I'm not naturally artistic, and I've been thinking about "doing" a class in flower arranging for some time. The local college did some, but they were whole term things, and in the evening. One or the other (many weeks, evenings), I might have been able to cope with, but not both.
Then a local venue was advertising a series of 4 flower workshops. They were in the evening, which isn't great as I find it very hard to get motivated to go out when it's cold and dark outside. However, they were very local, so it seemed a shame not to give it a go.
So, last night I learned a bit about making a hand tied bouquet. It was a lot harder and, perversely a lot easier than I had expected.
The whole knack of putting the flowers together in a spiral, and turning them, took me a while to get the hang of. My poor tutor. I did explain that I struggle with spatial awareness, and I just could not work out what my hands were supposed to be doing. I found this really hard. However, it suddenly clicked - and I was able to manipulate the posy.
Getting the posy balanced - with shape and colour and foliage and focal points - was a bit tricky, and I retstarted my first bouquet a number of times.
Learning about using the greenery to force space (rather than just to add green) was an eye opener, and learning about wiring gerbera was a revelation. After a lot of concentration - and with some cramp in my hand) I completed my first bouquet. I was very pleased with it
We had a break for tea and cake, and learned how to make frames to hold the posies. I made a frame to use (and re-use) at home.
And then, while we were chatting at the end, I had a quick go at making a second posy, using up the greenery and flowers that had been prepped but not used. I was amazed at how fast (relatively speaking) I was able to put a posy together. I still struggled a bit with what I should put where, but the mechanics of doing it came much more naturally. It was surprisingly easy, now I knew how.
The florists eye - deciding what should go where - will improve with practice, I'm sure.
Another class next month. I'm really looking forward to it.
