LITTLE ROCK — Oh, to be like Martha Stewart and have fragrant arrangements of flowers clipped from your own garden and arranged yourself in every room of your home.
That may be a little much for most, and besides, who has the time anymore?
Most of us, however, can manage a simple arrangement with either homegrown or purchased flowers. There is an art to flower arranging and some basic things you should keep in mind, but that really doesn’t mean it has to be difficult or time-consuming.
Tanarah Haynie, owner and chief designer at Tanarah Luxe Floral and Event Design, 2220 Cantrell Road, enjoys sharing what she knows about floral design with others and wants them to love the design process as much as she does.
She does this by holding several classes a year at her shop. Once a year, most recently in August, she holds a class at the Thea Foundation space at 401 Main St., North Little Rock, and donates the class participation fees to the nonprofit.
It was there that nine students learned the process of building four floral designs, starting with a simple but modern hand-tied arrangement and ending with very sophisticated Zen inspired design.
Elements of bamboo were included in all of the designs.
All the tools and flowers were supplied for the hands-on class. Students followed the design basics as Haynie provided instructions, all the while encouraging her students to be creative. By the third arrangement students were so involved with their own designs they looked up only occasionally for guidance.
SIMPLE BEGINNING
With the first design, a hand-tied arrangement, Haynie shared many of the basics of floral design.
A hand-tied arrangement is created in the designer’s hand instead of a vase. It is a simple and easy way to arrange flowers that will be carried, such as a bridal bouquet, but a hand-tied bouquet can also be displayed in a vase.
The tools and equipment used in these floral designs are available at local flower, craft and hobby stores.
Here are the instructions for making the hand-tied arrangement shown here. Feel free to substitute other flowers.
Supplies: Several aspidistra leaves Bamboo of various lengths and widths Variety of flower stems; those shown in this arrangement include liatris, carnations, alstroemeria, wax flower, lemon leaf and hypericum Paper-covered binding wire Zip-tie Sharp knife or clippers Green florist wire or small bits of thin bamboo
Inspect the flowers.
Remove damaged blossoms or leaves and strip the stems of leaves, leaving a few around the base of the blossoms if you like. Trim the ends of the flower stems with a good clean knife or sharp scissors. You don’t want to damage the vascular system in the stems by using a dull cutting instrument.
Put the flowers in water with a floral preservative solution while you work on your arrangements. Haynie likes Aquaplus floral preservative, which is available at craft and floral stores. She also recommends adding a preservative to water in the finished arrangement.
Build a structure.
For this bouquet, bamboo was used to create an armature - a structure or trellislike piece used to accent the bouquet. You can use as many or as few pieces as you want arranged in a free-form manner. This is where your creativity comes in. Use binding wire, in this case a wire covered in a brown paper, to attach your bamboo pieces together.
The paper-covered binding wire is used because it looks natural against the bamboo. Haynie says if the mechanics of your arrangement (how your design is put together) are going to be seen, make sure they are worthy to be seen. When you are happy with your structure, set it aside.
Loop the leaves.
Next, you’ll make the aspidistra leaf loops or rolls as shown in the photo. Roll the leaves as loosely or tightly as you wish and secure with a hidden “pin” made from a short length of wire or bamboo. If you prefer a loop rather than a roll, loop the leaf so the top touches the stem and tie in place with binding wire. You’ll want three to five of these leaf rolls. When done, set them aside.
Add the blooms.
Now you are ready to start putting together flowers. Take two flower stems and place them in one hand so that the stems form an “X” shape. Hold the stems of the flowers at the binding point. Start with the one carnation and one alstroemeria stem. Add more carnations and some hypericum, continuing to hold the arrangement at the binding point.
Add each flower so it is at a different height. You want what Haynie calls depth-perception when looking at an arrangement. She also cautions not to hold the stems in a “death grip.” “The looser you hold your flowers, the better they fall into place,” she says. “The lines of the flowers above and the stems below the hand should be forming an hourglass shape. Add the liatris to the arrangement. Liatris is a line flower and [directs] your eye up and out of the center of the arrangement. Finally, add wax flower as a filler around the outside.”
Tie it off.
Next, secure the arrangement with a zip-tie. Then, cut off the long stems. If the bouquet is to be carried, leave at least two to three inches of stem below where the hand would grip the bouquet.
Add the rolled aspidistra leaves
to cover up the zip-tie by placing them around the outside of the arrangement. Use paper covered binding wire to secure the bottom of the rolled leaves to the arrangement. The paper-covered wire can be left exposed.
Add the bamboo.
Decide how you want to place the bouquet in the armature you created earlier; secure it in place, tying the flower stems to the bamboo. Lastly, add the lemon leaf; some can come through the armature or rest underneath, creating a backdrop for the structure. Secure with binding wire.
Display it.
If the bouquet will be carried you would want to further bind the stems, either with the wire you have been using or something more decorative such as ribbon. If the arrangement will be displayed in a vase, add a floral preservative to the water and change the water each day. The stems may need to be trimmed to ensure the bouquet rests neatly in the container.
HomeStyle, Pages 37 on 10/06/2012