Tag Archives: floristrytraining

Flower Workshops for Christmas

With less than 3 months until Christmas (which is sure to fly!), now’s the time to start planning.

Here at Bloom College, we’re here to help you have a Christmas filled with flowery fun – where you get to enjoy making beautiful decorations, attending great events, giving thoughtful gifts…and of course – making the most of the stunning flowers available to us at this time of year.

Our new Port Melbourne classroom will be filled with Christmas cheer as we hold 3 very special Christmas themed flower workshops.

1. Hampers & Gift Wrapping

We start off with our Hampers & Gift Wrapping workshop. Gift Hampers make a special gift at any time of year. What we love about hampers is that you can customise them with all of the things you know your family/friends/colleagues love. We’ll teach you how to choose items that work well together, and how to place them so they make the best visual impact.

This workshop will also teach you the tools and tricks you need to make your gifts look professionally (and beautifully) wrapped for any occasion.

This workshop will book quick! To find out more, and to book.

2. Christmas Door Wreath

Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ more than a stunning Christmas Door Wreath. We’ll show you how to use the best combination of fresh and preserved materials to create your one-of-a-kind wreath which is sure to impress your visitors! And when they see yours they’re sure to want one too – so you can put your newly learned skills to good use!

Don’t miss out! To find out more, and to book.

3. Christmas Table Arrangement

Christmas is a time where family and friends come together for good times and laughs over a table spread with delicious food. We’ll show you how to create a stunning table arrangement made with fresh flowers, which will set the scene for a great celebration.

Limited spaces are available! To find out more, and to book.

So, whether you’re filling your home with the most amazing fresh botanicals available, hosting a special event, or giving a gift to a special person – we’re here to help. Our special Christmas themed flower workshops will teach you skills that you can use at any time of year – so don’t miss out!

Sneak peak: In our next Blog post we’ll tell you how you can give the perfect gifts to all flower lovers.

At Bloom College Flower Design School we create Floristry Courses and Flower Workshops for beginners, the hobbyist and those wanting to pursue floristry as a career.

Our classes are a place where participants have fun, meet new friends and find their inner creativity. No prior experience is necessary, and we have a range of Courses and Workshops available across our three locations: Port Melbourne, Collingwood and Geelong.

Tools and Accessories – Getting Started

Leave a reply

When you first get started in floristry, it can be hard to know what you need. Having the right tools and equipment will make a big difference when preparing and arranging your flowers.

So – what do you need?

The Basics

Are you a hobbyist – or would like to try out whether flower arranging is for you? Then these items are what you should start with. The good news is that these items can also be used for basic gardening activities, so they will also come in handy even if you decide not to continue on your floristry journey. If you’ve done one of our floristry workshops, and want to continue learning at home, these items will be a great way to get started.

The Basic items you should have:

An apron
Hand towel
Gloves
Secateurs – ones that are suitable for flowers, foliage and wire cutting
Secateurs – another set that are suitable for heavy foliage and sticks

The Essentials

Are you super keen to continue on your flower journey? Then these items are what you’ll need to have in your tool kit. For those of you who are doing our Flower Basics, Flower Therapy, or Career Change Courses – these are what we recommend for you.

The Essential items you should have:

Apron
Hand towel
Gloves
Secateurs – suitable for flowers, foliage and wire cutting
Secateurs – another set that are suitable for heavy foliage and sticks
Multi-sharpener for keeping your secateurs in top condition
1 roll of Floral tape (we love the Parafilm brand)
Wire – we recommend having the following size gauges .3, .4, .5, .7, .9

Whether you are a hobbyist, just starting your floristry journey, or looking for a career change and moving into floristry, having the right tools and equipment will help you when preparing and arranging your flowers – so start with the lists above to set you on your way.

Bloom College has taken the time to carefully choose the best tools and equipment available (at the right prices), and we have packaged them to make it simple for you. Our Basics, and Essentials Tool Kits can be purchased here. For a full list of our Floristry Courses and Flower Workshops head here.

