How to make a Formal Traditional Triangle Flower Arrangement -
Welcome back to today's design.
Now I made this arrangement in this video here,
so if you haven't already seen it,
pop back and have a look at that one first.
What I'm going to do is take it apart
and reuse the flowers alongside some additional flowers
to create a slightly more formal arrangement.
Now this one is quite loose.
It's not matching on either side.
It's a bit organic and a bit natural.
And I thought it would be nice for you to see
how I could reuse the same flowers
to create a design that was a bit more formal
and followed a more severe pattern.
So I'm going to take this apart.
And while I'm taking this apart,
you can hit the subscribe button
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So taking it apart is much quicker than putting it together.
And now you can clearly see how many holes
are in that floral foam.
And you can also appreciate there is no way
can I create another design using this floral foam.
And this is really a bit of a lesson
in why we encourage you, as florists and flower arrangers,
not to reuse your floral foam.
Because if you do what many of you do,
and I know you do it,
because I teach lots of you floral design,
what you tend to do is you turn it upside down,
or you turn it on its side, and you reuse it again.
But what happens is you push flowers in from the top
and the stem end finds itself
sitting in the middle of a hole,
and therefore it won't have any access to water.
And that's not a good method.
So what I'm going to do here with the foam
is just use my knife to take off some of the corners
because then it'll fit in the bottom of my container.
And I'm going to add in a new piece of foam at the top.
But this time I need to have the foam high enough
so I can come in from the sides.
So I'm going to use the side pieces that were wedged down
just to elevate the foam slightly.
And then I can sit my foam in the top.
And I'm going to use those little offshoots
just to wedge in down the side.
Now you could tape that into position
if you wanted with floral tape,
but I think that's quite secure
and I'm not worried that it's going to fall apart.
So what that now allows me to do
is to place flowers and foliage in
in the horizontal position
to create more of a formal pattern.
I'm still going to go with a triangle
and I'm still going to use the same flowers,
but I've got a bigger choice of greenery this time
so it would look more substantial
and hopefully more formal.
And it's really a lesson in comparing two different designs.
So I'm going to start like the previous design
with the lisianthus first.
But in the previous design, I went off center,
but today I'm going to place my lisianthus
in the middle of the foam.
Again, I've left some room behind
so that I can get some foliage in
and then I've got plenty of room in the front
to arrange my flowers.
And then what I'm going to do
is to create the width on either side.
And that's too long there,
but if I cut these two to be the same length,
then I'm guaranteed that the width of my arrangement
is going to be the same.
And I'm going to start with these back in the floral foam,
in line with my center flower there.
So we've almost got two really perfect wings
on either side of the arrangement.
Not my favorite style of arranging,
but I did say to you this was going to be a lot more formal.
So then what I'm going to do is look for two stock.
Again, I'm going to measure these to be the same length
and these are going to come out on either side.
So we're really starting to create
that very formal outline shape.
So I've just taken about a centimeter off.
I'm going to come slightly further forward in the foam
so that I don't have almost like a wall
at the back of the arrangement.
I want this to be matching,
but still with some three-dimensional quality.
So I've stepped forward slightly in the foam,
only maybe two and a half centimeters or an inch,
but it creates three dimension
and it doesn't give me almost like that fan shape there
at the back.
But you can see that creates that triangular shape
at the back.
And even though this tall bit of greenery
isn't perfectly straight,
I'm going to add that in at the back
and it's going to give me a nice bit of movement
and it's going to help finish off that outline.
I'm not too concerned that that stem
has a bit of a curve in it.
I quite enjoy that.
But if you want something that's straighter,
then you need to find yourself a piece of greenery
that doesn't have that lovely natural curve.
And then on the opposite side,
I'm going to go and place a piece of conifer.
It's a really vibrant green,
almost like an acidic green,
but it's quite a nice texture alongside that garden foliage.
That name I can't remember.
