Fundamentals of Floral Design Simple Delicate Arrangement

What I'm trying to show you is that you can follow the flowers. They will guide you from one moment to the next one. And that's how I like to think about floral arranging. Today I'm going to teach you how to make your first floral arrangement. I'm going to guide you through the steps you need to learn to create a very soft, romantic, beautiful, effortless small centerpiece. I'm going to show you the four layers you always need to remember when you're making an arrangement. We're going to go through shape, the base of our arrangement, main flowers, and movement with all these little gestures. This is a great beginner arrangement because this is a small compote and we're going to use less flowers than that we will use in a bigger one. So this is a great way to start playing with flowers. We're going to talk about the mechanics we need to support the flowers inside this vessel. To create this small compote we're going to use a chicken wire and you're going to cut your chicken wire three times the size of the diameter of your vessel and you're going to create a small S like this, you know, to support your flowers in three different levels. The way you're going to place it is simple like that, you know, creating three layers. You can shape it a little bit, you know, to have more support and that's it, that's what you want to have. Now I'm going to hold the chicken wire with some waterproof tape. You're going to add one more, just secure them really well and after what you're going to do is you're going to glue the tape. That will give you extra space inside your vessel because you want to add a lot of flowers inside here and now we're going to fill this with water. Make sure you fill your vessel all the way to the top. Remember you want your flowers to drink water all the time. We're going to start with the first layer of our arrangement which is everything about foliage and creating shape. So the way we create shape is finding beautiful foliage. Start thinking about your arrangement like small sculpture. So you want to find really curvy stems that will create that very graceful shape in your arrangement and for that I have found this beautiful abutilon. I just love it. Always remember to cut your stems before placing them in water. Be very patient with yourself at the beginning. This is everything, this is the beginning of your arrangement. You have to find the right shape for it. I think it's going to be somewhere here. Okay, yeah. I just want to create something, you know, like a tree. Something that feels like it's opening like this. I want to go up and I'm going to place this one somewhere here and maybe one more here. I'm always trying to go for these kind of, you know, moments and I'm going to do that not only with foliage but also I'm going to use some of this and I'm going to use this to create something that feels, you know, very organic, moving, going into many directions. If things move like this, don't worry, this is part of the first layer of your arrangement. I'm going to turn this around so that you can see what I'm doing and we are trying to create a very graceful shape in all directions. And how cute is that? So I'm going to place this one somewhere here and create a beautiful moment to the front as well. The second thing that we're going to do is we're going to talk about the base of our arrangement. I'm going to use this beautiful arrow. So you're going to go from one side of your arrangement to the other side of your arrangement. So I'm going to start from here and don't worry if you don't have any arrow. This layer can be done with any flower that you feel can support other flowers. So dianthus is also a very good option. I use phlox, which is one of my favorite ones. An artist has a canvas and decides the color of it. This is exactly the same. You're starting to paint with flowers and what you want to do is have a canvas of a specific color. This moment is a watercream arrow. I just think it's going to look beautiful as a base of my arrangement. Try to throw the more graceful and delicate ones outside your vessel but when you have more hardy ones like this one, they're great for the bottom of your arrangement. And one last one all the way here. So this is it. This is the first layer of our arrangement after creating shape. Focal flowers are supposed to be the main attraction of your arrangement but you don't want them to be capturing all the attention and then people not see the rest of the flowers you have chosen. So I like to place my focal flowers somewhere around here and here, you know, outside of the arrangement and then, you know, bridge them with other types of flowers that will grow from one side of my arrangement to the other side of my arrangement. So as the main flowers, I have this beautiful Honey Dijon rose. If you have peonies, you could use peonies. If you have any garden rose, it will be beautiful. Dahlias could be great. You know, you're just looking for something that is beautiful and very spectacular and I find this absolutely adorable. So I'm going to place one of my main focal flowers here and I'm going to show you how this looks and then I'm going to grab the other one and I'm going to place it on the other side. It's always good to start longer and then cut them shorter than the other way around. If you cut them too short, then they will look like they're sinking inside your vase and that's a little bit, you know, that's not as graceful as flowers peeling out of your vase. And that's it. So as you can see, we have our main two focal flowers here. They look beautiful but they will not take all the attention. They will share the attention with the flowers that are going to be inside here. It's all the little flowers, medium-sized flowers that will go from one side of your arrangement to the other side of your arrangement and they will complement our big focal flowers. Focal flowers are, you know, the bigger size flowers that you will have for your arrangement and you can see I have also these beautiful Wabara roses. I just love the color and I think it makes yellow look very elegant in this case. So I'm gonna run these flowers from one side to the other side, complementing my focal flowers and bridging the colors a little bit. So I'm gonna grab this one and then place this one on the other side of my arrangement, somewhere here, you know. The only way to create movement is when you have different levels. If you put everything in the same level, you will end up with a very flat arrangement and in this layer, we're gonna add different types of flowers. So I'm gonna grab this beautiful Astromelia, a flower that you can easily find in the market, in the supermarket, anywhere and I think sometimes it's a very underestimated flower but when you let it open, it's just so beautiful and I'm gonna grab one more and add it on this side, you know, just somewhere here, complementing my flowers and I'm gonna turn this around so that you can see. Part of this layer is to think how we're gonna build up to our fourth layer which is all about the graceful movement on top of our arrangement. Right now we have very neutral colors, very soft but I know that I want to go all the way until this moment, you know, that is a more bright yellow. So how do I build up my color palette to get here? And that's something I have to consider in this layer. So for that, I'm going to use these beautiful Cornell Bronze Dahlias so that they can take me from here all the way to here. But I'm just gonna measure a little bit, you know, you can place your stem somewhere here and just try how is that height and if it's not good then you can cut it a little bit shorter. So let me try, always place your flowers very gentle, you know, try to find the right location for them and I think that's gonna be good. And the next one that I'm going to place, I'm going to do it a little bit lower but also facing in another direction. You don't want your flowers all to be looking to the front, you want some of them to look to the side, some look up, some look down and always, always think different levels. I'm gonna place this one somewhere here, you know, facing the other side of my arrangement. That's it. The last layer of your arrangement is all about graceful movement, you know, all these very curvy stems that allowed you to create, you know, these dancing beats and, I don't know, exciting parts of the arrangement. And for that I'm just gonna grab some of these butterflies and place them inside my arrangement. Just be very gentle, find the right place for them. And you might wonder why on the side, I just feel that an arrangement looks very beautiful when you have something here, go all the way down and then all the way up. You know, you're trying to create waves in your arrangement all the time but not only here, also here and here. So let's add the other one. I'm just gonna measure again. I want to make sure that I don't cut it too short because this is, you know, an accent that is supposed to be high to create even more movement. So I'm just gonna cut it and place it somewhere here and if it's too tall I'm gonna cut it again until I find the right height but it's better to measure and not cut too short. Again, I'm just gonna place it somewhere here, place them gentle inside of your arrangement and have a look at that. So what you have learned today in your first project of making a small compote is to create a shape with very graceful stems of foliage to create a base of flowers that will build up the color palette of your arrangement. Focal flowers always on the side so that they have an attention but not take all the attention and then rivers of flowers from one side of your arrangement to the other side of your arrangement complementing those focal flowers and finally small little flowers with very graceful beautiful stems that create all the movement in your arrangement.