Yay for this beautiful weather we’re having this week (I hope it is here to stay!). I’m excited to share with you today these stunning images captured by Amanda Karen Photography from our summer bouquet master class which was held at the Trafalgar in Greenwich. As most of you know, teaching has been on my radar for a while but I had been hanging back a bit, a bit dubious as to if it would be something I would be any good at! Then I was given the opportunity to teach a one on one class back in April when the lovely Pauline got in touch to find out if I held classes. I saw it as the universe telling me this was something I needed to explore and it was my perfect opportunity to test the water. Needless to say I absolutely loved teaching but it surprised me just HOW much I did! I got so much satisfaction seeing Pauline with her two beautiful creations which I had helped her to create by passing on my knowledge and skills. I knew then this was 100% something I wanted to do more of, fast forward a few months to the 10th August and I am super proud to say we held our first master class which was a huge success! Here’s a peek of all the flowery fun that we got up too….

I chose bright summery coloured blooms to reflect the time of year the workshop was held with a slight hint of Autumn creeping through with the use of the berries and the seeded eucalyptus. I was mindful to pick varieties that would last longer so everyone got the most enjoyment out of their flowers but I also wanted to incorporate some unusual varieties which people may not have seen before such as the Japenese Anemone’s and the Helichrysum.

Pimm’s seemed like the perfect choice of welcome drink for a beautiful summers evening & I think it went down rather well, let’s just say there was barely any left in the jugs by the end of the evening & I may have had a cheeky glass myself! 😉

Each person received step by step hand outs which they could take away with them and use in the future when having a go themselves arranging flowers. This also included a seasonal flower variety guide telling you what types of flowers were available when. I also had branded notebooks designed by the fabulous Becky Lord and inside there are inspirational and flower related quotes which I had chosen.

I started the class off by explaining how to prepare the flowers before they are arranged, ‘conditioning’ as we florists call it & no we don’t wash the flowers with shampoo, hehe! This is a rather tedious & somewhat boring task but yet completely necessary in order to prepare the flowers so they are ready to be arranged. Then it was onto demo time, where I showed the class how to make a hand tied bouquet and explained the technique involved.

Ta da! My finished creation captured so beautifully by Amanda! Then it was over to the students to have a go….

They all done amazingly well, each of the ladies created such a beautiful bouquet despite the spiralling technique being some what tricky & it really was such a joy to see what they had created with a little guidance.  At the beginning of the class I explained that ideally a bouquet that had been made correctly should be able to stand up on the table on it’s own, just like Jen’s beautiful bouquet pictured below. Perfectly spiralled as you can see from the stems, good work!

A close up of Lara’s finished bouquet, isn’t it a beauty! Made up of Snap Dragons, Cosmos, Phlox, Ammi, Japanese Anemone,  Eucalyptus and Seeded Eucalyptus.

Very well done to all the ladies who attended the summer bouquet master class, I hope this has given them the confidence and knowledge to have a go at making a hand tied arrangement the next time they buy flowers for themselves or even receive them as a gift. I received the loveliest email from Christina one of the workshop attendees the following day which I was chuffed to bits about;

“Thank you so much for the master class. We had such a wonderful evening and learnt such a lot. You were so kind, encouraging and helpful and we loved the setting.

Further dates for our other master classes, including Christmas wreath making are to be released soon so stay tuned!

Photo Credit: Amanda Karen