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Rustic Centerpiece Part 2

Lesson 3 from: DIY Centerpieces for Every Occasion

Kelli Walker

Rustic Centerpiece Part 2

Lesson 3 from: DIY Centerpieces for Every Occasion

Kelli Walker

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Lesson Info

3. Rustic Centerpiece Part 2

Lesson Info

Rustic Centerpiece Part 2

We're going to move on to some flowers start getting down to some fun I think we're going to dio some of our linear ones first and then move on to our lily so let's start with our yellow cape few shows right here now these thieves came out of my garden also but these definitely when we just pull them all out and I'll show you a closer look at what they are so this is a linear and it's definitely in the future family which I know a lot of people grow the the hanging variety and baskets but this is a perennial that's a shrub and it comes back every year but it also is the same shape and look of what a snapdragon would be and that would be another really great flower to use in this particular situation snapdragons come in this great yellow color they come in a whole range of colors honestly and they're very common flowers to find so that would be a good substitute if you don't have this already but we're going to use this as again so we're going to add in linear flowers now instead of our...

linear vines and probably again about five we're going to do very similar what we did before we'll stick about four around the edges and maybe one in the center andi I'm going to leave us some of the greens down here because that she was going to help behold, future flowers coming in we don't want to have them completely stripped bare of their greens. That's, that's the one benefit to using this flower versus a snapdragon is that it does have that that greenery element to it where a snapped reagan is truly truly linear without any greens coming off to speak of, they're dropping their little flowers these are a huge hit with the hummingbirds in my yard. They love these cape fuchsia? Yeah, they come in different colors. I have a red one that's got a yellow throat. I like this one because it's it's a mellow tone it goes with a lot of colors I love pale yellow, her butter yellow. I don't know what a great color for this is. Yeah. Do you ever just design and just that looks good. That looks good. Like my feel of what looks good to your eye I dio I'll do it directly out of the garden. I'll just walk around and starting at all. I'll be like literally with this. No, look around and see what else looks good and I'll throw that in and then just build from there. Yeah, um, and I do that a lot with some of my clients are subscription clients where I deliver flowers weekly to their businesses and those air truly what looks good that week and them so there's no color basis they just know that they're going to get some nice flowers and there's no limitations on me on what I can design so that is truly that style yeah where you just go out and say what's looking the best this week and that's what we're going to use and that's a lot more freeing that's kind of a lot of fun ok do one more in the center yeah you arrange them already just bring them cut flowers I arrange him and I bring them to him every week on monday is usually and then I collect the basis from the week before and clean him and recycle um you know we do like mason jars or taller ones um they just it's just seasonal it's during the growing season for me I know other florist will do it year round but I just like doing it during the growing season so it's about five months kind of deal and then it's always a surprise which is kind of fun like oh this week you get peonies or whatever is growing so okay um I did about five and it looks like you all did very so much that perfect so we're going to do one more linear one I'm going to stick my extra ones back in here we're going to move on tio arli atriss which is our purple tall linear flowers that seem to be grabbing on to everybody else in their bucket because they have these fuzzy little leaves come on they are really cool flower all right I think I got him um like mattress like no no I was saying it is very similar I know cnn I got this little blank on me it's very similar to delphinium that's what I thought exactly so it definitely looks very close to it I grow it in my this I did not grow I got from another grower purchase a lot of these flowers from a really great market called the seattle wholesale growers market which is local flower farmers that bring all their flowers it's like a really cool farmer's market that's just for flowers you get my flowers do you? Yeah it's a fun place to go love it yeah candle door and a lot of them come from where I live honestly there's three or four growers that come from melbourne in area and go down to the market so kelly a couple more questions from online yes, just a reminder to everyone watching if you do have questions for kelly feel free to jump in the chat room and ask there's a chat button beneath of your screen that you're watching so she and sail c nine year both asking a ton of questions in here okay she would like to know if there's any tips to getting long stems from your garden they go on to say I have a ton of roses, but the stems are all twisty, and getting a long straight stem is hard. How do you handle this? And do you just cut the long stems anyway? And can you twist the stem to make it straighter? I am so that's a