Our Students – A Journey

Leave a reply

Our students all come from different backgrounds, and have different things in mind in regards to what they’ll do when they finish their floristry course or flower workshop.

This lovely Blog follows the journey of one of our past students – from her feelings during (and after) her Flower Basics Course, to what she went on to do during her Career Change Course (which she’s recently finished).

Grab a cuppa, have a read…and enjoy!

admflowersblog

At Bloom College Flower Design School we create Floristry Courses and Flower Workshops for beginners, the hobbyist and those wanting to pursue floristry as a career. We have 5 Week Flower Basics Courses starting soon – for more information head here. For our Floristry Career Change Courses we have full-time and part-time options – class size is limited and enrolment is closing soon. For more information contact us.

An Insight Into the Power of Colour: By Pantone

Leave a reply

I was lucky enough to recently attend an insightful webinar on colour, held by Pantone.

It spoke about:

The emotional response to colour
How people view colour
As well as what colour can mean to an individual, or as a business tool.

As I listened to the presentation, I couldn’t help but feel humbled to be part of an industry that has such a strong connection to colour. In every arrangement we make, the colours used portray a specific message, feeling or emotion. I think it also helps to define us as designers; through the individual colour combinations we use, and the colour choices we make. This also displays how much colour means to us as people.

I was also very intrigued by how differently we all see the same colour. They showed an image of a cherry – and then showed twenty images of the different colours people saw when they viewed the cherry. This made me wonder what others see in the colour combinations I put together, as well as what I see, when viewing my own (or others’) work. They even spoke about how different animals see different spectrums of colours – including ultra violet light.

If you have the chance you should visit the Pantone website. While you’re there, check out the Pantone Colour of the Year, browse their site, and immerse yourself in the beauty and mood evoking emotion of colour.

Happy arranging!

Image Credit: pantone.com

Do you want to learn floristry? The Bloom College Flower School Flower Basics Course is the perfect introduction to floristry for those without prior experience caring for and arranging flowers. It is also well suited to those wanting to refresh the skills they gained from some prior experience. We have new Courses STARTING SOON. To find out more head to: http://bit.ly/1Nes64L

OHS in the Floristry Industry: Scenarios

Leave a reply

Following on from our post last week, we look further into OHS in the Floristry industry.

Last week we listed some examples of possible risks and threats when working with flowers. This time, we’ll give a real life scenario for each of these, outlining the issue itself and the action that needs to be taken to rectify it.

SCENARIOS:

Electricity
Issue: Heaters and extension cords are haphazardly spread over the workroom floor. This is not only a tripping hazard, but with water from buckets and watering cans in the vicinity, it could also cause electrocution or shorts.

Action: Wet areas and electronics must be separated. Extension leads need to be taken off floors, and power points should be in areas where items such as glue guns, heaters etc. can be safely plugged in, away from wet areas, and close to the source. This way cables are not laying on the ground causing possible injury or death.

Lifting, bending, twisting
Issue: Where the tap is to fill the buckets is 10 metres from where the cool room and botanicals storage area is. Lifting, carrying, and bending is required to place buckets into the storage areas – and that it’s a long distance from where the water source is. This can cause unnecessary strain on muscles, cause back complaints as well as possible water spills.

Action: Purchase a wheeled trolley that the buckets can be placed on, filled with water, then put the botanicals on, and wheeled to the storage area.

Ergonomics
Issue: Workbenches are not set for a standing working height. This causes the back, neck and other muscles unnecessary strain.

Action: Benches need to be replaced with standing height benches. There also needs to be training sessions on personal working ergonomics. This may include training on how to hold yourself when making posies and bouquets to reduce strain, (including repetitive strain injuries).

Slips, trips & falls
Issue: Flowers being removed from display vases in the shop space and taken to the workroom. Water being spilt on the floor from the stems, causing a slipping hazard.

