This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a floristry workshop at Make and Do in Caversham. The idea for the workshop was to demonstrate some spring flower arrangements in upcycled vases.
I decided to use containers that we all have lying around at home - such as tin cans, jam jars and glass ramekins (if you enjoy a posh pud now and again as I do, you are bound to have a few of these lurking in your recycling bin). But rather than recycle them, we were going to reuse and upcycle them by looking at different ways we could add some pretty.
We started the session with a small hand tie of Tulips and Genista, spiralling the stems and tying lightly so as not to crush the delicate stems, and cutting to size to suit the proportions of the tin cans.
Then I demonstrated how to make a little front facing tied posy suitable for a jam jar - using groups of Hyacinths, Muscari, Feverfew, Tete a Tete and Paperwhites.
Before moving on to work on a petite oasis arrangement in a ramekin. These sort of arrangements are great for using odd stems from larger bouquets, or a few cuttings from the garden - be sure to condition the flowers and foliage well before using them in oasis.
We used Ranunculus, Lisianthus, Waxflower and a few heads of limey green button Chrysanthemums. Roses would work equally well.
Lastly we looked at ways to decorate the containers. I'd brought along tin cans painted with tester pots from Farrow & Ball, and wrapped jam jars with wool in aqua shades. Hannah from Make & Do had used Enamel paint to give her jam jars a tint of pink.
The class then decorated their vases with fabric trimmings and ribbons from Make and Do's well stocked shelves. At the end of the afternoon, they had 3 little spring arrangements to take home and hopefully picked up a few tips on how to recreate them at leisure.
It was such a lovely afternoon, hopefully we'll do it all again soon, but with a summer theme.
Perhaps in time to inspire your Jubilee tea party decorations?..