great question, so along stand kind of comes down to the rose variety. Some of them just naturally grow longer stems and others so that's that's one aspect of it, I choose flowers to grow that have long stamps, honestly. So so that's that's part of it, and I definitely will cut a lot more often I would would want you so there will be a lot of buds that haven't opened yet for rose is trying to get that longer stem. I did not try to straighten them. I just let them use their natural shape. You probably can, with some wire something on the stem to try tio to straighten him out if you want to. But I think if it's a garden rose that you've grown, you kind of need to embrace how it grew doing a structure like this, though also where you have a really strong greenery base will help straighten it to cause a lot of the rose stems aren't especially really strong. The rose itself is so heavy that it's it's tipping it over to some degree so by putting it in a nice structure like this, it'll help straighten it out. One more question yes from clc ninety who said they've seen florists cut stems underwater why is that? Do you do that? They dio that too is when you originally when you first make that cut you know the exposure to air is going to start sealing off that stone right away I don't, but when I'm cutting out in the garden I have the bucket of water right next to me so I will gather you know, three or four stems that I've that I've cut I'll trim, I'll slide off the bottom leaves like this we'll start put them in my hand and then before I put him in the bucket I'll cut them all at once and then stick him in the bucket right away and that's pretty close to cutting them underwater. I just I don't have a set up that's big enough to do the whole water bath thing and I don't think home arrangers nest was I really need to worry about that if you're close to your water source, you should be fine can I just say how amazing these ladies arranging looking good? The ladies are doing incredible job they are for sure and they are ahead of me, so I gotta okay my guys go in here yes, we're just putting these around like a circle again yeah exactly a circular and if you want to stick one in the center I think I might do that also so we'll end up with more than one center piece but yeah on this for this style of base it's definitely going to create you're not going to get a lot of side movement with it right? We got some greenery is hanging down but it's really going to be an upright style so I think that that works great this might be my my tall one right here try that stick that in the center and see and now you can see how the color of the linear flowers when you look at it from a distance you you started the tips and then you follow the flower color down into the center of the arrangement and that's their purpose is to bring the eye to the center which is where our lovely lily is there going to be when we get those in next? Okay, so I think I'm pretty good with her purple guys wanna stick them back? I clean up a little bit because I'm going a little messy here and then we're going to do the lilies next no fighting now these lilies came out of my garden I love lilies I grow a ton of them I never seem to be able to use them all when they they all seem to open around the same time and I have, you know, several hundred of them all of a sudden and that's the situation with this and I thought these were perfect for what we're going to be doing today they have been already their leaves have already been trimmed off and I've cut off some of the lower flowers that were done blooming and I've already trimmed off most of the pollen part of it and I don't know if you've ever worked with the lace, but anyone who's ever touched one of those to their clothes knows that those air impossible to get off so the tip about that is to not touch it with your hands if you ever get this pollen on your clothes or anything, the minute you put your hand on it your oils from your fingers sets it and then you're you're done so if that happens, just try to brush it off and launder it and hopefully you'll be ok but there it's a very not very kind to your clothes s o since then a few of these have opened up so I'm gonna re cut those and you guys have a bucket to share from I probably pull about three stems if you can be careful that as you pull him out that they don't break a cell that they will break easily yeah ok so now some of them have them on some of them don't right there that you don't want them because you have a nice white tablecloth and you know that they're going to start falling onto there. So how would you remove them as they continue? Yeah, so I when you first arrange it, cut off the ones that are already open and I'll show you how I do that here and then watch as it opens the minute that it opens, they don't have the policy set on them, yes, so you have a a good deal of its half a day to pull them off of their fingers on and they'll pull off where lisa lee before the pollen parts start showing up and that's what I do, you can cut him off also, if you choose to but it's really easy the minute they opened to just go in there and pluck those guys right off. I leave the center statement in there because I think it looks nice to leave that in and then I usually gonna slide this out a little bit. I tip him upside down and I bring my clippers in there and I just cut three of them at a time and they just fall straight down and I do that because if I were to cut him from