I recently attended a floral workshop at the FE McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge hosted by flower specialist Romaine Hodgen. The two-hour event showcased the art of creating a modern centrepiece based around the theme of the art exhibition currently on in the gallery.
The predominant colours in this painting, picked out by Romaine, where the inspiration behind the colours of the flowers with vibrate orange and teal making the backdrop of the palette.
We started off with a 20cm oasis and covered the sides in teal wool bought locally which was pinned using gold-headed pins. I then wrapped orange and brown strands of wool around the sides to add some more depth to the teal colour.
We then covered the base of the oasis with eucalyptus leaves, berries and then placed twigs at alternative points to give the arrangement height. We positioning three peach carnations freesia freshly delivered to the wholesalers from the Netherland at differing heights throughout the arrangement.
Next we added green wicky carnations. They are a very vibrant green colour with a distinctive fluffy look but it has no true petals, only green sepals which makes it perfect to add texture to any floral arrangement.
I then added in a variety of different flowers above, the yellow ones being Craspedia which are small completely round flower head made up of lots of tiny yellow flowers. The others are Peaches and Cream Hypericum Berries. The base was then covered in Moss, which is a small flowerless plant that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations so this means that when it’s watered it will last all that bit longer.
Even after the workshop I am certainly not a floral expert by any means but throughly enjoyed the evening as it was a bit different than anything ive attended before.
After seeing the different steps taken to create the arrangement it has certainly gave me inspiration and confidence to try to make a christmas one this year as we have all the family coming on boxing day so watch this space.. 🙂
