Principles and Elements

[Brad]

Someone suggested it might be a nice idea to start a thread on this and I agree. I would love to hear different opinions on how they are applied to different design styles however I think we need not only the style but a actual photo as it is my understanding that their are many different ways of doing a style such as lets say an abstract design.
I was brave enough to start the post who wants to take it from here with a photo of a certain style or some better insight...

 

[Joe Mioux]

Someone suggested it might be a nice idea to start a thread on this and I agree. I would love to hear different opinions on how they are applied to different design styles however I think we need not only the style but a actual photo as it is my understanding that their are many different ways of doing a style such as lets say an abstract design.
I was brave enough to start the post who wants to take it from here with a photo of a certain style or some better insight...

I will be your first guinea pig.

Here is the homework project for any of you interested.

How do you make a handtied or handtied look mini calla brides bouquet.

Grapping a bunch of callas and tying them off doesn't make a good presentation, or atleast it doesn't these. Why? because the heads all face different ways from the curves of the stems. I am not a big fan of massaging calla stems either, it lends itself to mushy stems by the time the bride gets them.

10 callas, and they come in really small.

I charged the bride $120 during the consultation but these callas won't give the look of value. I did buy another bunch today.

I realize their will be other ways to do this, but I sort of like the way I made the bridesmaids bouquet this afternoon.

Hopefully, I will get a few pics (for demonstration purposes) that will show the wrong way or a bad way to do this.

Joe

 

[Brad]

Use florida ruscus as a spacer to poof them out collar with verigated lilly grass to give percieved value( god I hate that phrase)hope this helps if not try putting the heads at different lenghts an using some horsetail or thin bamboo

 

[Joe Mioux]

Use florida ruscus as a spacer to poof them out collar with verigated lilly grass to give percieved value( god I hate that phrase)hope this helps if not try putting the heads at different lenghts an using some horsetail or thin bamboo

the colored drawing shows a very light bouquet.

Brad I like your version and that is where I am going with this. Lily grass loops but only 4 or 5 are allowed.

I do have a bucket load of Israeli Ruscus that will hide the mechanics.

Personally the bouquet I am making tomorrow is not what I would consider nice, but its what the bride wants.

given that i have twice as many callas as specified in the drawing, I may add a few more.

Obviously, what I will show tomorrow will be elementary for a lot of designers here, but there are also some less experienced ones that hopefully will find the demo interesting.

Joe

oh yea, Equistetum (horsetail) is a four letter word with me.

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

Here is our version. The callas are simply grouped together and skirted with galax leaves.

RC

 

[Joe Mioux]

that's a boat load of callas, randy. AND it is a nice bouquet!

The picture (animated) only shows 10 with no Galax leaves, just four or 5 loops of lily grass.

so I want to get as close to the pic as possible.

joe

 

[wildflowerschicago]

Joe, I have had this same problem! You order the callas and they come in micro mini?!?! They are great for bouts & corsages, but throw away your budget because you then have to scramble to find & add so many more stems.

I am SO glad brides have stopped bringing me that @@@@ picture from 1 of Martha Stewart's old wedding magazines of a great hand tied bouquet of white, blush and pale peach mini callas (there are at least 60 stems)!!! Without fail they ALL nearly fall over when you clue them into the price.

I have nothing to add here, I just share your frustration!!!

 

[Joe Mioux]

In hind site I may have been better off buying a box of callas from FB @ 30-60 cts per stem (just guessing the price) vs paying $2.65 to $3.25 per stem for 50 stems.

oh well, I will get it done tomorrow. This is really a strange wedding. $600 plus wedding with one bridesmaid, 8Cs&6B's and 12 table decorations, one calla, two lily grass in a 7x1.75 glass cylinder, plus a few incidentals.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention..... its a Pick up and the wedding is outdoors. tomorrow's temp high 90's! lots of humidity and lots of Sun.

Groom is picking them up.

joe

 

[fleuray]

Mini Callas

Hi Joe-

The only way I have found to make it work is to use a BoAtloAd of callas. Im attaching a pic. But seriously, in the construction with callas I secure my center callas very close to the heads with tape and build on that. The end effect is a "handtied" look but it isn't like my other handtieds.

