Paula Pryke Master Class

As part of the MFA Boston, Art in Bloom celebration, a master class was offered this year by Paula Pryke. I decided to take the class, and follow up with a tour of Art in Bloom (post to follow). Paula Pryke is a British floral designer, and author of many floral design books. Her latest, Simply Pink spoke to my lifelong love of pink, ask my Mom. Paula is well known for her hand-tied bouquets which she demonstrated for us.

Here she is designing a hand-tied bouquet with some of the same flowers that we would be using for the master class. Paula talked about some of the trends in the business right now, one of which is "a getting back to nature approach," with a focus on technique. Birds of Paradise, grapevine, Protea, lemon leaf (Salal), and raffia ribbon were used to create this masculine bouquet, as Paula referred to it. Suggesting that it might be given to a man for Valentine's Day.

We started our designs with a 16 cm. glass cube and wove a design with leaves. This technique would be used to hide the oasis. My leaves had tons of variegation which contributed to a more interesting design aesthetic.

I was able to trim the tops of my woven design to allow for better access to my oasis. Creating more foam "real estate," as Dr. Steve of Rittners School of Floral Design, would say.

The greening process began with the use of Salal aka lemon leaf.

Time for the placement of Bird of Paradise, and vine. My (interesting) design neighbor decided to create her own design, separate from Paula's plan.

With tangerine being the hottest design color right now, it was not surprising that Paula chose to use it for her design. Then on to placing the Protea and Hypericum.

Up close you can see the variegated pattern of the leaves, and how beautifully they add to the overall design. In an effort to save on time, the use of staples made things move more quickly. I'm sure there is a better application for creating this design, minus the staples.

Frankly this design is so large that it was difficult to get into one frame, and tricky to drive home. I will be enjoying this in my home for the next week or so. On to more terrarium designing...





Until next time...L.