Gregor's Lecture One Notes — Elements of Inspiration

Have you ever touched the inside of a Tulip?

Have you looked at its surface intensely?

This is a moment of tactile surprise… to discover that a flower can feel like wax.

This was my inspirational thought… a direction , a headline to explore and share with everyone. The flowering for GREEN TALKS ‘PRIMAVERA’ for the first session is about Spring…. From my perspective, Spring is feminine, like summer. Fall and Winter are more masculine for me.

So to start our Green Talks, I want to go more dainty, soft, tender, fresh, ‘High on Beauty’, lively… expressing and celebrating Spring with soft feminine colors. I planned for Apricot, Salmon, Pinks, Cerise plus some Green (energizing color) flowers. I also added some sand, taupe, soft purple and magenta in my first 2 works. As a florist, we serve feminine side of humanity…. Those who appreciate the tenderness, the caring and loving emotions, those who cherish beauty and life forces.

I thought….

To express the textures of Spring, I want to begin with waxy quality to start. No wood, no iron, nothing rustic in GREEN TALKS. Both props/mechanics I build have waxy quality… all the structures and goundational forms are created with wax finish. It’s a quality which allows some light to come through… like opaque glass. The large wax plate design used lots of herbaceous materials, the opposite of Wood Talks in November.

The flowers represent Spring in its purest way.

The stems… not too stiff, not straight… soft… not strong… able to swing a little, nodding… standing together, side by side, but not tight…

The influences come from Art Nouveau. The mood is from this period of Art and Architecture. Not a flower style like Baroque, Rococo or Biedermeier.

The spring expression is not masculine floristry, it is a genre of design in demand, loved by many – its expressive of soft, vulnerable characters of nature and man, in appreciation of beautiful collection of flower personalities indicative of Mind, Body and Soul.

Our Headline, GREEN TALKS ‘PRIMAVERA’ will be presented over 3 lecture/ demonstrations.

I will present…

Session #1 – SPRING

Session #2 – GREEN

Session #3 – Sign of TIME

This latter discussion will be an assessment of post-Pandemic innovations in terms of Design for decorations. Pieces for large rooms, weddings & events on a post-Pandemic budgets.

Hitomi and I have spent many hours on Facetime to discuss the future of floristry. These are special times with shifts that require a certain dose of understanding… the ramifications of the new social and economical circumstances. Let us be ready for the changes ahead.

‘FLOWER HOLDING STRUCTURE’

This is a grid of 1.8mm strong stubwires (18 ga.). These wires are wrapped with yarn in various sweet colors (the pinks and its relatives). After dipping and brushing the yarn wrapped sticks with hot wax, they are laid on a grid to harden… while the wax is setting but are still pliable, bend them into arcs so that they can be built into a flower holding grid. The grid requires many pieces to be connected to make strong, sustainable , reusable structure.

*See all the step by step photos to follow this process in Gregor’s Lecture One Images

Design #1

Design Bowl created with waxed washi paper on wire surrounding Agra Wool bricks. The bowl can be placed on a wire stand so that the form and its color and texture can be seen to play harmoniously with the flowers.

Design #2

The wax plate can be used many times – they are very durable. It can be created in many color tones. If stronger color is desired, you can add wax paint in liquid form. If you would like to make them with rough texture, you can distress it with sandpaper. So many techniques can be applied for variations. Looking forward to sharing the ideas at the Mechanics and Techniques session upcoming.

BOTANICAL LIST

Hydrangea macrophylla
Calocephalus brownii
Jasminium officinalis
Ranunculus caucasicus
Skimmia japonica
Scabiosa stellata
Polianthes tuberosa
Zantedescia rehmannii
Fritillaria meleagris white
Tulipa gesneriana
Xanthorrhoe australis
Scabiosa atropurpurea
Clematis diversifolius
Bouvardia longiflora
Allchimilla mollis
Fagus sylvatica
Lonicera vulgare
Lepismium bolivianum

SKETCHES (click to enlarge)

‘WAXWORKS’

Both designs I created are massive, decorative, colorful and fresh. Nothing dry, no wood, only wax and herbaceous materials.

The wax quality in the structures and form provides cool white, nearly sterile architectural ambience to really show up the fresh colors and details of flowers. The flowers used should be longer stems, like French Tulips in peach and apricot, some blooming Prunus triloba multiplex (Flowering Almond), Fritillaria, Freesia, Ranunculus and Iceland Poppies bring in the round Flower Faces with nodding heads. The curvilinear upper stem show an Art Nouveau mood. Hellebores, some grasses like steelgrass and Hydrangea in soft pink.

The production of Waxplate is a challenge.

The wax should not be too thick so that light can still come through, 2-3cm thick but very thin at the edge – showing a little brittleness, like puff pastry. Should be strong enough to be carried, moved, lifted and hold flowers and some amount of water without breaking.

The best way to make this waxplate is to mould in between two identical platters (can be cement, ceramic, metal, or hard, strong plastic. Left over candles are collected for moulding. They are melted down in an old crockpot or cooking pot on a hot plate. No need to heat up too much. The two platters can be covered with medium mil plastic brushed with olive oil so that formed platter can be easily lifted out after its set and fully formed. The thickness of the wax container can be determined by 5-6 wooden wedges uses as spacers around the edge. The lower platter becomes filled with hot wax, which is poured through a kitchen sieve that catches all undesirable fragments such as leftover wicks. Weigh down the top plate with big rock or cement block for uniform thickness. Be cautious with the depth of poured wax, that it does not exceed the amount tha can cause nasty, messy spill. To be on the side of caution, cover your work space with plastic sheet and do wear a protective suit or a lab coat while working with wax. After couple of hours when the wax cooled down, carefully lift off the top plate and pull off the lower plate, peeling off the plastic sheets. The plate is ready.