-M

 

[logan]

Joe, not much advice I can give you either that has not been mentioned, it really is crap when the callas are so tiny, Murphy's Law...next week after the wedding they will be large heads again!?!
This is probably nothing new, but when I do calla bridal handtieds (and others), instead of a spiraling hand-tied I do the parallell handtied, I find the Callas sit better that way, also stagger the heads a bit to fit like a puzzle and the stemmed handle will be lovely and straight and even. My avatar is a handtied bq like that and have attached the other pics of it, sorry too many callas for what you need, good luck.

 

[Joe Mioux]

Here is the bridesmaid bouquet that I did yesterday.

I have to operate just a bit on that long calla, but here are a couple pics.

joe

 

[SpringCity]

Joe I think it looks great especially considering the constraints you had. I like the lily grass loops and the greenery tucked low like that. How did the bridal bouquet come out?

I just love your bouquets too, RC and Franca and (I forget who else!) That mass of callas just looks so pretty to me.

 

[Joe Mioux]

here are a bunch of pictures. the first several show just bunching them or trying to arrange them in a bouquet holder.

The assembly was done old school.... I wire and taped them.

Why? because I can then control the position of the flowers. Also note that this techinque makes the bouquet handle slimmer and the bouquet weighs alot less.

I think the assembly pics are pretty self-explanatory.

Hope you enjoy. the pics.... Oh yea the bouquet took about 45 minutes to make, counting picture time.

 

[Joe Mioux]

A couple additional comments....

I wired and taped the boquets, but I also used Binding Wire to assemble the bouquet. The reason I like this techinque is because it keeps the size of the handle slender.

I used Israeli Ruscus to hide the mechanics. As you can see I stripped alot of the leaves from the stem. I think I used 6 stems in total. Lily grass 6 stems,

Since I had extra Callas I did add a couple more. Not that it was necessary given that the bride thinks she is getting 10, but I had them so I figured I would add a few more.

As you can tell from the picture with the scale. The bouquet weighs 7.5 oz.

I also glued some of the loos Israeli Ruscus leaves to the upper stem. This hides the "reattached" Calla stems. After I bound the bouquet, I then stuck the calla stems back around the bouquet, floral taped it off with light green one inch tape.

Ribbon wrapped the handle, stuck some pins in it, I also took three stems of lily grass and braided a section to finish off the ribbone wrapped stems and the bouquet.

Joe

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

Very nice!

 

[Brad]

Here is the bridesmaid bouquet that I did yesterday.

I have to operate just a bit on that long calla, but here are a couple pics.

joe

Joe beautiful I know you well enough that you are a shop owner second or third generation I am so happy to see a shop owner with so much passion for design I worked for Winston Flowers in Boston and the owners there taught me the passion for floral design I hope your employees (designers) know how fortunate they are to work for a shop owner with a passion for what they do.

 

[Joe Mioux]

Joe beautiful I know you well enough that you are a shop owner second or third generation I am so happy to see a shop owner with so much passion for design I worked for Winston Flowers in Boston and the owners there taught me the passion for floral design I hope your employees (designers) know how fortunate they are to work for a shop owner with a passion for what they do.

I am fourth generation.

My great grandfather, Wilhelm Demming, came here in 1876 from Germany. His brother Fr. Anton Demming was the pastor of St Mary's Church. Fr. Demming came to this country and became the pastor of St Mary's in 1874. The flower shop, proper, is located right across the highway from the church.

Yes, I have a passion for this business.

 

[Beth]

Really turned out lovely, Joe!

 

[avflorist]

I'm impressed! Wouldn't have thought of wiring and taping. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, my husband's grandparents are both from Germany - their (and mine) last name is Wilhelm.

 

[Joe Mioux]

I'm impressed! Wouldn't have thought of wiring and taping. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, my husband's grandparents are both from Germany - their (and mine) last name is Wilhelm.

The one part that I forgot to stress in the pictures and was the reason for the demonstration, was to show the use of Binding Wire in the arrangement.

I used binding wire to bind all the wired & taped callas together.

I only used tape to cover the mechanics. It really was need for structuring the flowers. Also Israeli ruscs was wired because the stems are pretty tough.

The other advantage to this technique is that I could easily move the flowers around in order to make a more compact bouquet or a more open bouquet as was shown.

Joe