  This hit home with us and we ran with it. The process was truly exciting!  I even nicknamed the team  "American Gypsy's".  The City College students are wonderfully diverse in so many ways. They have unique expression, individual talent and so much culture to share .  This just fits right into the Trend.  Each student has their own style with characteristics of cottage shabby, retro, country or global chic.  I truly saw each of them in this Trend.  I encourage you to visit Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, if you haven't already.  These retail stores display a good feel for this Trend.  I asked Oxana Sanukova the youngest member of the team to led the design because this Trend has a youthful look.  It's important to see how the youthful mind is thinking.  Oxana had the freedom to explore and create after the framework, mechanics, colors, elements and flower choices were decided by the team.  I was thrilled to see how she handled this project with such sophistication.  Below are pictures of the process of this design.  I hope you get a chance to explore the possibilities with this exciting Trend.


The program was presented at the American Institute of Floral Designers National Symposium in Miami, Florida on July 15, 2012. The program was presented and led by Talmage McLaurin who is the publisher of Florists' Review Enterprises.  The Floral Forecast Trends of Rural Route, Garden Club, Sea to Shining Sea, American Gypsy and New Victorian are also explained and shown in the January, 2012 issue of Florists' Review magazine.  http://www.floristsreview.com/home



The original model design done on a smaller scale.  We experimented with this first and then welded a larger bouquet frame to expand the size for the actual design. The frame was wrapped with fabric and then larger buttons and fabric decor were added.  The technique of inserting through the button holes and wrapping onto the frame was used with silver decorative wire.



Kana picked the white hypericum berries off the stems and Yumi beaded them onto dental floss with a needle.  These were added to the bouquet by Oxana for additional accents and movement.  They took the appearance of pearls.




Yumi beading the hypericum berries on dental floss with a needle.




Oxana wired the hypericum berries to the bouquet frame.



  The completed "American Gypsy" Wedding Bouquet for the program.  The bouquet can be carried by hand or like a purse.  Gerbera, craspedia and hypericum berries were the floral materials used.
  
 Instructors and Student AIFD members on stage after the program.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

City College First Place "Champions"

City College of San Francisco's First Place Team:  Kanako Copeland, Oxana Sanukova, Imelda Iraeta, (Instructor -  Jenny Tabarracci AIFD), Yumi Ota, Julie Harris


City College of San Francisco's Menzies Chapter competed against 11 other Colleges located throughout the United States at the American Institute of Floral Designers National Symposium.  The Symposium was held in Miami, Florida July 12th - 16th, 2012.  This was a student competition with 34 competitors. City College received 8 of the 15 awards including First Place Overall School. 

The student's were required to complete four designs in 3 hours and 45 minutes for the following categories:  buffet, wedding bouquet, centerpiece for sweetheart table and napkin decor design which must be duplicated.

In addition, Oxana Sanukova received a student scholarship of $800.00 from the AIFD Northwest Region and Foundation at the Symposium.  This award was in recognition for her outstanding achievements as a student of Floral Design.  

Below is a listing of student placements and award recipient's from City College of San Francisco. Congratulations to this super talented team!

Overall School Placement: 1st place - City College of San Francisco

Overall School Winners:     1st place  - Yumi Ota
                                        2nd place - Imelda Iraeta
                                        4th place - Oxana Sanukova
                                        5th place - Julie Harris 

Buffet Design:                   3rd place - Oxana Sanukova

Wedding Bouquet Design:   2nd place - Imelda Iraeta 

Sweetheart Table:              2nd place - Imelda Iraeta
                                        3rd place  - Yumi Ota

Napkin Decor:                    1st place  - Yumi Ota

People's Choice:                Yumi Ota