Action: Florists need to bring out a container to place the botanicals in from the display vases, to minimize water spilling/dripping onto the floor. Also, everyone needs to recognize this as an issue, and have a mop handy to wipe the floor dry immediately.

Tools
Issue: Incorrect use of tools, resulting in an increased risk of cuts and injuries. To avoid this, staff need to have training on how to correctly use tools.

Action: Staff training is conducted, showing how to correctly use tools, and should cut away from themselves to ensure cuts are avoided. All staff need to stay vigilant with themselves, and others, around this cutting technique.

Skin Conditions
Issue: Red itching skin on hands and arms. The florist gets a rash on their hands and/or arms from having a reaction to botanicals, or other items used.

Action: Florist to seek medical advice to ease rash. Use a process of elimination to determine which botanical material causes the reaction. Depending on the severity, the florist may choose not to handle that variety again or may choose to wear gloves.

This list above is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you an insight into how crucial OHS is in the floristry industry, or even if you are working with flowers as a hobby. There will usually be an OHS representative in every workplace, as well as procedures on what needs to be done in the case of an event occurring, so please check for specific details in your workplace.

Once you know and consider the risks, then you can ensure you always keep yourself and others safe. You can also ensure that all measures are taken to prevent any incidents happening to yourself or others. Vigilance to safety should always be monitored and reassessed to maintain a safe workplace.

OHS in the Floristry Industry: What You Need to Know

Leave a reply

In this first of our 2 part series on OHS (Occupational Health and Safety), we look at the specific risks involved in the Floristry industry.

Below is a list of examples of possible risks and threats. Once you become aware of these, you can ensure that all measures are taken to prevent any incidents happening to yourself or others. They are by no means a comprehensive list of all OHS concerns, and vigilance to safety should always be monitored and reassessed to maintain a safe workplace.

· Electricity

· Lifting, bending, twisting

· Ergonomics

· Slips, trips & falls

· Tools

· Skin conditions

As much as water is a life-saver or extender to the core product in floristry, water can also be the contributor to many of the dangers and OHS concerns in a florist’s workplace. An obvious one is water and electricity – which can cause electrocution or shortages. Water also attributes to lifting injuries by carrying heavy buckets and vases, therefore ergonomics training and some common sense is needed to reduce risk. Another very dangerous (and far too common issue) are slips, trips and falls – which can also be caused with water spillages on floors, or leaves/stems on the workroom floor that become as slippery as a banana peel!

Some florists also discover that they have allergies to particular flowers and plant material. In these cases, a range of skin conditions can present themselves, so its important for those affected to identify what material/s are causing the reaction, so that they can take appropriate actions to make it safe when using the product in the future. One common action is to wear gloves, ensuring that their skin is not in contact with the botanical material. Some materials also affect people in the form of hay fever – this can be caused from inhaling the pollens, or other reactions that cause hay fever symptoms.

Skin can also be affected from the chemicals used on the flowers either during or post harvest. Often flowers grown outside of Australia pose the greatest risk, as they are grown in areas where the amount of pesticides used are non-regulated. Also, with Australia’s strict quarantine rules, many of the flowers brought in from overseas are fumigated upon arrival to the country, or have to be fumigated prior to leaving the farm in the country of origin.

When working with flowers, each risk and threat should be raised, recorded and rectified. If you are setting up a business, procedures and processes for this should be done prior to opening, and then monitored on a daily basis to maintain a safe working environment.

Using the list above, in the Blog post next week we’ll give a real life scenario for each of these broad topics to help you define, raise, record and rectify OHS concerns in the floristry workplace.

Do you want to learn floristry? Our Flower basics course is the perfect introduction to floristry for those without prior experience caring for and arranging flowers. It is also well suited to those wanting to refresh the skills they gained from some prior experience. We have new Courses STARTING SOON. To find out more head to: http://bit.ly/1Nes64L

Floristry Basics: Colour Theory

Leave a reply

In our previous post about colour we talked about how colour has the strongest emotional power of all of the elements (did the vivid colours in above photo really grab you?), and how combining colours and creating harmony with them can be one of the most pleasurable parts of floristry.

