Floral Design Class No. 3

I had my third floral design class on Thursday.  When the instructor sketched out the design for us, all I could think of was "weebles wobble but they don't fall down". 

We began by fitting a block of florist foam into our bowls. I had to carefully carve off some of the block so it would fit in the bowl - it was very important that it be tightly fitted in the bowl.Then we arranged three sturdy sticks and poked into the foam. 

We added another block of florist foam (for the "second story") on top of the sticks. We shaped the edges so the block looked (somewhat) like a ball. 

Like last week, we used shiny gardenia leaves and a "crinkly" leafed green (it looked like parsley) to cover the florist foam and add some interest & texture on the bottom.

We added the gardenia leaves on the top as well but didn't cluster them as tightly. Three seed pods from water lotus flowers were placed and served as the focal point of the arrangement.

For color and shape, we added these bright yellow flowers. Mums? Daisies?

A close up.

Pale green orchids provided filler between the seed pods and the yellow flowers.

I I don't know what these dangly red "flowers" are called but they added a nice finishing touch to the arrangement. They were very soft, almost velvety, and hung like bunches of grapes from a very strong vine. 

My arrangement displayed at home...

I will be honest...I was a little disappointed when I first saw the selection of flowers Tipwan bought for us to work with and then again when she sketched out the design for our lesson.  I don't know what kind of design I hoped we would learn to make but the combination of the flowers and the "weebles" sketch really didn't inspire me to create a masterpiece. However, as we moved through the lesson, I could see it all coming together and ended up really liking the arrangement I brought home. It is certainly a different kind of design and much easier to make than it looks. I forgot to water it over the weekend and the flowers on the second story are now dead. I am going to recycle the rest of the arrangement with whatever flowers & greenery I can find at the florist near Nichada and in our yard. I was in a very nice hotel downtown this morning and took a few photos of the floral arrangements in the lobby for inspiration. 

Have a great Monday!