Hey Lori,
Ricky seems to know more about the new process, so I'll give him the final word, but my experience was that we were in a very large ballroom, and did not have access to a sink, so I would suggest that you learn to do pristine work, and assume there is no second chance about the clean water. Better to get into that habit, anyway...it will save you time, and therefore money, in your own business, eh?
Now, my tip for the day...
Balance.
Balance in floral design is really hard to achieve, because it refers to more than one thing.
First, we have the physical balance, and that is the easier one.
It essentially means that the arrangement will not topple forward, or back, or lean side to side. Now, if you have trouble with physical balance, then you will be experiencing arrangements tipping over in delivery, or in funeral homes, or off mantel peices, so you defininitly aren't ready to test for AIFD.
Visual balance is the trickier one.
Here, we have to understand the visual weight of various materials when contrasted against one another.
First, you need to understand where the axis of your arrangement is. Someone trained in the visual arts may also call this the "disappearing point". This is usually in the heart of the arrangement, or in the focal point, but, just to confuse you, not always.
You must be able to asscertain where the imaginary "center" of your arrangement exists. Once you understand that, it will be easier to maintain visual balance on either side of that point.
Once you have that knowledge, you can begin to wiegh the material on either side of it.
Imagine if you had a cluster of 3 sunflowers to the left, and inserted 1 stem of solidago to the right. It would not be balanced. It may, in fact, be so visually unbalanced, that it would appear as though it would topple, even though physically, it would be perfectly stable.
This is the world of visual balance. To off-set the visual weight of 3 sunflowers, it would likely take 6 stems or more, of solidago, tightly clustered, to balance the opposite side of the arrangement.
Practice visual balance by pairing materials against one another. Which appears heavier, 3 dark yellow cymbidium orchid blooms, or 1 3X6" pale yellow pillar candle?
Five white carnations, tightly clustered together, or 1 stem of white hydrangea? One king protea, or 10 pink sweetheart roses.
Now you are are starting to understand the relationship between materials, and the visual weight they each have.
It is not always aquestion of quantity, but rather of density, and depth of colour.
To make it a little trickier, visual balance does not happen on only one plane. You must also ensure that the balance works on different depths of the arrangement, so that the "heart" of the arrangement, or the deepest insertions, also balance with the subordinate placements, ie, those that are further from the disappearing point.
At the AIFD level, judges wil be assessing all of these things, to determine whether or not you have the basic understanding of Balance.
More than that, each of your customers do the same thing every day, so it doesn't really matter whether or not you have those letters after your name, in order to achieve success in your field. It does however, matter deeply to your customers, because thy may not be able to explain why an arrangement isn't "right", but they will vote with their feet, and their pocket-book, if the arrangement just doesn't
"feel" perfect.
Joanne Plummer
