How We Bloom
How We Bloom is an oasis of inspiring ideas for floral professionals and flower enthusiasts alike. Hosted by Sharon McGukin, each episode features conversations with guests who dare to do things differently. We explore challenges, embrace change, and uncover new opportunities. Sowing the seeds of fresh ideas that blossom into success stories. Brought to you by Smithers-Oasis North America, we share insights in floral design and education, sales and marketing, and innovative business strategies. We spotlight those who plant seeds, grow ideas, and bloom to their full potential.
Listen and grow with us—that’s How We Bloom!
How We Bloom
Floral Design Techniques II: The ‘How’ Behind the ‘Wow’ w/ Sharon McGukin
In this episode of How We Bloom podcast and Floral Hub blog, we explore the art and architecture of floral design by expanding your toolkit of floral design techniques. Design is the “wow” that stirs emotion - technique is the “how” that gives it form. Discover how to use floral mechanics to shape your signature style. Whether you're designing a delicate wedding bouquet or a dramatic centerpiece, these flower arranging tips will elevate your creativity - and that’s How We Bloom.
How we Bloom podcast is an oasis of flower ideas. Host Sharon McGukin of Smithers-Oasis North America interviews floral guests who dare to do things differently. We listen, learn, explore new opportunities and that's how we bloom!
while design is the 'wow' of constructing an arrangement, techniques are the 'how' of organizing the work. How we Bloom is an oasis of flower ideas.
Sharon McGukin:I'm your host, Sharon McGukin of Smithers Oasis North America. Today in our Floral Design Techniques II podcast, we explore the art of creatively organizing floral material placement in professional quality designs. As floral designers, we often experiment with new methods, applications, or techniques, and that's how we bloom.
Sharon McGukin:In a previous podcast and blog, the Principles and Elements of Design, we discussed the fundamental concepts of using principles and elements as the building blocks of any successful floral arrangement. In a subsequent podcast and blog, we discuss design techniques that can be used to enhance your work using Floral Design Techniques. Your positive response to those two floral education blogs encourage the sharing of additional techniques in this podcast and blog Floral Design Techniques II: the 'How' behind the 'Wow.'
Sharon McGukin:Techniques are not just practical tools, but an artistic approach to the personalization dimension and visual storytelling of your designs. In this podcast, we discuss how to skillfully build arrangements like a floral architect using floral design techniques. What's the difference between design and technique?
Sharon McGukin:Design is the ability to artfully skillfully, plan, organize, and place materials in a fashion that creates a harmonious composition Technique is the structured approach, method, or applications used to create effective, visually pleasing floral designs. In other words, 'how' the designer organizes materials to achieve the 'wow' their planned design can deliver.
Sharon McGukin:A floral quote by Pablo Neada, the Chilean poet, once expressed that "floral designers are architects of emotion building arrangements that resonate with the heart."
Sharon McGukin:Design is the fundamental framework. While techniques are the applications that express creative flair, some techniques are used in a wide variety of designs. Others are used for specific style of design, experimentation and experience will teach you which design techniques work best in your designs.
Sharon McGukin:Well executed techniques draw attention to detail like braiding, detailing and wrapping. Braiding or platting is the entwining, weaving, or interlacing of three or more strands of materials to create decorative detail, often used as an innovative technique for incorporating foliages into tropical arrangements. Detailing is the refining or finishing details of a design. Small intricate elements can be used to create depth, texture, visual interests, or to reflect personal style, sometimes used in wedding bouquet design to repeat dressmaking details of the bridal gown, such as pearls, crystals, or stitchery patterns. Wrapping. Is the enclosing individual stems or groups of flowers for protection or presentation. Binding materials such as thread or yarn ribbon, fabric or paper or decorative wire can be used to secure the wrap to add visual interest, color, or texture.
Sharon McGukin:Flowers and foliage can be used as the foundation of a design as in layering and lacing. Layering is placing floral material or plant material or products atop one another, leaving little or no space. Leaves are layered, but staggered. Showing one leaf atop the other, going backward toward the composition, this can lead the eye into a design. Lacing is interweaving the stems or plant material one across the other to form a stable mechanic that can hold. Floral materials as in a place in design. Lacing is the interweaving of stems of plant material, one across another to form a stable mechanic that can hold floral materials in place. In a design. Think of using leather leaf. One stem crosses just above the intersection of the lowest frond and the stem Insert the next stem in the same fashion from the opposite side across another stem. Continue around all sides until a suitable mechanic is formed to support the volume of flowers used. This technique is often used to secure materials in an open mouth, glass vase.
