Showing posts with label Flora. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flora. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Art in Bloom 2015

Prayer Rug 1 by Karen S. Davies interpreted by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Prayer Rug 1" by Karen S. Davies interpreted by
Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
The Cheltenham Art Center once again invited our floral artists to their annual Art in Bloom, Floral Interpretations of Paintings event. The event is a fundraiser benefiting many of the wonderful programs that take place all year at the art center. Six of our talented designers took to their workbenches to create their floral versions of beautiful paintings by local artists.
Stein Your Florist Co. owner/operator and designer Patrick Kelly chose to interpret “Prayer Rug One” by Karen S. Davies. Patrick chose a heavy stone container as the base of his arrangement and added matching pebbles to the surface of the pedestal to accent the dark blacks and grays of the painting. All the flora is dried and preserved, including:  millet, hydrangea, Spanish moss, branches, grasses, berries, seed pods, limonium, and heather. The dried materials have a wonderful textural look, which complimented the painting’s dimensional qualities perfectly. The painting’s artist was so impressed with Patrick’s interpretation that she made a donation and bought the piece herself! She said she simply couldn’t picture the painting without it! 
Chaos in Purple/Blue by Norman Soong interpreted by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Chaos in Purple/Blue" by Norman Soong interpreted
by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.

Patrick also hosted a live demonstration during the event, designing his interpretation of “Chaos in Purple/Blue” by Norman Soong for the attendees. He created a chaotic purple/blue design of his own with delphinium, agapanthus, statice, and novi belgi asters, while also picking up on the painting’s flecks of orange with hypericum berries. The arrangement is seated in a classic cobalt blue vase and accented by a bit of ming fern. The painting’s artist recorded the entire design process and the arrangement was awarded to the night’s lucky raffle winner, who was thrilled to take the floral creation home with her!

Avelthorpe by Dera Kapnek interpreted by George Emberger of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Avelthorpe" by Dera Kapnek interpreted by
George Emberger of Stein Your Florist Co.





Stein Your Florist Co. designer George Emberger chose to interpret “Avelthorpe” by Debra Kapnek. He said was drawn to the trees in the painting and created a dark forest of his own with white branches and deep blue delphinium with pops of golden yellow solidego asters and wispy accents of bear grass. He completed his forest floor with sheet moss and dark gray river rocks. George was awarded Best in Show for Fun and Fantastic Design for his interpretation.








Love Lies Bleeding by Gail Fox interpreted by Jessica Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Love Lies Bleeding" by Gail Fox interpreted by
Jessica Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ location and designer Jessica Kelly chose to interpret “Love Lies Bleeding” by Gail Fox. Unintimidated by taking on such a large painting (it was more than five feet wide), Jessica chose a large clear glass cylinder for her design, which she filled with stones and soil, wanting to display the unseen “underground” layers. In the center of her arrangement she used red ginger, purple liatris, and birds of paradise to capture the colors and the height of the painting. At the base of her design she planted succulents and tropical plants and accented them with cut tree fern, ming fern and hypericum berries. Jessica’s interpretation was purchased by one of the attendees.


Baggage by Nicholas Burns interpreted by Jennifer Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Baggage" by Nicholas Burns interpreted by
Jennifer Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.

Jennfer Kelly, Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ location, head of social media and designer, chose to interpret ”Baggage” by Nicholas Burns. Jennifer wanted to capture painting’s theme baggage, so she used several vintage suitcases to stack around the design as well as to create her arrangements in. To capture the flow of the painting she used a bundle of curly willow, draping foliages like hanging eucalyptus, springeri and Thai leaves and clusters of raffia. The flowers used are delphinium, solidego, hydrangea, spray roses, hanging amaranthus, white agapanthus, calla lilies, a pink antherium, and bird’s nest fern. She accented her bouquet with newspaper, which was also present in the original painting. Jennifer was awarded Best in Show for Mixed Media Design.






Your Majesty by Edwina Brennan interpreted by William Kirk of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Your Majesty" by Edwina Brennan interpreted by
William Kirk of Stein Your Florist Co.
Floral designer William Kirk interpreted “Your Majesty” by Edwina Brennan. William said that the painting reminded him of his own, sometimes chaotic, way of thinking and he thought the painting suited his design style perfectly. He choose bright blooms of bells of Ireland, dendrobium orchids, blue roses, lisianthus, and miniature carnations to pick up on the painting’s colors and captured the black swirling strokes of the painting with rings of dried grapevine. The painting’s artist was there to see William’s interpretation in person and she was touched by his vision.




Rhythm by Gerry Tuten interpreted by Carl Mishinski of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Rhythm" by Gerry Tuten interpreted by
Carl Mishinski of Stein Your Florist Co.




Our final representation from Stein YourFlorist Co. was created by apprentice designer Carl Mishinski who interpreted Rhythm by Gerry Tuten. Carl built a freestanding armature on which to create his design from Guatemalan river cane. He envisioned the painting as a tropical rainforest and covered his structure with Thai leaves, hanging eucalyptus, hanging amaranthus, leather leaf fern, ming fern, blue and black roses, and king protea. Carl is also a graffiti artist so he called upon those skills to tint some of his flora to mimic the colors of the painting. His work was one of the largest pieces at the show and its’ impressive stature created quite the buzz!


Our designers have been invited back to participate in the CCA’s event once again next spring. Two weeks prior we will draw for spots to select from the art on display and plan our designs. We are looking forward to another inspirational affair and we hope you will join us.

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"Chaos in Purple/Blue" by Norman Soong interpreted live by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.
"Chaos in Purple/Blue" by Norman Soong interpreted
live by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

365 Days of Floral Education - Days 126 - 130

As part of our 125th Anniversary celebration at Stein Your Florist Co. we are sharing a year of floral education, November 1, 2012 thru October 31, 2013. Each day we will post something new on our Facebook page to share our knowledge of our favorite things, flowers and plants and we'll be updating our blog every 5 days or so. No need for pencils and notebooks, just sharing some simple lessons in floristry.

Day 126 - Sago Palms (Cycas revoluta), one of the most primitive living seed plants, are very unusual and popular ornamentals. A rugged trunk, topped with whorled feathery leaves has led to the common name "Sago Palm", however it is actually related to conifer and Ginko trees - all cone bearing plants which trace their origins back to the ancient flora of the early Mesozoic era. Often called "living fossils", Cycads have changed very little in the last 200 million years.



Day 127 - Dandelions, often thought of as pesky garden weeds, may be made into a delicious wine! We can hardly wait until spring, when this pretty little yellow flower will be everywhere and ripe for the picking!We found instructions for this intoxicating treat here: http://seekingabundance.net/2011/05/elixar-of-the-gods-dandelion-wine/.

Day 128 - Flora was the Roman Goddess of flowers and her name continues to be used as a collective term for plant life and flowers. The festival of Flora, called the Floralia, was held in the month of April or early May and was marked with flowers. There were two temples dedicated to Flora in Rome, one was near the great Circus Maximus where chariot races were held and the other temple was on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill.











Day 129 - Gardenia is a genus of 142 species of flowering plants in the coffee family. They symbolize a secret and untold love. Gardenia plants are prized for the strong sweet scent of their flowers.

Day 130 - Ginestra is a wonderfully fragrant flowering variety of Cytisus or "broom", of which white is the natural color. It is a nice accent flower that may be used in smaller arrangements or cascade elegant and dramatic bouquets. Ginestra makes a great tinted product and is available from Italy in a wide range of colors.