And I really want to say it's cornice,
but I'm stopping myself every time
because I'm not convinced it is cornice.
Right, so now we're going to go filling in this gap here
to really exaggerate that formal triangular shape.
And let's get a piece in there
and something on the opposite side,
as straight as I possibly can to match it.
Now I can tell with this greenery here
that because it's quite new growth on it,
it's not holding up particularly well out of water.
So it probably would be better to use this
in a week or two's time.
I'm filming this in the middle of April.
Normally this foliage has the blossom first
and then the leaf.
And it just means that the leaf hasn't had a chance yet
to grow stronger on the plant before I've cut it.
Once it's back in the foam, it's going to work really well.
But sitting here on my desk
after I've taken the arrangement apart,
just goes to show that it needs to stay in water
for as long as possible.
And then I can use the cut greenery
just to exaggerate that shape.
So we have height, then we have the width,
then we have that depth at the front
because my greenery is extended beyond the container.
And then I'm going to fill in with the bits of greenery
that I used in the previous arrangement,
all radiating away from the center point.
And this is going to really help give me three dimension
and make a beautiful design that isn't flat.
And then to fill in the front section
and to link with the greenery I've placed in at the back,
I'm going to use some of the conifer.
And the conifer is lovely because it's got a slight curve.
So that curved stem works really nicely
over the edge of the container
and makes it quite elegant to look at.
I'm trying to fairly evenly balance the greenery
so it becomes quite symmetrical.
And then the little offshoots that I've got left,
or the little offcuts I should say, not offshoots,
that one wasn't very good.
They can tuck in at the back
and start to hide the foam at the back.
And because I've got quite fussy greenery,
it's small, this is small,
there isn't a lot of contrast between the two.
I'm now going to add in the skimmier japonica.
But what I'm not going to do is use the red berries
that are sort of hiding in the bottom
because I don't have red in my colour combination at all.
I don't want it towards the end of my design
because it's going to be too heavy.
Anything that's bunchy or largely comes towards
the centre of your arrangement,
reinforces the focal point there in the middle
and gives a nice flat texture
alongside that really busy foliage.
And we've also now got the added addition
of the lovely berry of the skimmier,
which has got a nice lime green colour
and a really nice texture.
So maybe four or five pieces there in the middle.
And if you're a lover of greenery,
then you will probably really enjoy the arrangement
as it is now before I put any flowers in at all.
Now I've got one stock that's still quite tall
because I haven't used it at all.
So this is going to come centre stage
in front of that lisianthus.
What I've got to be careful of
is that I don't end up with these all on the same level.
So I'm just going to slightly move these down
and then I'm going to place two more of the stock on the end.
Now pointed flowers like this one,
this is classed as a line flower.
These work really well on the outside.
I've already got the lisianthus creating my width.
So I have a choice of putting these more towards the front
or I can bring them out towards the side here.
And I'm thinking more down towards the front
because the shape is lovely.
The points will work really well at the bottom
and it'll help to evenly distribute off
the same flower colour and the same flower shape.
So the stock working well there towards the front.
Now quite often when I'm doing a floral design,
I do what is called a focal line,
which is probably more often seen by florists
than flower arrangers.
And that's when we have three or five flowers
down to the focal point.
But because I've got five lovely blooms,
this time I'm going to spread them out
more in a circular shape
so that we get to see how flowers can be used
in a different way.
So we're going to put one in the centre
and then I'm going to put two on either side
so that we start to reinforce the shape of the arrangement.
So we've got one here in the centre,
then we've got two off to the right side of the arrangement
and then I'm going to replicate this on the opposite side.
And it's repeating patterns of flowers
and positioning of flowers
on either side of a centre line
is what gives an arrangement that very formal look
whereas the design we did prior to this
didn't have any matching flowers on either side.
So it becomes less formal and a little bit more rustic
and prevents the design becoming too patterned.
But I know for many of you,
you really like the patterned and the structured look.
So this final one is going to come on the opposite side
to the arrangement to that one there.
