Workshop revisited

The wedding bouquet I made in the  Little Flower Shop Master's Workshop early this week is way past it's prime. All the flowers are collectively involved in their graceful demise. The two long silk ribbons tied around it's collar act as wicks, pulling water from inside the vase it's sitting in to slowly travel down the ribbons to drip, drip on the dining room table Jon built. I catch the water each time before it does any damage, finally just jamming the whole ribbon ensemble inside the vase. Maybe I'll keep this bouquet forever-  for awhile anyway, like a bride.

I'm holding on to it, because I'm holding on to the experience. In a way it was like a wedding for the participants; a group of designers, landscape architects and crew from lovely Scribe Winery in Sonoma, our workshop location. It was a commitment ceremony between us, the flowers and this flower design business, tightening the screws. 

Every person walks away with their own experience. It was especially profound for me for a few reasons: It was a luxury experience I rarely allow. I was pretty satisfied with two out of three of the pieces that I made, pushing myself to work with many more flowers than this minimalist is inclined to use. I got to spend time with other designers as many work in a rather solitary fashion. Also I got to spend a little more time with Sarah and Nicole, two of my favorite flower heroes. Nicole is immediately warm and nurturing. Sarah is a little more bristly at first, but also extraordinarily generous. Their style is very composed and very loose at the same time. Closest to my heart is their palette which is much more muted and browned out than is typically used.

 I have a special affection for Sarah, the Saipua portion of the Little Flower School. I found her blog out of the ether when a dear friend passed away a number of years ago. I was feeling raw, so very raw and nothing gave me solace, not even making art. Late at night one night I clicked on her journal. I had no idea flower journal's even existed. The beauty of her work, and the honesty of her writing was the door to a  community of flower artists. They got me through that time. The blog discovery recalled my experience with flowers many years prior when I briefly worked for an amazing floral designer in Colorado Springs who was the designer for society clientele in Colorado Springs, a beautiful  mountain town in it's last vestiges of boom town money from silver and gold mining from the late 1800's.

 Terry Gentry was an incredible talent, ahead of his time in making naturalistic bouquets. We had flowers delivered from all over the world several times a week. I worked there only a brief time prepping flowers and soaking it all in. The studio needed a delivery girl, not an apprentice and I was impatient and didn't want to wait. I went back to being an artist. Life took me down a few other flower related roads till I came back around.