Coral, Pinks, Greens and Whites...

I've been busy teaching for the last 7 days as well as working on orders. I was able to complete this order this morning. My client wanted corals, pinks, greens and whites. Her request was to have peonies, ranunculus, roses, stephanotis, gardenias, hydrangeas and dogwood.

The original request was a 10" diameter bouquet, but ultimately it turned into a 14" bouquet! I had a lot of coral going on so I needed to mix in the green hydrangeas with pink highlights as well as light pink ranunculus. It's a really spring like bouquet that makes you smile. Believe it or not, I didn't use any artificial fillers in this bouquet!The maid of honor bouquet is a single 6" diameter coral peony with a teal/jade color organza wrap since the MOH bouquet is that same color.
The groom wanted a single whitish ivory rose boutonniere with simple fillers.
The groomsmen will wear stephanotis blossoms with rhinestone centers accented with tuberose buds and green fillers.

Large Form Magnolia Cake Flower

Recently I received an email from a cake designer in Australia who asked me if I could make a large white magnolia with some buds. Her client had a specific look in mind of all white, but I think after she saw the hint of color on the inside of the magnolia, she asked me to add a bit of color. This flower turned out to be over 6 inches in diameter. It's gorgeous!

It definitely gives me other ideas of what I can do with large form magnolias. The last of the magnolias flowers are starting to fall to the ground and are being replaced by lush green leaves where I live. Love seeing my flowers travel to different parts of the world!

Ivory, Chocolate Brown and Pink Cake Flowers

A wedding cake designer in Vero Beach, Florida, contacted me recently and asked if I could create the flowers for a specific cake she was trying to recreate. The cake is 4 tiers with brown satin ribbon bands at the base of each layer and the cake had pinkish brown lilies, chocolate brown leaves and ivory roses. The cake also had wispy brown reeds and crystals throughout.

Granted, my faux cake cannot accommodate all the flowers, but I wanted to share with you just a segment of it. I was skeptical that it would turn out nice, but in the end, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how well it came together. :)
It's hard to stay focused these days with all that is going on in Japan. My heart breaks for all the families suffering from the earthquake, tsunami and the unstable nuclear power plants. I have family and dear friends who are affected directly and indirectly and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. Even though we donated to help the relief effort, it honestly doesn't feel like enough.

Red Roses, Freesia, Stephanotis, Tuberose and Hipericum Berry Bouquet and Boutonniere

Things have been quite hectic working on orders back to back. Plus managing my son's busy schedule of after school activities.My client, Christine, when she first came to me had wanted to match her bouquet to the sash for her wedding dress. There were a couple changes, but they finally decided on red! She had a specific red in mind. She sent me some sample images of bouquets she liked and elements she preferred. She was on a budget so we decided to do a dozen red roses, stephanotis with pearls, tuberose, hipericum berries and freesia for that element of greenery, but she wanted the roses to be the flower of focus.I'll be busy the next few weeks with fulfilling orders and teaching my student/instructor, Jules who is visiting from the UK for 10 days. Looking forward to catching up with her and sharing all the new C3 techniques.

Final Design of Fleuri

Well, today my aunt and uncle who have a wealth of knowledge in home remodeling came over today to help me decide how I am going to mount Fleuri to it's final backing. Whatever I come up with, it's going to take a lot more thought process to work it out and build. However, my image must be sent to Japan ASAP so this is the final design layout I think both represented our work and showcase Myrna's intricate figurine and floral scenes without being overwhelmed by my boxes of flowers.

We are both quite happy with the final design!

Fleuri - finally coming together...

I received Myrna's pieces for the Fleuri project and they are stunning with my floral pieces. I still have yet to put them together so they are one standing piece, but I was able to lay them out and get a shot over them so you could get a glimpse of this amazing collaboration.

I'm so proud of Myrna and her attention to detail and her unending creativity. She's always up for a good challenge and it definitely was a challenge for both of us. I love that we can both have our own individuality in design, but when it all comes together it looks like a very cohesive design When I teach, I teach the basic techniques that were taught but I also encourage my students and instructors to have their own sense of design and style. I don't think ultimately everyone's work should look the same. That's the beauty of the clay art, you can express your own individuality and creativity!

Once the boxes are finally adhered together, I'll have new photos to share, but for now, this is just a glimpse of what it's supposed to look like!

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!