So if we have an imaginary line drawn down to the centre,
we come right down through this middle bloom
and then we have almost like a mirrored image
of flowers on either side
and you do get that much more structured look.
And if you want to create a design in a larger style,
then you can copy this method and this formula
to create a bigger pedestal arrangement
or an urn style arrangement.
But it's basically about following the same principles
and the same steps.
So what we have on the right is repeated on the left.
That flower there didn't have a large open flower.
So I've just removed the large open flower
so that I've got a flower that's similar
to the opposite side.
And then the bigger, more open heads
can be used more in the middle
to where the focal flower is.
And then I'm going to try now
and balance off the flowers on either side.
And this is what can become quite difficult
when you're arranging in this formal set pattern
is trying to find flowers that match on either side
so that you get that repeated shape
and the repeated pattern.
When you're working in a florist shop like me,
that's quite easy to do
because you can just look through all the different flowers
that you've got for two that match.
But when you're relying on supermarket flowers
or you've got a limited budget, that's quite hard to do.
But you'll see there's a fairly clear outline.
We've got a bigger selection of flowers
to that previous design
and we've definitely got a more formal look.
Now I've got two Lisianthus left
and I have got the addition of some white status.
So that's really going to compact and fill out the design.
But I'm just thinking two of those matching on either side
is going to work really well.
Next, I'm going to go with the status.
And what's lovely about this
is it's got a nice pointed shape to it.
So it works really well towards the outside
because it gives it that nice tapered look.
And I have to do the same sort of pattern really.
Look for two pieces that are similar in shape and size
to replicate each other on each side of the arrangement.
And I personally think that when you're learning
to do a triangle in this very formal style
and you do have to have those matching flowers,
it's really quite hard to do.
And it's not a relaxing arrangement to do
because you're concentrating so much
on finding flowers and foliages that match one another.
And when you're working with a natural product,
that can be quite difficult.
So we're going to extend the height slightly.
Now status, if you haven't worked with it before,
is a flower that will naturally dry.
And it's an easy one to grow in a UK garden
or anything with the same temperature and the same climate.
And all I'm doing here is filling in
on different sides of the arrangement
with different size pieces to fill in
and add a bit of contrast in colour and shape
between the individual flowers.
And in that previous arrangement,
I had small pieces of gyp tucked down
quite low in the arrangement.
So let's get those back in as well.
And I think this more formal structured arrangement
is almost finished.
Now my style of arranging definitely isn't as formal as this.
I find this a bit stiff, a bit stagnant,
and too set in its ways.
But I know from the feedback I get on the videos
and the amount of viewers that I get
on the formal arrangements,
that you all really enjoy this style.
In one of the previous videos,
I asked whether you would class yourselves
as florists or flower arrangers.
And I think the general opinion was
that you were more hobby-based flower arrangers
than professional florists.
So I'm hoping that all the hints and tips
that I've given in each video
are really helping you understand floral design.
I just need to get some gyp right up to the top there.
I've got plenty of short pieces for the middle section,
but I now just need to extend the length
up towards the back.
And gyp I like to add in as the last piece
because it gets very easily damaged
if you add it in in the beginning.
But it is a bit of a labor of love
because it's quite tricky to weave it through
and get it through all those flowers.
Now I have two pieces of greenery left here,
which I think I'm just gonna extend out here at the back.
There's a little bit of a gap there
where the stem of the stalk is, but that is okay.
And I'm going to repeat this on the opposite side.
And then of course, I just need to fill in in the back
to make sure that all of the foam is covered.
And you can let me know what you think.
Do you prefer a more formal arrangement like this,
or do you prefer something that's a little looser
and more informal?
And I think that's my final piece of greenery
there at the back.
If I had an option, I would put a bit more greenery
up in this section here,
but I don't have any more of the blossom to put in,
so we're gonna leave it as it is.
So thanks for watching.
I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
Bye for now.