Final Bouquet Pics

I was able to finish the final touches on the bouquet this morning so these are the images I took. The client is quite pleased and excited to get the bouquet in the mail. Another HAPPY bride and that's exactly the reason why I LOVE what I do!

Sneak Peek at a New Bridal Bouquet

I'm almost done with this bridal bouquet. I hope tomorrow to be able to put the finishing touches on it - accent painting, a few more flowers and then the ribbon wrap. This bride is getting married in New Jersey and wanted shades of ivory and blues with some amber gold. We decided upon English ivory roses, creamy ivory ranuncullus, royal blue pansies, tweedia and blue hyacinth. We used some amber/gold crystal sprays.Once this bouquet is done, I have a huge order to complete for a Canadian bride so I must get back to work. So much still to be done. Hope you enjoy this lovely bouquet for now.

More little projects

I've been busy all weekend catching up on little orders and projects. One of my clients wanted to have hair flowers for her son's upcoming wedding. She is a big fan of my work and wanted me to make her hydrangea blossoms for her hair on the wedding day. She wanted light pink ones. So I decided to try to make the centers slightly different than I normally do. I've often seen photos of hydrangeas and they have 4 little stamens in the center. I thought it added some great texture to these cute hair flowers.
I was also working on some new flowers and I've always wanted to try out 5 petal roses. My instructors and I have been trying to develop some new flowers and projects to increase interest in clay classes. This project involves the 5 petal roses which we felt would be much easier for a beginner to grasp and paired it with dendrobium orchids. I decided to my version with light pinks and then contrast with white orchids with bright yellow and magenta centers. Anyway, I liked it so much I decided to offer it on my Etsy site as well. :)

I've got lots of little orders that I completed today and now I'm back to working full time on 2 bridal orders that will keep me busy for the next 2 weeks.

Real Wedding Photos - Gardenia bouquet and boutonniere

I got a wonderful surprise email from my bride, Sally. She sent me her professional photographer's images from her wedding! I was so happy she shared them with me and agreed to let me share them with all of you. I made an all gardenia bouquet for her, a gardenia boutonniere for her husband and cake flowers.

I also made some other items for her wedding, but these were the only photos she shared. Her photographer is Tim Davis Photography. He took some amazing photos and captured Sally's beauty. I love her shawl, what a great addition to her wedding dress attire!I also did her cake flowers and her bridesmaid and flower girl bouquets and I hope she'll share more photos, but these are some great eye candy! So if you're in need of a photographer and you live in Wichita, KS, check out Tim Davis Photography!Sally was super easy to work with and such a sweetheart! I love my brides and I love what I do!

Custom Cake Topper - Peonies, Ranunculus and Stephanotis

My blog posts have been light for a while because I've been busy working on a big project. Now that this big project is done, I'm back to fulfilling my orders for my brides. I wanted to share this beautiful cake topper that I created for a bride getting married next month. She requested a cake topper filled with white and pink peonies, peach ranunculus, and stephanotis flowers with pearl centers.It's the first time I've created this style of cake topper. Normally I make individual flowers for the pastry chefs or wedding cake designers to place on the cake or put them in a vase to put on top of the cake. This particular client wanted something that would look like they were placed on the cake but already arranged to perfection.
I think it came out beautifully. So romantic, delicate and pretty. Looks great on my faux cake from Jen's Cakes!
I have a couple more clients requesting this type of cake topper with different flowers so I'm excited now to work on theirs as well! Lots of little orders to fill so I have to get back to work and I have a couple big wedding orders coming due soon so more pictures to follow, promise!

Lily of the Valley, Purple English Roses and Lavender Poppies

As I am working on a special project the last few days, I've been also taking little detours along the way. I had some leftover clay from my football mum and hydrangea bouquet order so I decided to make some purple flowers. I made some deep purple English style roses, light lavender poppies and I was inspired by my late mother-in-law's love for lily of the valley. She grew up surrounded by them as they were her parents' favorite flower. She had them around growing up. She gave us a plant and due to the heat last summer, it fried the plant. I was completely mortified because it was a gift and I knew how much it meant to her for us to carry on the tradition. I didn't have the hear to tell her it died, but it's my intent to get the plant or seeds and try to grow them again so our son carries on the tradition.
Anyway, I love this piece. It's so romantic and spring like. The lily of the valley adds lots of movement and softness to the bold color of the roses and the large size of the poppies. This would make a great mother's day gift!

Football Mums and Something Blue

I just finished this bouquet for a client of mine who is getting married in May. She had wanted it a bit early so she could take it to her last dress fitting. She had a limited budget so we tried to work within her budget to create the bouquet she wanted. She specifically requested football mums, blue hydrangeas and stephanotis flowers with pearl accents.I love all the textures in this bouquet. It's simple yet beautiful. The bride sent me remnants of her dress so that I could use it to cover her stems. Congratulations to Jess and her fiance on their upcoming wedding!

Orchid Cake Flowers

Recently I did some cake flowers for a destination wedding in Jamaica. The client wanted a specific type of dendrobium orchid so I created these for her cake. There were 20 in her order. They turned out so nice, I'll eventually be selling these types of cake flowers via Estilo Weddings in various colors!

Hydrangeas in bloom

I know I'm behind in blogging. I hope that this weekend I can catch back up and show you all the things that have been going on in the world of DK Designs. But for now, just sharing this little arrangement I made for one of my long standing clay flower patrons. She bought one of my first arrangements before I got on the Martha Stewart Show. She's such a sweet client of mine in Hawaii and she asked me to create this for her. She sent me the vase she wanted them to be put in and here's the finished piece. Purple hydrangeas with the blaumeise centers. I love hydrangeas and who knows, this has given me a great idea for the upcoming Garden Art Party on April 25th! Gotta start making flowers for that event.

