Plum, Aquamarine and Navy Wedding Invitations

My dear friend who I used to dance hula with asked me if I could create her wedding invitations for her. I was honored that she asked and was excited at the opportunity. I showed her a past design which she really liked but wanted plum to be the main color. The secondary cardstock is the one that gave her the most trouble trying to figure out. Normally I do the traditional ribbon band with the label, but she asked me to try something else because she really wanted to use a sheer plum ribbon. So we opted to put the patterned aquamarine stock as a band so the plum ribbon would show.

I love how this invitation turned out and the fact that she asked me to try something different. It reminds me of a Japanese kimono obi for some reason. Being we are both of Japanese heritage, I think it's fitting for their wedding. The orchids are something near and dear to his fiance's mother who passed away a year ago. So lots of meaning to this invitation.
I didn't think plum, aquamarine and navy blue would work together, but I think the aquamarine stock really makes the invitation come to life!

Fleuri - Winter and Spring Collections

Myrna has been spending countless hours this past weekend to finish her 4 boxes for the Fleuri - a breathtaking collection of flora and fauna for the 30 year exhibition of DECO Clay Craft Academy. I just had to share her two boxes which I think are both my favorites of the 4 she created. Myrna never ceases to amaze me with her creativity!

The winter inspired box contains magnolias. Whether they are a considered a winter flower, I'm not sure, but they grow in California in the winter, so we went with it. I love her penguin fishing for cute fish to eat and share with his seal friend!

The spring inspired box is another great one. Myrna made a swing and an arbor of all things. So cute! She used plum/cherry blossoms for this arrangement to go with my shades of pink box. I hope to receive the boxes on Wednesday and put them together so you can finally see the completed ensemble! Stay tuned.

It's been rather busy on this end. I've been working on two invitation orders and tomorrow I'm focusing on some small custom orders and then back to working on wedding day details. I also hope to share some exciting news coming for 2011 in the coming weeks!

30 year project continued... Fleuri

We finally decided on a title for our collaboration piece. We have titled it - Fleuri - a breathtaking collection of flora & fauna!I am happy to say that the 5 floral boxes I had to design for the 30 year collaboration project that Myrna and I are working on is finally done!
The shades of pink box consisted of fuchsia pink peonies, light pink peonies with hints of peach, camelias, plum blossoms, nerine, and gloriosa lilies. I am not 100% happy with my nerine blossoms, but I thought it would go along nicely with the gloriosa lilies since they have a similar structure and they are whimsical. I can't take credit for the plum blossoms. These are the ones Myrna made for me that were left over from my order back in December. I love the gloriosa lilies. Granted structurally they are not 100% correct, but their beauty of the flame like petals is pretty close. For the purpose of this project, I think they look great.
Myrna is still working on her pieces. Here are pictures of her fall inspired box with an apple blossom tree, an owl and some raccoons in a little garden scene. She used coral dupioni silk as a backdrop to tie in the coral floral box I created.
Myrna also did a summer inspired box with lilacs similar to the ones she remembered in her backyard growing up with a cute nest of birds on the branch! She has the winter and spring boxes to finish but she plans to share that by Sunday!

Sometime next week I will have the completed piece all put together of our 9 boxes! Can't wait to share!

More photos of the 30 year project...

I've been busy working on the collaboration piece I'm doing with Myrna. I've got 4 of my 5 boxes of flowers completed. Tomorrow I will be working on my shades of pink box. I am loving how each box is completely different, but how they all seem to compliment one another. The white and green box took a lot more flowers that I had planned on, but it's another one of my favorite combination of colors. I also like how there are hues of yellow, purples, and corals that tie in the other colors in the other boxes.The white and green box contains cymbidium orchids, chrysanthemums, tuberose, lily of the valley, gardenias, viburnum, ranunculus and hydrangea.

The yellow and cream box contains, cattleya orchids, plum blossoms, freesia, English garden roses, dog roses, lisianthus and ranunculus.

One more box to complete and I hope to have photos to share on Friday. Myrna's hard at work on her vignettes and I'm excited to put the final piece together later next week!

Real Wedding Sneak Peek Slideshow - Jessica & Mark

photo courtesy of Rebecca Davidson Photography

I am so excited. Today I received a link to one of my recent bride's wedding photos! (Click on the image to view the slide show). Her photographer is Rebecca Davidson Photography! Jessica asked me to make her a light coral pink and white bouquet and her bridesmaids a deeper coral cluster of 3 peonies.

The wedding is so beautiful and the images capture every detail and so many beautiful emotions! I hope to share more of the actual images with you very soon!

Thank you Jessica and Mark for asking me to create the floral elements for your special day! My first Grand Cayman wedding!

Cherry Blossom Hair Comb

Recently I had a potential client on Etsy contact me about my cherry blossom hair comb that I had made last year and she was hoping I could recreate it for her. She said her wedding dress has cherry blossoms in the design and the hair comb would be the perfect touch.I told her I wanted to try something new as I wasn't completely happy with the original design. So I finally had a chance to rework the design and I definitely like this version much better. Definitely going to offer this in my Etsy shop and do one with white cherry blossoms as well.

I have some great ideas swirling in my head, but I just don't have the time right now to execute. Hopefully I will be able to design some new pieces very soon. For now, I have my 30 year project to finish and 2 wedding invitation orders to get through this week.

Sneak Peek of a Special Project

It's been a while since I last did a blog post. My son had a birthday a few weeks ago and then we got hit with strep throat, which put me out of commission for a full week. I'm finally back in the swing of things and working several projects at the moment.

I wanted to take a moment to show you some sneak peek images of this huge project I'm collaborating with my student/instructor, Myrna from Petal Chic. 2011 marks the 30 year anniversary of DECO Clay Craft Academy and there's a big exhibition in Japan in the fall. I didn't think I would be able to participate, but Yukiko Miyai was disappointed and asked that I try my best to create a special piece. So, after given a small extension on my deadline, I agreed to do it. My initial vision changed after I received the containers we are using for the piece. While I don't want to give it away just yet, here are 2 of the 9 boxes that Myrna and I are creating. In another week or so, I will have the completed piece to share with you.
2011 also marks my 10th year with DECO Clay Craft Academy and I'm excited for what the next 10 years will bring. Even today I was approached to possibly teach talented cake artists abroad! Even if it doesn't materialize, I'm just very honored that colleagues from around the world consider me to be an expert in clay art!

Flowers Inspired by a Kimono Style Wedding Dress

(Photo courtesy of the bride, Kristen)
Sometimes I get inquiries about how to incorporate a design from a bride's gown into their wedding bouquets. This one is especially unique because the bride was having a wedding gown made with silk kimono elements.

She specifically asked for whites and greens in her bouquet and wanted, chrysanthemums, small Asiatic lilies, cherry blossoms and cattleya orchids. Honestly doing the lilies and the mums are my least favorite to make, but I was determined to make them beautiful. Each time that I have the opportunity to create flowers, I try my best to find new ways to make the flower more realistic or happen upon another technique that works better for me.
I love green and white and this bouquet has so much texture and different elements that make it beautiful There are chrysanthemums on Kristen's dress as well as cherry blossoms. We were able to finish off the bouquet with remnants from the red portion of her kimono.Her bridesmaids will be wearing red so she opted for a single large red peony again with remnants from her kimono.Having a Japanese heritage myself, this was a fun order to work on!