April, 2014 gets a postscript

 Our most recent Home Staging job

What's the difference between a silk flower and a real flower? You can throw a silk flower across the room and it will come up; if not smelling like a rose, undamaged and good to go. The big warehouse is nearly empty now and I am sorting through hundreds of silk flowers to get rid of the tired ones and packing others in storage boxes until they are in their new home; destination where? Perhaps some to my studio and some to a small storage shed in Richmond?

 
I can't figure out how to title this post. It's about endings and beginnings and I want to be positive but it's hard at the moment feeling so sad. I've been working in a small boutique home staging business in Southern Marin for 13 years with my dear friend, Max Lampert. We were a company of two, with some fun and excellent moving help. It was a great run in many ways. We had a tremendous amount of creative freedom and had a very customized approach to every house. We put soooo much attention to each and every surface. We got into such an intense creative zone that it blocked out the guns from the shooting range next door to our warehouse; quite a feat for sound sensitive people.

So the medium has been furniture, art, rugs, linens, dishes, accessories, etc in the design of homes for sale. Mainly we used Max's huge inventory, but it was fun and challenging to use a home owners. The icing on the cake has always been the florals. They provided an amazing way of pulling everything together, despite the fact that they were 3-d replicas of the real thing. Florals were a signature of our work. I think as staging companies go, we used an inordinate amount.

But over the years we had been burning out, each for different reasons; looking to do more permanent design work, something less strenuous, but not exclusively a desk job- too used to the rhythm of moving around a lot.  She didn't want the huge warehouse overhead. I wanted to work more with real flowers as opposed to silk ones. And it was time to think about working in the capacity of partners in a more formalized way.

Then a fork in the road showed up. Max got offered a wonderful staging job with one of the top staging companies in the Bay Area. It's perfect for her. She deserves it. No stress about warehouse overhead, and a support staff! Yay, Max! Change and growth is part of life. I know. I know... . A little afraid but looking for wonderful opportunities down the road. Breath in... breath out....

Postscript!! After a month of working with the said top staging company it didn't work out for Max. When I'm free we're doing some jobs together again. We're renting the big furniture and it's a dream. Post a point,the art, florals, and other accessories are what really makes the difference anyway.

simple, simple

 

Remembering

I can't look at an Easter Lily, Lilium longiforum, without thinking about- well, Easter. Being Sicilian and having grown up in a Catholic family, it was the traditional flower at church mass on Easter Sunday. No, not just one little flower in a flower pot up on the altar all by itself, but a chorus of lily plants. I imagine they still use lilies this way, though I haven't been to church for a long time. These days I attend the Church of Nature (preferably while moving along on a trail somewhere) and am aligned more with Buddhist teachings. The new Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air in an institution that's lost it's way- so far-so good anyway, but I digress.

Unlike the traditional Poinsettia at Christmas mass,  this flower has a smell and what a heavy sweet atmosphere a number of lilies produces. You know how people say the smell of cooking and baking brings back childhood memories? The smell of an Easter Lily brings back a total kaleidoscope for me: spirituality, being a good Catholic girl, my mom, my mom getting married, my mom doing Easter, my mom who's no longer with us.

Okay, so I wasn't at my Mom and Dad's wedding. That would have been pretty scandalous at the time. Wearing a white dress or being married in the Church was not an option. So, glad I didn't show up till later. But here is their wedding photo. Growing up, I loved to look at this over and over. There most have been quite a heft in carrying all those lilies.

Move forward in time when she has three kids and became completely exuberant in her approach to holidays. She was born on Christmas and perhaps it was the case of having your special day overshadowed. Our house was utterly transformed for the every holiday, but especially Christmas. Every surface was festooned with decorations or lights. It was a happy day when Mom discovered a putty that allowed her to adhere Christmas balls to the ceiling. What pure magic growing up- except.... The memory of Christmas also has a significant twinge of anxiety, the dark side. There always seemed to be arguments and tension, probably in part due to the incredible undertaking of decorating, cookie baking (at least 8 kinds), the whole family on a month long sugar high, presents, money to buy presents, and a full sit-down dinner. It's taken almost all my adult life to learn to create holidays in my life that have some of that exuberance without going into an abyss of exhaustion and irritation. I really want to enjoy being a guest at this thing Jon and I have worked so hard at.

Somehow Easter seemed to have the magic without the same anxiety. Maybe the energy needed was matched by what was going on outside; the plant world waking up, unfurling, renewed. Still had the decorating, cookie baking, candy making, full dinner, and shopping for a new Sunday outfit for my sister and brother, and myself. For the crowning glory, she created the most amazing Easter baskets. No store bought things, but little worlds of candy and color she made that were swathed in colored cellophane and ribbon. I would stare into that little fantasy world and feel immersed in a world of wonder and magic. It was as though I would burst at the seams with happiness- and anticipation of many days of chocolate eating ahead!

So, by way of a very long explanation; this arrangement is in dedication with love to mom,
 aka Jean, Jenny, and Genevieve.

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Aladdin's Lamp- take 2& 3

 Those dandelions get into everything don't they? You just can't keep them out.

 

Continuation of the use of pin frogs. I wanted to really pack it in to show how many plant materials you can use with them.When it's this packed in, the water uptake really needs to be watched since there are so many plants in a small container.

Class: Celebration of Spring

This is a new vase and I'm just starting to play around with it. I'm on the edge of loving it and being repelled by it. It's pretty wild. Like Aladdin's lamp on drugs. But the color and the way the glass plays with the light is kind of cool.

Thinking about low containers these days as a new class is coming up in May focusing of the use of this type of container and metal "pin frogs". The arrangement pictured used the frog for some elements and not others, as the stems were thin. Stay tuned for more.




Class: Celebration of Spring:
Here we are in the season of an abundance of blossoms! Heavy flower and branches are a challenge in low containers. Metal pin "frogs" are one of the infrastructures that hold everything in place. We'll use the glorious bounty of spring to learn how to use those to make arrangements with a sense of movement. As Mother's Day is the following day, this could be great to do for your Mom or with your Mom, but everyone is welcome!  



College Of Marin
Kentfield, CA Campus
May 10, 10-12
Fine Arts Building 312
Course 35091
COM (415) 485-9305
$70
You bring container, clippers, and a store bought bouquet.
I'll bring pin frogs, great supplemental branches and flowers.

I'll purchase containers for people who want to order one from me (no, it won't be Aladdin's lamp!). I'll email you soon on that.


 
http://www.marin.edu/CommunityEducation/
These classes are nearly impossible to find on this site. That's supposed to change in the fall and the registration will morph into something user friendly!

You're welcome to pay in class, if you let me know that you're coming.
maryannnardo@sbcglobal.net

An Embarrassment of Riches

After a project there are sometimes leftover flowers and little bits of this and that. The ones that didn't get chosen because they were too closed, too open, not the right feel,  came in a mixed bouquet and didn't get used, etc. What a problem to have, eh? I guess a lot of businesses have perishable leftovers; leftover cakes, leftover coffee, leftover vegetables......

Here's some recent leftovers. Time to clear out the studio. Given this occasional predicament I've wondered "who needs flowers?" There's a retirement home I've taken leftovers to. They need flowers. And after this project I took some to the Center for Domestic Peace that helps abused women. I figured that either the women or women/men who help the women might need them too. I mean everyone needs flowers, right- the uplift, the beauty, the pause to look and wonder. But really it's so much more than that. A primal ancient relationship between us and them. 

I'm often surrounded by dying flowers. Tulips are particularly interesting to watch as they go from tight bud through fully open, to falling apart; one petal at a time. Buddy thinks so too.