Orchid Plant

My dear friend from high school recently asked me if I could create something for her salon & spa. She's does facials, peels and more in the Monterey Bay area. She also makes lovely jewelry. If you live in the Monterey Bay and are looking for facial services or some jewelry for someone special, please visit her website at: www.beautifulskinspa.com.

Here are some pictures of her orchid plant.

Another Fall Wedding Bouquet & Boutonniere

A couple weeks ago an Etsy buyer asked if I could make her some smaller gardenias with alligator clips rather than the u-shape hair pin. She also expressed interest in the peony flowers for a bouquet. We exchanged several convos back and forth and she decided to go with the creamy yellow peonies and add some more jewel tone colors to the bouquet.

Betsy was so ecstatic when she got the photos today and said she would always cherish the flowers. She asked for her bouquet as a bridal shower gift, I think from her mother. That's actually a neat way to be able to get your bouquet flowers, ask your bridal shower attendees to chip in or buy you your dream wedding bouquet in clay! :) She also requested a matching boutonniere for her groom.

Something different about this couple is that they are using an old high school gym as their venue for their wedding ceremony, but all with a fall inspired color palette, complete with pumpkins! Best wishes to Betsy and her fiance!

New Peonies - Bridal Bouquet in the works

So, I've been wanting to experiment with my peonies for quite some time and after my dear friend's son gave me a beautiful full bloom peony it gave me some incentive to finally try it. After a couple of tries I think I'm happy with the results and decided to use this style for my current wedding bouquet order. Each flower has roughly 50-60 petals. I only made 7 full bloom flowers, but my fingers are TOTALLY sore and cramped. Not to mention I made 4 peony buds and 20 stephanotis flowers for this order as well. I'm excited to put it together and see how it turns out.

I just wanted to take some photos to share with you. Love the details!

Martha Stewart Inspired Bridal Bouquet

My client, Shailer asked me to create her bridal bouquet and matching boutonniere for her fiance. We first started with peonies, poppies and lily of the valley. I did an exclusive design for my client and showed Shailer the photos and she was sold. So we modified her bouquet. We took some inspiration from a photo she found in a past issues of Martha Stewart Weddings and although that bouquet had lilac and some other flowers, the colors and the flower combination are beautiful. It consists of coral pink peonies, orange and yellow poppies, pink sweet peas, pink Victorian roses and coral peach/pink ranunculus. It's my new favorite bouquet. If only I could keep it.
Each time I work on my orders, I develop new techniques or notice things that I could modify to make everything look better. That's why I love what I do, each time it's not the same, everything is unique and custom. Every time I touch the clay I learn a new way to do things that help me to grow and become better. It truly is an art form and every piece I create is a work of art. :)I wish Shailer and Vikas all the best on their wedding day and for many, many years to come! Thank you again for allowing me to be part the most special day of your lives! :)

A Sneak Peek at A Special Project!

Last Saturday, I mentioned that I was working on a special project that I would talk about when we could. Here's a sneak peek if you will of a behind the scenes recap of Saturday, written by the oh so talented Jodi Murphy who is a contributing writer for Gentry Magazine! If you recall, Jodi is the one who recently wrote an article about my clay flowers for the home in the March issue of Gentry Magazine.

Here are some photos taken by Jodi to capture my portion of the day. My next blog post will consist of photos from Natalie Wii of Allure West Studios. It was truly an amazing day working with VERY talented professionals! More to come soon... Thank you to Jodi for a wonderful recap of the day's events! Stay tuned for more news about these exciting projects created and produced by Lea McIntosh!

The filming of two new internet shows, photographing for a coffee table book, tablescaping, and a Los Altos power anomaly…How was your Saturday?
As told by Jodi Murphy, Contributing Writer to Gentry Magazine

Leave it to Lea McIntosh to bring a talented team together to each focus on and do what they do best. It begins at 7 AM when Lea and her faithful crew, Pat, Betsy & Aunt Lonni, arrive at the beautiful Rutt of Los Altos showroom to begin setting up a cooking segment for an exciting new internet show (to be announced soon!) aimed at newlyweds, almost weds and those who are living away from mom & dad’s for the very first time.
James Burkart of Burkart Videography shows up with his lovely wife, Amy, to set up cameras and lighting. Filming will take place in three separate areas of the Rutt showroom. Meanwhile, Vanessa Rockey – a rockin’ hair stylist from Updo Artistry/Hair by Ness starts taming Lea’s raven tresses, and Tiffany Chiang, DesignHer Image, gets Lea's face camera ready. Lacee and Diane (more about them later) wait in the wings for their turns.

