More, More, More...

I built two more arrangements this morning. One of my repeat Etsy.com clients asked if I would create a custom piece for her bedroom. She has peony envy because her peony garden suffered some kind of plant virus so she has no peonies this summer. Her bedroom is all blues and whites but she wanted a punch of color. At first I thought blue, pink and orange???? But I guess when you look at many fresh flower bouquets you get at the market there are tons of different colors put together. So she specifically requested pink peonies and orange ranunculus and to add whatever blue flower I thought might work. I picked the blue hydrangea, but in a very pale blue and with a hint of green in them. I think it works well. She asked me to put it in a mint julep cup so her little one and her pets don't try to play with them. So I found a 4.5 inch cup that worked really well given the size of the flowers. Granted they aren't the actual size of a real peony, but they are beautiful nonetheless!

The second arrangement was a product of me not being happy with the color of Debi's pink roses that Ed gave to her. I will write more about Debi and Ed after I finish her bouquet (hopefully by this weekend). Their story is truly amazing so stay tuned. Anyway, I had pink roses that were too dark, the extra ranunculus and peony flowers I didn't end up using for the etsy.com client and some of my dendrobium orchids and tuberose buds and flowers that I made extras of..... Well, I decided to build another arrangement. I call it Rainbow Sherbet. No... it's not edible and I'm not making frozen desserts now. The colors all put together make me think of rainbow sherbet - rasberry, orange and lime. Brings back memories as a little girl eating that stuff! Check it out!

Anyway, I better get back to working on flowers again. :)

Sample Flowers for Miss Pineapple of WeddingBee.com

Since I've been back, I've been working on samples and orders like crazy even with the HOT HOT temperatures we've been experiencing in San Jose. Anyway, I promised Miss Pineapple of http://www.weddingbee.com/ that I would provide her with some sample pictures of possible flowers for her bouquet and her bridesmaid bouquets. I'm still working on the bridesmaid bouquet sample flowers, but this is what I came up with for her bouquet flowers.

To recap, Miss Pineapple's colors are copper, creams, champagne, and muted tones. Kind of a vintage, but modern elegance. So I decided on gardenias or peonies as the main flower and then muted copper toned and champagne roses with some tuberose and stephanotis flowers and of course, creamy white ranunculus. I actually really like the way these came out. I hope she does too! :) I decided to arrange them so she could see what they look like all put together instead of just individual flowers.

I'm looking forward to what she has to say! Hopefully it's good.... :)

Okay, so I finished the bridesmaid flower sample as well. I think they come together quite nicely. I love the addition of the purple, it really adds a vintage feel to the whole arrangement. On this one, I opted for the peach peony with the a goldish copper center, the copper tone roses, peach ranunculus, mauvish purple roses, some copper filler flower clusters and of course the stephanotis and tuberose flowers.

DK Designs To Offer New Deco Clay Craft Academy Tropical Course - End of June '08

One of the reasons why I went back to Hawaii for two and a half weeks was to take some workshops for the upcoming new Tropical Flower Course being offered through the Deco Clay Craft Academy. This is a 10 class course focused on everything tropical! Lots of new techniques were taught on flowers I already know, but we also learned new flowers (anthuriums, rose pikake, tuberose, lokelani rose, ilima, etc). I really enjoyed this class and there are some really great applications.

I'm still in the process of completing all my projects and hope to be ready to teach by end of June or worst case early July '08. I'm excited to teach my current students and hopefully gain some interest with new students who might only be interested in learning tropical flowers! This is just one of the wonderful projects we learned and it's one of my favorites! :)

Now that I'm back in San Jose, I'm busy catching up on all my orders and taking on new orders! It will definitely be a BUSY summer to say the very least!!!

1/27/2008 - Pink Ranunculus, Roses and Tuberose
This is another one of the items I made for the Macy's Show. This was another one of my favorites. I think ranunculus flowers are one of my new favorites to make out of ClayCraft by Deco (formally DecoMagic Soft Clay).

The wonderful thing about this craft is it truly is all up to your imagination and your desire to enhance your flower making skills. I never get tired of making flowers (unless of course I'm making over 100 flowers in one day...) in the sense that I can always improve how the flower looks.

I enjoy teaching others as well. If you want to see more about the Deco Clay Craft Academy curriculum, you can check out my website at www.dkdesignshawaii.com/clay_classes.html.