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Welcome to this month's edition of Flower Thoughts. For March we've collected more morsels of inspiration from the flower for you. Please enjoy.
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With the world opening up again to travel it's been exciting to see International Flower Shows being staged again, after many have been moth balled or drastically down-scaled in recent years. There's been ample inspiration flowing from the show, including these examples from the USA and Hong Kong.
From the States - The Philadelphia Flower Show:
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The spectacular Philadelphia Flower Show finished this week after a nine day run. The theme for 2023 was 'Garden Electric'. A challenging title, but one that was met masterfully by Harijanto Setiawan, who took home three major prizes - Best in Show, Gold Award and Mayor's Trophy. The winning exhibit was titled 'Florid Electron', containing a dazzling combination of flowers, lighting and mirrors.
The images above show Harijanto and a snapshot of his display. He has a background in architecture and operates Boenga Floral Studio in Singapore.
You can see more of Harijanto's work here:
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Discover more about the show and the award winners, in news shared by the USA's Florists' Review Magazine:
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From the East - The Hong Kong Flower Show:
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Philadelphia's show might have ended, but as we write the Hong Kong Flower Show and its vibrant installations and activities are still in full swing. The event finishes on 19 March after a 10 day run, with the theme 'Bliss in Bloom'.
The amazing booth display in the image above is from Japanese designer Kazuhiro Sugimoto. Mr Sugimoto competed in the 2019 FTD-Interflora World Cup in Philadelphia and was an award winner in the International Floral Art 2016-2017 book. You can see more of his work here:
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Sketching is in underrated and underutilised tool in floral design - and mostly becasue of fear and the perception that our drawing is not 'good enough' to be of any real benefit to our work with flowers.
If you can write, you can sketch - if only for yourself, distilling and recording your own ideas and figuring out a path forward before even handling any plant materials.
In our new blog artlcle I discuss the benefits of sketching in floral design, and offer you some encouragement and one idea for how to make sketching a part of your creative process. Click this link to read more:
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Our March Design of the Month is from Duc Thuan Bui. It's a vibrant collection of Gloriosa, Pineapple Lilies (Eucomis), Caladium leaves, Sedum and more, presented in twin containers, which offers added negative space and visual impact.
Looking beyond the stunning material selection you will notice the parallel system which is used to organise most of the components. In fact, there are two parallel systems cleverly incorporated - a dominant system of vertical parallel lines formed by the longest stems in the composition, and a secondary system of diagonal parallel line generated by bending the tips of the Grass material consistently down to the right.
This design was created for the first task in our current Design Directions, and is a great example of how creativity and parallelism can mix.
See more of Duc Thuan Bui's fascinating works here:
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Interflora World Cup Update
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There is now just under six months until the World's Greatest Floral Design Competition gets underway. There are 19 countries with competitors confirmed, and possibly more to come. Will you be in the United Kingdom to see the action live? There's no need to miss it if you won't be in Manchester - it's also possible to live stream the event into the comfort of your own abode. Why not organise a 'viewing party' with some friends and cheer along for your favourite candidate?
The last winner and current World Champion is Bart Hassam from Brisbane, Australia. He''s pictured below with some of his winning designs. Who will take over the Champion title from Bart?
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Information and tickets to the event and for the live stream are available by clicking the button below:
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More Creative Possibilities Plus
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We are thoroughly enjoying the design explorations and learnings that we are seeing in the three online courses we currently have running. It's fantastic to see the creative energies and talents being submitted for each course task. We are also busy designing and planning some additional courses, eBooks and other resources.
In the near future we will release details on our new Advanced Directions course. The program extends on from our Design Directions course and is the perfect follow up for those who have completed that course and are looking for more challenges and learning. Advanced Directions is also a stand alone offering and can be undertaken without any previous participation with us - all you need is some experience with flowers, and a desire to grow your understanding of the principles of floral design.
More details about the program will be released in our future newsletters and via our social media and email platforms. You can also register your interest by emailing us below:
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World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA) News
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WAFA has added to some exciting events to the floral calendar - more inspiration to look forward to - competitions, demonstratons, displays and more.
Bloom Oman
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The next WAFA event, Bloom Oman, will be in Muscat, Oman in early 2024. Keep abreast of the latest information via the event's Facebook page:
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The Australian Floral Art Association will host management of WAFA from 2024 to 2027. This will involve the usual format of the management tenure culminating in an International Show. The program has been announced with the following activities:
WAFA Australia Seminar - 2025
WAFA Australia World Show - 2027
You can find more information and stay up to date at the official WAFA Australia website:
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Flower Thinkers, our relatively new Facebook Group has expanded beyond our expectations, and we are so happy that so many of you have become group members and a part of the Flower Thinking community and are actively interacting with your likes, comments, questions, answers and even photos.
Keep your answers to the 'Question of the Week' coming - they are proving to be most engaging and tell us what you want to know more about.
Haven't joined Flower Thinkers yet? Click on the button below - the group is an inclusive community for all who enjoy creating with, and thinking about, flowers and plant materials.
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If you have any questions or comments about floral design and ways in which Flower Thinking can support your growth as a designer, I'd love to hear them.
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Thank you for reading our March Flower Thoughts.
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