Natalie Wi – incredible photographer and co-owner of Allure West Studios – is snapping shots at every turn, documenting the day. She is collaborating with Lea on a future coffee table book. I arrive around 9:00 AM in Penelope (my MINI Cooper) filled to the brim with china, crystal, flatware, & linens I borrowed from Bloomingdale’s Stanford, along with seashells and tea lights for staging a fresh take on a Mediterranean seaside table setting. Just as I show up, David Braddy, floral designer, pulls up – thank heavens, because I need the help to unload. He’s made lovely arrangements for the kitchen set display and tablescape.
It’s a happy pandemonium inside, and you can just feel the creative energy everywhere. Carl Mindling, Lea’s on-air co-host for the cooking show, is working with Betsy to get everything prepped and ready to go. Lacee and Tejas Naik, newlyweds, are joining Lea and Carl on camera. They’re getting miked so they can ask questions while Lea and Carl demonstrate easy ways to cook and entertain. Amy Burkart, the director, is reviewing the script and making last minute notations.
Diane Phillips of DK Designs is setting up in another area. She’s arranging her custom clay floral pieces and laying out her tools to get ready for the filming of the “how to” show. She’s so organized! She’ll be teaching Lea how to create a dendrobium orchid favor box. Diane will be the premiere guest on Lea’s new show (to be announced soon!) featuring creative people & their work..

By 11 AM it’s LIGHTS! CAMERAS!...and NO action! We all hear ‘bleep’ just as the power goes out. I know what you’re thinking…we blew a fuse; but on this sunny Saturday morning there is an anomalous power outage in downtown Los Altos. There’s an estimate of TWO hours until it’s fixed…oh, and did I forget to mention that Lacee and Tejas have to leave for the airport by 12:30?

Well, as the rest of the gang try to figure out a Plan B, Natalie takes shots of the tablescape, and I take advantage of her downtime to do a kitchen vignette shot with sock monkey for Rutt of Los Altos...part of their new ad campaign Lea & I developed. It sounds like an odd idea, but it’s really getting a great reaction after the first ad we recently launched : )

Lea is about to release the newlyweds and send them on their way when – ‘bleep’ – power’s back on! Cooking segment begins, and even with several takes (it was the first time, you know), Lacee & Tejas get out the door at 12:30…okay it's 12:38, but who noticed?

Diane and Lea are up now and the rest of us watched in awe at how adept Diane is at making flowers out of this unique soft clay. Lea was an impressive first-timer but it is clear that Diane is a master artist, especially when you see how she hand-crafts each flower one petal at a time. It was a great session!

After some pick up shots, a short segment describing the table setting, more photographs, lots of clean up, the day was a wrap at 6 PM. The two new shows will air on The Wedding Chat and soon Newbies will learn to nest and we’ll all learn insights into others’ creative pursuits…yes, Leave it to Lea - JM

Jodi Murphy is a contributing writer for Gentry Magazine and Gentry Design, writing the At Home Column, Kitchen and Bath Department and feature Interior Design stories.

Cake Flowers, Cake Flowers and More Cake Flowers...

I guess today I'm making up for the lack of blog posts last week! LOL... I've been busy working on a bridal order that has to ship on Monday but I've also been trying to complete a bunch of cake flower requests from brides. These are a few of the cake flowers I've been working on. One bride wanted 3 plumerias with some green grass fillers for a small wedding cake.
The other two wanted different peony cake flowers which are 6 inches in diameter! I love the above pink one as it has 3 shades of pink graduating from dark to light! They are large and impressive, but very beautiful!

My Jamaica Bride's Wedding Flowers - Part III

I finally finished Elisa's order. The last 3 boutonnieres and 3 corsages. It's good to have this one done since her wedding is next week after all. It's going to be packed up and shipped tomorrow!
It was fun to work on this order although I was stressed with all that was going on and trying to finish things before the deadline. Lots still to do today, which is why this post is very short.

My Jamaica Bride's Wedding Flowers...

My client, Elisa contacted me and asked me if I could create her bridal party's bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages and eventually centerpieces. She was inspired by the bouquet I did for my other client Trang a while back, but we modified it slightly. She wanted a mixture of green and orange cymbidiums and her colors are orange, brown and lime green. Her bouquet includes coral pink roses, pink hydrangeas with hints of deeper pink and green, tuberose buds and fillers. Her bouquet is finished with a iridescent orangey-pink luxe ribbon with a rhinestone buckle.

So these are the photos of her bridal bouquet and her maid of honor's bouquet.
The fun thing about Elisa is that she and her fiance are having a destination wedding in Jamaica. I wanted to share photos of this place called Tensing Pen! OMG, I wish I could go... I love the bouquets and flowers I created for this because it fits so perfectly with the location where Elisa is getting married!

What a beautiful place and actually quite reasonable for a resort in Jamaica in my opinion.(Photo credit: Tensing Pen)

Valentine's Day = Work Day for DK Designs

Today for me is like any other day... a work day! LOL. I'm busy trying to prepare for the Ralston Hall Bridal Faire. Yesterday I set out to make flowers for 10 small vase arrangements for this cute cake pedestal design I wanted to try. Lots of hydrangeas with whitish-ivory flowers to compliment. They turned out bigger than I had planned, but I think they came out super cute. So even though I'm working on Valentine's Day, I thought I would share my flowers. I'm still going to accent paint them, but they made such a beautiful picture.
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! Hope you show your loved ones how much you care and love them, not just today, but every day!