Floral Design School Wrap Up

Source: kidzorg.blogspot.com via Monica on Pinterest

I'm not really one to quote lyrics but this one seemed oddly appropriate for my final post about classes at the Southern California School of Floral Design.  For me, going to the school was so much more than just taking class.  It was a chance to overcome obstacles, make my products better, improve my business and enrich myself.  It's been a long time since I have made a decision to do something for me, on my own terms that took up several weeks.  I was able to get some space and time to reflect on many aspects of my life and get perspective and validated on many different fronts.  I am so grateful I was able to have that experience and take the time for myself. I'm also especially grateful to my family in Southern California that invited me to stay with them.  They really made me feel at home and I hope that someday I can return the favor! 

The last few days of advanced class were awesome! We learned how to made some amazing weaves with ti leaves, flax and palm leaves.  I think my favorite is the nautilus shell out to teepee foliage. 

Weaving the teepee foliage into the nautilus shell.

You can see the nautilus shell in the back left of the arrangement.



All of the instructors at school were great! Here are Phil and I next to a large group class project of tropicals.

I can't wait for the first arrangement I get to make a ti leaf rosette in! It is low in the center of the arrangement pictured above.

I also learned how to make beautiful birds out of flax leaves (above) and rosettes out of galax leaves (below).

 On the final day of class, my mentor gave me flowers, a whimsical form to design on and cut me loose.  Below is the final product with question marks hanging in curly willow branches.  My teacher, being very philosophical and spiritual prompted me with many questions and handed me a paper that read:

The Thoughts Of  A Young Girl

Excerpt From The Rose Turban, October, 1919

The thoughts of a young girl-These are beautiful flowers in Life's garden, that queen of flowers, the rose, symbolizes them in its short but exquisite career.  The young bud offers the bright hope of regal beauty to come; the sumptuous full-blown rose represents the enjoyment of present happiness past....Do not the roses adorning the hair of a young girl symbolize the whole cycle of the feminine soul-which consists of hopes of fleeting joys and of memories?

And the thorns, which often prick pretty fingers, have they not a perfect semblance to the passing dangers and disillusionments which confronts every woman?They keep the timid at a distance.  But he who loves the rose and admires its beauty will know how to pluck it and he who loves a woman will never fear that under her tenderness will find thorns that will scratch him.