this way upwards, they're going to fall right into my lily and they're goingto put paul and everywhere and you can kind of see that where they've where they've been touching each other and they'll put little pollen dust ings everywhere I'd prefer not to have that so I find if I tip him upside down and then just cut those off, it works a lot better they could just fall straight into my my garbage pile and he keeps life easier I usually do this outside right into my lawn, but but in here this works good and if you see some have gotten damaged um you know, a judgment call on you I think this one's been bruised a lot, so I'm going to cut him off because he's just not quite so pretty anymore typically lily's one there when you find them in the stores or when they're cut from the growers fields there in tight bud form because these guys are impossible to move around once they've opened in that they look really strong and sturdy, but if you hit some of these little petals, they're going to fall right off where they're going to bruise so you if you were to purchase them they're more than likely they're not going to have very many flowers open these because they came from my garden are a lot farther along in the process and a little mark harder to transport, but we got him here so I was happy about that ok, so we're going to stick about three, three facilities around the outer edge, and we're gonna want them a little lower in the arrangement and make us a judgment call here and test this first one out. So I'm gonna lift up some of my linear ones and see now it's it's becoming a little more difficult to slide things in here, you can feel that there's a lot more resistance when you put in your stems, I'm gonna try right about there. I think that's going to be pretty close, it could be a little lower, so definitely below your top line is we're going to be more mid level of thes actually, it could be a little lower. I'm going to try to pull it out and start over, which is always fun came out okay, yeah, yeah, that's good for sure. I might move a few of your just physically with your hands some of your flower leaves around just so you're going to see the lilies a little more you can like took him behind a little bit. Not all of them, but you kind of yeah, I don't want them to be the stars, okay, so there's a one place, and then I'm gonna spin it, do about two more now that one had all of its flowers open, so I'm going to try to find another stand. That's still has some buds so that this will bloom for a little longer. We'll have flowers longer, lily flowers last a long time, though they'll stay open for multiple days, which is really nice, okay, take off some or the steam un's here with a pollen. And then another thing you might find. Let me show you here in just one second here. So this one has naturally has the lily flowers radiating around and you might find when you put him in here that some of these on the back side are going to kind of get a loss, so I have no problems making it one side of it a little more flat. Does that kind of make sense? And you, you know, it's up to you if you want to do that, I think I might take I know I'm gonna test this one out and see if I if I need to worry about that song, a slight inning here, he might be high enough that I don't have to worry about it really getting in the way. Yeah, I think this one will work, okay, and I'm going to move some of my greens around again, so it kind of fills in a little bit and we'll be adding more flowers too so that ok, so there's that one perfect looks like pam scott hers in I just gotta do one more thing is really big so these air asia attic lily's they're the first ones to bloom and they do not have a fragrance um orientals are the second ones to bloom the so far around here that avionics bloom in june into july and then the orientals don't come until august and there the really big ones the orientals are the star gazers that most people are familiar with for their fragrance either love it or you don't right if you're allergic to fragrances and you typically or not a lily lover but you could definitely consider a genetics because they don't have that fragrance was just really nice and these come in a huge array of colors which is really cool I like this one because it's um it's kind of by color it when it opens has got a great creamy center and the deep rose and it kind of fades and as it matures, so I think that's really pretty all right stick my last one in another question from online tell yeah from she um saying that you had mentioned that sometimes you do arrangements of onley full ege and wondering what the key to creating a visual interest in thes bouquets do you create focal points so for the foliage it's it's going to be all about texture you're going to be choosing plants that are fully it should have a lot of variety in them so kind of when we were doing before where some might have lacey leaves some would have full solidly it's like this this is probably would consider of foliage andi I would add a lot of texture in that regard on dh maybe very the colors on tones of greenery from a dark green down to maybe a sharp truth and that on their own is goingto make it look really amazing so I would just say that yeah okay, we're looking good so now a lot of people at this point would say that this looks really great and you're done but we're not we're going to move on um let's dio ok, we have some bubbly us over here which look a lot like purple lilacs I don't