Hello, Flower Friend
November Flower Thoughts
Welcome to November Flower Thoughts. This month brings festive inspiration, recent releases and insight into a contemporary technique.
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Design of the Month
November's Design of the Month comes from our learnings with Gregor Lersch in Sydney this year, when he shared more of his perspectives on the concept of Displacements - designs with the main focal area positioned away from the container or point of origin. Gregor shared several placement options including this one - between the containers. A feat not to be underestimated, the composition is anchored by concrete containers of two different shapes and size, staged across identical plinths. Decisive groupings and fluid lines draw in the eye and then carry it around and through the depth of the design. The composition features multiple techniques, including wire weaving, binding, wire arms with test tubes, weaving through handmade chicken wire and more.
It’s a complex design with many parts. The more you look into it, its fluidity becomes more and more apparent.
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A displacement design of interwoven botanicals staged across two plinths, by Gregor Lersch.
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Floral Fundamentals - Christmas
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The photoshoot in the latest Floral Fundamentals newsletter, was full of Festive inspiration, and I’m sharing a small sample of it here - Christmas inspiration from some of the most well known Floral Fundamentals Ambassadors - Ahti Lyra (Estonia), Chantal Post (Belgium), Claudia Tararache (Romania) and Frédéric Dupré (France). Each of these international stars created festive themed designs using the amazing flowers and materials supplied by Floral Fundamentals Growers Partners.
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You can learn more about Floral Fundamentals, including their origin story, in their latest newsletter. Here's a link to their website and newsletter signup form: |
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The tenth edition of International Floral Art has just been released. The book again presents a diverse showcase of floral design, celebrating the limitless reach of human imagination. Each selected design is a unique creative expression, highlighting the beauty of flowers and plant materials, and their possibilities. |
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I was privileged to have two designs accepted in this year’s publication. They are among the works of 120 talented Floral Designers sharing their unique creations.
You can learn more about the release from the publisher, Stichting Kunstboek:
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I had a great question in my last Flower Thinkers Facebook Live session (thank you, Pamela!) about why the Tatami technique is called the “tatami technique”. The question was more about how the mats in traditional Japanese rooms are related to the technique used in floral design. |
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A traditional style Japanese room with a flooring of Tatami mats (left) and a structure of matchsticks reeds joined together using the Tatami technique (right). |
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In Japanese, the word tatami is derived from the verb tatamu, meaning 'to fold, layer or pile'. This is likely related to early tatami which were thin and could be folded up when not used or piled in layers. The word usage evolved to it current association with standard floor mats that have a firm core with a covering of woven soft reeds (Igusa) and are trimmed with a fabric edge.
Tatami was adopted into floral design in the last few decades in many countries, and generally refers to the process of connecting rows or layers of materials together using twisting lines of wire. The rows or layers are usually consistently spaced apart by the number of twists in the wire.
Gregor Lersch, in his technical book, Floral Craftsmanship, refers to the Tatami technique as ‘Twirling’ and describes two forms - Twirling Parallel Form or Twirling Round Form. The former creates what I call Tatami sheets (see the pictures below) or Tatami discs.
Whatever you call it, the technique is super versatile. I encourage you to experiment with it to discover what it can add to your designs.
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Designs with structural and decorative elements created using the Tatami Technique, by Mark Pampling. |
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A Tatami disc (left) crafted from Rattan cane and paper covered wire, and a design I created with discs adding impact to the main focal area. |
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Thank you for sharing November thoughts. Until next month, I wish you more creativity, learning and inspiration from the world of flowers and design. |
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