COMPETITIVE BRIDAL BOUQUET STYLING - Creative Edge November 2021
DESIGNS & TEXT BY HITOMI GILLIAM AIFD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLIN GILLIAM
“Bridal Bouquet category in a competitive design contest requires more than designing pretty. The winning design must show good understanding of the Elements and Principles of Design, and show style and finesse technically, mechanically and creatively.
In a very competitive field, the design need to be beyond pretty and lovely..., it must have creative and technical application with excellent workmanship.
When reviewing your flower selection… first thing you do is to decide which product has the best potential for creative and technical application. And decide what kind of foundational structure you need to create to make your bouquet stand out above the rest.”
“Case Scenario: Neotropica Bridal Bouquet Competition
with Shipment of Boxed Tropical Flowers for each competitor
Design must be completed with use of tropical flowers provided
May use your own choice of supplies
Given Flower Selection:
3 stems Psittacorum ‘Tropic Fleur’
5 stems Dendrobium (white/short)
10 stems Anthurium (red/small & designer size)
1 stem Achiote (Bixa or Lipstick pods)
5 pcs Hala (Pandanus baptisii/short)
2 stems Rhapis palm (small)
1 stem Podocarpus
2 stem Monstera deliciosa (small)
1 bu Banyan Roots (Ficus benghalenses/small)
Within the list of botanicals above… following applications are possible that’s outside of the norm.
- Psittacorum with the side hard stems removed, can be carefully curved.
- Achiote pods can be singly cold glued for texture.
- Hala leaf can be sliced into thinner limp strips.
- Rhapis leaflet can be individually bullion wrapped over aluminum wire to create carefully shaped linear flow.
- Podocarpus is effective fill for chickenwire pillow.
- Banyan roots can be made into long strands of garland with bullion wrap, with or without wiring internally.
With open hardgood supply use… you can use different materials that you are familiar working with, to create mechanics and structures in combination with the botanicals.
With the given botanical selection, you can play on contrasting shapes, contrasting textures, try unifying the color palette, work with linear quality of the stems (of Anthurium and Tropic Fleur), split hala, banyan garlands to complement hand-crafted yarn-wrapped midollino & wire vine in peach to unify the yellow orange to watermelon red. Off white is merely the lightest tint of any color, so the Dendrobium can be complimented by the spadix of the anthurium and/or addition of natural midollino to the design.
Make a decision to create a distinctive design that separates you from the others. Along with distinction, you must compete with superb technical execution.
I have created 3 gamechanger structures which will help shape creative bridal bouquets shapes.”
BOUQUET #1
‘Basic Structure for Formalinear Bouquet’
“The foundational structure is built surrounding the chickenwire pillow by bindwiring the peach yarn-covered Midollino & Wire Vine and the Banyan Root Garland (wired) to shape the general spine of the design. Create the general flow for the design, keeping in mind what kind of silhouette you are wanting to create.
Green the chickenwire pillow internally first with Podocarpus cuttings – this begins to make the green chickenwire disappear, at the same time providing some grid to hold the stem insertions.
First design the Tropic Fleur stems into the structure to designate the outer limits of the design, upward and downward and asymmetrical mid point in a curvilinear formation.
Add the 2 Monstera foliages to add the staging for the flower insertions, also covering the chickenwire.
Add the Achiote cluster into the binding point area and start to place Anthuriums into the layers rhythmically upward and downward with asymmetrical spacings.
Balance the linear composition with soft cluster of linear textural dendrobiums. Add curving linear flow of Midollino to add another white component to add support.
Drape with split limp strips of Pandanus with an overlay of loose Banyan roots to naturalize it. The design is kept transparent to keep the linearity visible.”
SUPPLIES:
Chickenwire Pillow (hand-made); Yarn-covered Midollino & Wire Vine (Peach); Banyan Root Garland (wired and unwired); Bindwire, Aluminum Wire, Floratape
Elements and Principles Analysis of DESIGN #1:
Line – check!
Color – check!
Texture – check! (contrasting)
Size – check!
Form – check! (Teardrop)
Space – check! (transparent)
Balance – check! (symmetrical)
Rhythm – check!
Proportion – check!
Unity – check!
BOUQUET #2
‘Organic Crescent Sculpture for Crescent Bouquet’
“Build the Crescent shape with combination of peach yarn-covered Midollino & wire vine, and wired banyan garland.
Attach a handle with aluminum wire wrapped with flora tape.
Add on additional layers of unwired banyan garlands, thick and thin, until it’s shaped into a dripping organic crescent template.
Create asymmetrical balance with cascading Psittacorum ‘Tropic Fleur’ stems.
Add Monstera to the back side and start designing with Anthuriums into layers, randomly faced in the middle and taper out and downwards showing the linear edge profile.
Cluster the Achiote pods to the left of center along with another Tropic Fleur hugging the curve.
Add Dendrobium florets, cold glued into clusters, thinning downwards.
Overlay with sliced strips of green Pandanus foliage, draping them to flow downward along with strands of Banyan garlands.
Interesting feature – Rhapis palm leaf wrapped aluminum wire, bound with copper bullion – these add another layer of shaped curvilinear flow with a tuft of green leaf tips on ends. ”
SUPPLIES:
Yarn-covered Midollino & Wire Vine (peach color); Banyan roots garland (bullion-wrapped); Bindwire, Aluminum wire, Floratape
Elements and Principles Analysis of DESIGN #2:
Line – check!
Color – check!
Texture – check! (contrast)
Size – check!
Form – check! (Crescent)
Space – check! (transparent)
Balance – check! (asymmetrical)
Rhythm – check!
Proportion – check!
Unity – check!
BOUQUET #3
‘Disc Structure for Round Disc Bouquet’
“A circular silhouette disc was created with a combination of yarn-covered Midollino & Wire Vine and wired Banyan Roots garland, randomly criss-crossing. Additional layer was added to create depth in the disc.
The bottom side has a funnel shaped yarn-wrapped aluminum wire with a bouquet handle attached for holding the bouquet.
Monstera leaf was first embedded inside the disc to provide a background to ½ of the disc shape.
2 stems of Tropic Fleur were curved to the outside edge of the disc to add linear and formal interest.
Anthuriums were placed randomly to create an interesting mosaic layers at 2 depth levels (underlay and overlay).
A wired Rhapis palm leaves with tufts on both ends were made curvaceous and these float over the surface to add extra linear flow of interest.
Dendrobiums were inserted in pockets to add soft, light texture to the disc.
An overlay of Banyan strands and strips of Hala slices overlay and drape over and. out of the bouquet randomly.”
SUPPLIES:
Peach yarn-covered Midollino & Wire Vine; Banyan Roots garland; Bindwire, Aluminum wire, Floratape
Elements and Principles of DESIGN #3:
Line – Check!
Color – Check!
Texture – Check! (contrast)
Size – Check!
Form – Check! (round disc)
Space – Check! (transparent)
Balance – Check!
Rhythm – Check!
Proportion – Check!
Unity – Check!
“These 3 sample designs…. In addition to knowledgeable fulfillment of good Elements & Principles application, they also show...
CREATIVITY – artistic and different
WORKMANSHIP – skillful clean execution of techniques
GOOD MECHANICS – thoughtful systems of construction, effective methods used.
These last 3 criteria should put your design up in the top tier of competition!!
”