know if any of you grow bubbly is in your yard you ever from these butterfly bush like a poem? They do? Yeah, they like to have a little bit that and I even see him in the mediums of the freeway so I don't know if a bird has moved in there how they got there I think that um there's some varieties their their native and I think this purple this lighter purple color might be one of those this guy's a little little limp but uh somebody else came along with him but they are called earlier butterfly bush they look a lot like a lilac, which is really a popular flower I think they're great because they got this great cone shaped to him and they're really full and I wanted more that dark purple tone, so I chose to bring these in and I like how they kind of droop I think that's going to add some different a movement to our arrangement. We've got a lot of stiffer flowers right now and these guys are going toe and a nice element to it, so we'll probably only use about three of them and we're going to stick him in about mid level so not as tall as this, but maybe in between where your little lili stems work and let them let them do their little drooping shape on their own maybe kind of like that another thing you're going to probably start noticing or least I this happens to me a lot when I arrange in large arrangements like this at this point, we bought a lot already in here and if you think you might have your stem down in the water but you know it's it's poked out somewhere else, so I hope you'll see me like touching the base and trying to feel if anyone didn't make it in I did yeah jules and I'll show you I'll try to do one here right now so like if I was sticking this one in and I'm sticking it at an angle and I feel like it's going and good but see how it's poking out the side it's going to hold it just fine and I think I've done a great job but then later is if I'm moving around I'll notice so this one didn't make it in the water so or it'll start wilting and I'll know them but you definitely want to try to get everybody in into the water line I have yeah so I have a really big one yeah here how would I just continue on like it takes up a lot of room it does the flower itself is pretty big I would definitely pull up more of its bottom laterals yeah, maybe a little bit fluff but I think leaving the main part of the flower behind I think it's fine tohave yeah I would take all its laterals off that mill laterals air these little side flowers that air coming on yeah and then just use that and even though it's a little larger I think it will still be cool when it droops over yeah okay, I got one more place for me which one looks best go go with this one and these true to their name butterfly bush attract aton of butterflies and they have a slight fragrance I don't feel I could smell that it's kind of a nice soft, um perfume e kelly speaking of butterflies yeah, she has another question asking about how to get bugs off of flowers. Now they want butterflies off, but yeah, butterflies you want so bunch here? Yeah, when you grow your own there naturally going to have bugs, I somewhat do an organic growing method and I do beneficial I love beneficial bugs, you know, stay in the garden and stuff I don't use a ton of chemicals, but it's true, when you when I bring the flowers in I have a cat named sedona and she comes right over to my book. Yes and she's looking for bugs because the spiders are going to start crawling out and the spit bugs and everyone's going to be in there and she's trying to hunt. I suppose I personally just when I cut my flowers or gather them, I let them sit in their buckets for about twenty four hours, and at that point, the bugs are kind of going toe come out on their own. If there's still some, you'll see him. When you start doing this part where you put him on the table, you'll see him start scattering and sometimes they there in your arrangement, I'm a little over worrying about them mostly, but usually by that point in time, that twenty four hour period, they're not going to be hanging around in your arrangements anymore, so but if you're a little nervous about, like spiders, they're very common in them. Shake your flowers a little bit. I don't know that there's, just kind of part of the whole picking from your yard. You will more than likely not have to worry about bugs when you purchase them from another store, though, because they already process them. A lot of times, they'll departments in products, you know, they grow organically or with chemical, so there aren't a lot of bugs, so really it's, not a big deal.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Kelli Walker - Floral Design Guide.pdf
Kelli Walker - DIY Floral Instructions.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Kelli Walker - Flower Guide.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I REALLY enjoyed this class. Great job, Kelli! The class made me feel like I can do simple live arrangements, which I've never had the courage to do before. Thanks for this great class!

a Creativelive Student
 

I love arranging my own flowers real and fake, but sometimes struggle with if I'm doing it right or is there a better way. This course really does offer good basic knowledge to get you well on your way to creating beautiful arraignments. I absolutely love her first arraignment, so timeless.

Cynthia
 

Kelli is a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot.

Student Work

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