Linear Simplicity
Line, space, contrast, and emphasis — elements and principles — are all important to address when designing with very few flowers. In this Flower School How-To Video Leanne works with blush pink roses and anthuriums, tinted & preserved foliage and a container from her personal collection. A fabulous container coupled with beautiful blooms makes for a stunning - yet simple - floral statement. Enjoy!
Video Transcription
Designing with just a few flowers takes intense concentration on the elements and principles. In this design, we're going to look at line, space, contrast and emphasis. Let me show you how it's done.
The vessel, one of my favorite ceramics from my personal collection, and then I used midnight floral foam. That's going to secure my flowers. The main bloom, the beautiful anthurium in this blushed pink will be stunning. We'll accent it with other materials, but thinking simplicity, a fabulous container, exotic blooms, and you're ready to go.
Placing the anthurium very first, giving it a cut and then placing it down into the foam, not perfectly straight so it has a little more interest to it. Bringing in the second, thinking about the facing and then adjusting the height so it's a little lower, but still tall, and placing that in, bring it down, turning it and double checking to make sure everything is placed correctly.
With the main lines established, you can go back and add in accent lines, maybe Italian ruscus. Cutting it down so that it's short, manipulating it just a bit, letting it come out to the side. Then, enhancing with the focal emphasis, bring in pink Mondial roses, very low, tact tight and then hoping to break the line of the container and visually anchor the blooms in place. Of course, if it's in the front, you want to pull through to the back. Basic line, emphasis, accent line, time to add a bit of contrast. This dyed and preserved fern in the black is just fabulous. Adding it in for movement, placing it angled, coming back with another, then enhancing with a bit more of the green Lily grass, giving it a cut, bringing it in from the side and then angling it and tying it. If it needs extra securing, just using half a glue dash to hold it in place.
For a final touch, just a little bit more texture, a little more color contrast and making sure that all my mechanics are concealed. Taking a single chrysanthemum bloom and tucking it in low underneath the rose, making sure it gets down deep, right against the foam, repeating that, pulling back all the way to the back and then one last one coming up just a little bit taller right in the center.
The recipe: two beautiful of anthurium, then two of the pink Mondial rose and one stem of the spray chrysanthemum, then you used a portion of the dried and preserved tinted fern, a portion of Italian ruscus and two strands of Lily grass to give you super simple and fabulous.
Working in a minimal fashion can be a great meditation. You really need to focus on your elements and principles, everything you learned in Flower School. You'll find more education and inspiration at Flower School .com. But now, it's your turn. Think simple, think minimal and create. Be sure to take a picture, post it on social media and hashtag Floral Design Institute. That way we all can see what you do as you do something you love.
