Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/49418
I HAVE BEEN A florist since I was 21 – it is all I can do and I wouldn't change it for the world. It started out as an accidental career, but looking back I guess it was an obvious choice. I grew up in the Lake District, Cumbria, surrounded by a landscape that at the time I took very much for granted (back then, I had a penchant for electric blue mascara rather than hill walking!). My mum filled our house with pattern, texture and food, passing on her love for fabrics and an appreciation of colour and beautiful objects. My dad had his own business; he clearly instilled a work ethic I have been unable to shake off. I studied Fine Art and, knowing that I could never make a living out of painting alone, this seemed like the perfect job, it felt familiar. Now after nearly 20 years of hard graft, I have started to appreciate all I have gained along the way and this book is the result of all of that. I learnt how to 'draw' with flowers (the technical anatomy) and then how to tailor them, design them, line them up and dome them and finally how to 'paint' with them, allowing the flowers to do the work using the colour, shape and texture to create still lives, each bunch a mini work of art, a bundle of your favourite things, a representation of your taste. One of the biggest problems I face in my job is I have little self-control – I like too much, my taste is varied. I love the blousy high summer bouquets, brimming with colour, but I also adore the simplicity of all-green arrangements or a single stem in a glass jar. This can make decision-making difficult for me – even after all this time working to budgets in all kinds of interiors for a huge variety of clients. A few flowers pass me by – they tend to be the ones that never die, that don't perform (like the tropicals or gerbera daisies) – but I am completely blown away by all the leading ladies, the show-offs that make my life so easy (cherry blossom, magnolia, sweet peas, peonies, hydrangeas and ranunculus). With so much choice, deciding between a single stem or an overload of colour can be challenging and I still find myself walking away from an arrangement wondering if the other option would have worked better (next time!). One of the luxuries of working with fresh flowers is they are already beautiful, making it hard to go wrong when it comes to displaying them. I know I am lucky to have a shop full of flowers, but even if your budget is tiny and your flower choices are limited it is always possible to create something beautiful – especially if you have the right container. When I first started out, I used to dream of having a cupboard full of vases, jugs, bottles and pots to display my flowers. Now I am lucky enough to have a shop stuffed from floor to ceiling with every conceivable shape and size of container, and yet there are still days when we need one just a bit wider or lower. My advice would be to keep as many different styles of container as possible, and then your choice will be easier. My personal style is for the vintage, classic shapes of container, with traditional lines, that really allow the flowers to work their magic. Cornflowers in enamel jugs, dahlias in marmalade pots, hydrangeas in pickling jars – the choice is endless. I will try to cover as many styles as possible throughout the book, but hopefully you will make your own discoveries at home and get as much satisfaction as I do when you find something that really works. I am very, very lucky to have my job, it is the same as it would have been 50 years ago, using flowers to delight, to placate, to overwhelm, to sympathise but most importantly to look beautiful. The funny rules I carry in my head I will dispense as I go along and little tips that are peculiar to me will follow throughout the book – they are things that should be shared. I adore what I do, but sometimes I wonder whether something so incredibly personal should be said out loud. However, this isn't a rule book or a 'how to' book, it's here to inspire you – a little nudge to the senses to show a different way to choose and arrange flowers. I hope it will allow anyone to paint with flowers and to appreciate the leading ladies when they arrive on centre stage. Vic Brotherson Ice cream sundae A stack of peppermint, strawberry and vanilla window vases is topped off with a generous sprinkling of open rose buds. The vases are used as props to add interest and colour without adding work. The roses will keep well since they are chopped short; their heads will stay upright and open out because they are supported by the flowers around the neck of the vase. This shaped vase is a good one to use down the centre of a table as it keeps the arrangement narrow but low enough to chat over, so much more elegant than the standard alternatives. These vases were originally placed in front windows to show off the floral talent of the lady of the house. Designed to be viewed by passers by, they were a way of keeping up with the Joneses – a bit of a national pastime in those days. HER MAGAZINE | December/January 2012 | 117