It's a beautiful day here in sunny California! Back to work on some new projects but I promise to share more things soon!

New Flower Projects

It's been a while since my last blog post. I've been busy with helping my husband install a new kitchen floor a day prior to my son's birthday party, throwing my son a birthday party, teaching and finishing up some orders.
I wanted to share some photos from a few orders I've been working on. The first is a bridal bouquet order for a client in Texas. She had first asked my dear friend Myrna to make her bouquet, but Myrna felt a little nervous about making flowers she had never tried before. Then all of a sudden I got an email from Candice asking me to work on her flowers. Myrna was of course fine with it. Candice asked for Texas bluebonnets and she was adamant that it must be on the stalk in it's original form. So I looked at photos and got some good images to try and create them out of clay. She said that I did a fabulous job and capturing how they really do look. That makes me happy! I have been so out of it lately with everything going on in my life personally and professionally that I forgot that Candice wanted gardenias in her bouquet to mimic the gardenia flower in her necklace she is wearing for her wedding day attire! So i rushed to make them yesterday and put them together. Her maid of honor bouquet is all ivory and white with the Texas bluebonnet 5 leaf greenery.
The boutonniere we decided would focus on the beauty of the Texas bluebonnet so we agreed to use the ranunculus so that the eye would be drawn to the theme flower!
I also was able to whip up a small arrangement for Mother's Day and I love the teal blue, yellow and cream combination! Just listed it last night on Etsy.
The last piece is something you have seen before, another Knottie bride saw my Jennifer Behr inspired hibiscus hair comb from one of my other Knottie clients and asked if I could recreate it but in ivory. This is how her hair comb turned out.

I've got a few more things to catch up on today so I better get back to the studio!

Join zenatona at Split Ends Salon in Oceanside, CA on March 21st!

I'm so excited to announce that my dear friend, Debbie Friedrich of Debbie Friedrick Photography and zenatona fine art will be having her first gallery showing in Oceanside, California on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 from 4-7 p.m. If you live in the San Diego or Southern California area, be sure to put this date on your calendar. March 21st is the 1 year anniversary of zenatona as well.

I only wish I could be there to support Debbie on her special gallery exhibit, but I'll definitely be there in spirit. You definitely don't want to miss this gallery showing! Lots of juicy bursts of color in so many different sizes!

Location:
Split Ends Hair Salon
607 Vista Way, Oceanside, CA
Date:
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Time:
4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

If you can't make the gallery exhibit, you can buy zenatona art online at www.zenatona.etsy.com! For those of you who might be interested in the Bay Area, we'll be doing another Garden Art Party in late April, more details on that to follow.

Flowers and Cupcakes?

As many of you know, I am crazy busy no matter what the time of year, but I added on a new joint venture with my best friend. I've been taking a little detour the last couple of days and making some things to stock up our gofigurette! Etsy site.
We've been wanting to create floral cupcakes and I finally made one. I hope to make more, but I just wanted to quickly share a few shots. Check out our Etsy site if you're interested in purchasing this cute flower cupcake! It screams SPRING and happy sunshiny thoughts! :)

Beautiful Bouquet Replica out of Clay

One of my gofigurette! clients who has become a friend asked me a couple months ago if I could replicate her bouquet. I'm always nervous about replicating someone's bouquet because it will never look exact, but I suspect most former brides are just happy to have something that resembles what was in their bouquet and can have it for a lifetime and will look stunning day in and day out!Jen is super sweet and she is a referral from Debbie Friedrich, who photographed their wedding back on the Big Island. Jen and her husband Arun are expecting a little one this year and so I made a penguin family for her to give as gifts to her family and friends. She saw my clay flower work and asked if I could replicate her bouquet. Jen resides in India but was going home to visit her family in Hawaii before she has the little peanut. I had the honor of meeting her last month and she's such a cute and fun person. I don't often get to meet my clients so it was a real treat. Jen asked me to get her bouquet done before she goes back to India so it wouldn't have to be shipped to India. So this is how it turned out. It has lots of my favorite flowers so it's hard to let this one go, but I know Jen will treasure it. :)

Cake Flowers Featured in The Knot's Michigan Weddings Magazine!

I just found out today much to my surprise that my cake flowers that I did for my bride back last April was featured on The Knot Weddings Magazine for Michigan. My client Amy and her fiance Lawrence got married in Ann Arbor and Jennifer Mott's images of their wedding were featured. It made TheKnot.com's website as well!It just so happened that another potential bride saw my cake flowers and inquired and so I had to search and find out for myself and low and behold, there it was! Very exciting! I feel very honored that my cake flowers made another national publication on a regional level! The magazine exposure I have received in the last 5 months has been amazing and I feel truly blessed and grateful!

Orange and Red Peonies and Orange Poppies with Purple Violets

I finally finished Erika's order. If you recall, her bouquet was full of vibrant orange poppies and beautiful purple violets. She requested for her bridesmaids vibrant orange peonies with hints of red, but because she was on a budget, we agreed to do single flower bouquets of 5.5" peonies. They are stunning. They will be great against the red bridesmaid dresses.The groomsmen will have matching peonies. The groom will have an orange poppy with hints of purple violets to match Erika's bouquet. The fathers of the groom and bride will also wear orange peonies. Erika also requested for the special reader to have a boutonniere of just purple violets.She asked for the grandmother's corsage to be a red peony on the orange ribbon used for Erika's bouquet. Congratulations to Erika and her fiance on their upcoming wedding! I'll be busy once again with finishing up another wedding invitation order and 3 bouquet orders, plus get ready for my son's birthday party, client meetings and classes this week. There are never enough hours in the day!