Sharon McGukin:Create new and interesting forms in a design by manipulating foliage for visual interests like leaf work or leaf manipulation. Leaf work is layering foliage to showcase texture or create a decorative surface on a container. One example is to wrap a container in plastic wrap heat shrink the wrap to fit the container tightly. By applying the warm heat of a hair dryer, a layering of leaves can be glued into place over the wrap overlapping each other. I love to do this with lambs ear leaves. I love the texture. When the leaf surface is no longer needed or has lost its color, simply cut away the plastic, leaving a clean container. This technique can also be used to create an impressive decorative design by gluing in place fresh or fo leaves to a larger surface, such as a tablecloth for an event like a wedding. Leaf manipulation is the altering of natural form of a plant material to create a unique form that enhances the visual interest of a floral arrangement, creating sculptural elements in a design by cutting, looping, twisting, folding, pleading, or braiding foliages to use as accents or emphasize line, form, or texture.
Sharon McGukin:Design techniques can also be used to change the size or shape of floral materials, such as feathering, pruning, tailoring, and forcing feathering, also called frenching. Is the process of taking flowers such as carnations or chrysanthemums apart. Then binding them together again to create smaller units of the original flower. These new bundles are often secured by floral tape or thin wire. Pruning, selectively removing foliage, florets petals, or branches to make a material visually lighter weight, or to reveal a more interesting shape. Tailoring trimming materials for the purpose of creating a sculpted or fitted appearance, Forcing purposely exposing floral materials such as flowers or blooming branches to elements like warm temperatures, warm water, bright light, or sunlight to force the blooms to open more quickly.
Sharon McGukin:You can use stem placement techniques to achieve visual pleasing effects, as in mirroring and parallelism. Mirroring is the placing of the same material in repetition at different heights and depths. Often one material is placed in front of another and lower than the same material to mirror that position. Parallelism. The stems of each group are placed parallel to each other. There are no radiating lines of significant flowers, but simple basing materials may radiate out.
Sharon McGukin:Arrangements can be uniquely designed by using placement techniques such as stacking sculpturing, and sectioning. Stacking, placing materials in a stack, either side by side or on top of each other. Sculpturing, placing materials in distinct zones to bring the eye to the center of the design. Sectioning. Organizing a design by segregating the types of materials within a group.
Sharon McGukin:Let's consider the four basic techniques for attaching materials in a design. Sewing, tying, gluing and picking Sewing is stitching materials in place by using a needle in thread staples, straight pens or florist wire to secure floral materials on a flat surface, such as a parasol, a flat casket cover, or to create a flower lei Tying. Materials are tied together by products such as string, bind wire, or raffia. Hand-tying is creating a bouquet by holding the floral materials while crossing or spiraling the stems, and securing this composition with tying materials often used to create wedding bouquets or arrangements for glass vases. Gluing is a method of attaching materials in a composition using liquid or aerosol glue for fresh materials, or low or hot temp glue in a design of faux materials.
Sharon McGukin:Picking, picking techniques can help to secure place or elevate materials in a design. There are five popular picking applications, wood, metal, wire, water tube or natural. Wood, as in a wired wooden pick, metal as in a flat pointed metal pick that requires a picking machine to attach it to a stem. Wire florist wire for security or decorative wire for accents. Water tube. When flowers are too short for their position in an arrangement, the tube can be wired or taped to a wooden pick or a natural stem to increase their height. Natural, a piece of stem or branch that is used for security or elevation.
Sharon McGukin:By thoughtfully selecting and executing techniques that enhance the structure, purpose and style of a floral arrangement, you can elevate your designs from beautiful to breathtaking. When flower styling tips are effectively used, distinctive detail, creative flair and emotional resonance can make your designs visually more appealing and artistically more impactful.
Sharon McGukin:Continue nurturing your creative, professional growth by exploring educational resources like the AIFD Guide to Floral Design Terms, Techniques, and Traditions available@aifd.org. Don't forget to share the Floral Hub blog for readers and How We Bloom podcast for listeners with your fellow flower lovers. The podcast is available on BuzzSprout, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and more.
Sharon McGukin:To our audience, Smithers Oasis North America. Want to thank you for joining us today. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and be sure to hit subscribe. You don't wanna miss the inspired solutions our upcoming guests will share with you for your personal or business growth. If you have topics or guests you want to hear, please message me. We'd love to hear from you.
Sharon McGukin:Until next time, I'm Sharon McGukin reminding you that like the unfurling petals of a flower, we grow by changing form, soaking inspiration in like raindrops, absorbing energy from others, like warmth from the sun. This growth opens us up to new ideas, and that's How We Bloom.