In this post we delve a bit further into Colour Theory.

Colour theory is best understood with the aid of a colour wheel. This tool is a great visual aid that describes how colours relate to each other, and how to interpret these relationships. The ‘12 Colour’ colour wheel is the one that’s most often used in floristry and other design industries.

As you can see, half of the wheel is made up of ‘warm’ colours, while the other half are referred to as ‘cool’ colours. Black, white, and grey are considered neutral colours, and are not included on the Colour Wheel. Their role within the Colour Wheel is to be mixed with other colours on the wheel to create tints, shades, and tones. A colour becomes a tint when white is added to it. When black is added to a colour, a shade of the original colour is created. Meanwhile, when grey is added to a colour, it becomes a tone.

You may remember this next part from school:

Primary Colours

Red, yellow and blue. These colours are known as the Primary Colours and are base colours. They cannot be created through the mixing of other colours.

Secondary Colours

Secondary colours are the colours created when any two of the Primary Colours are mixed together.

For example:

Red + Yellow = Orange

Yellow + Blue = Green

Blue + Red = Purple

Now we move onto the more complex colours.

Contrasting/Complementary Colours

These sit directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. Examples of these colours include the violet and yellow colours within an Iris, or the Christmas colours red and green

Monochromatic Colours

Monochromatic colours are a single colour, and are modified using tints, shades, and tones of the original colour.

Triadic Colours

These are defined as colours evenly separated and spaced around the colour wheel. They produce good contrast and harmony with each other. To lessen the overall colour intensity, one colour can be used to dominate the design, while the other two complement its strength.

Analogous Colours

Analogous colours are next to each other on the colour wheel. They create a flowing natural look to a design. You can create a warm or a cool colour palate, depending on the side of the wheel from which you select your colours.

Split Complementary Colours

These are created when selecting one complementary colour, with the two colours lying either side of the opposing complementary colour. For example, red and green are complementary, so you might choose red, and then use the two colours which sit each side of green, these being blue-green and yellow-green.

Hopefully this insight into Colour Theory has given you a greater understanding of how combining colours and creating harmony with them is an enjoyable part of your floristry career (and why we cover it in our Floristry Career Change Course in even further detail). By gaining an understanding early on about Colour Theory, you can put your skills into practice, and have fun experimenting with colour.

Are you looking for a change of career?

Our Floristry Career Change Course is available as a full time or part time course. Places are strictly limited. For further information, and to apply, please email enquiries@bloomcollege.com.au

Floristry Shorthand – an important (and handy) skill for every florist

Leave a reply

Following on from our post about Taking Client Orders, let’s take a look at Floristry Shorthand – and why it’s an important and handy skill to have.

Why & When to Use It

Whether or not you are speaking to them over the phone, or in person, customers often speak very quickly when giving you their order. It can be difficult to keep up with what they’re saying, or to miss certain parts of their order – such as what they would like written on the card.

By using shorthand, there’s less to write down, and it will be easier to keep up. Also, by using shorthand specific to the floristry industry, even if someone else finishes off the order for you, they will be able to easily see what needs to be included on the card.

Shorthand Reference List

The messages below are the most common occasions when people send flowers – and their shorthand equivalent:

HB: Happy Birthday

DS: Deepest Sympathy

WDS: With Deepest Sympathy

TOY/TOU: Thinking of you

OTRWU: Our thoughts are with you

TOYATST: Thinking of you at this sad time

LOL: Lots of love

VD: Valentines Day

Con: Congratulations

WD: Well Done

LU: Love you

BW: Best Wishes

As mentioned previously, using extra care when taking your customer orders means less chance of you making an error, or forgetting crucial information – and techniques such as shorthand will help with this. The result will be happier (and repeat) customers, and hopefully a recommendation to others.

Are you looking for a Career Change? The Bloom College Floristry Career Change Course will give you all of the fundamental skills and knowledge that you need to get you started in your new career in floristry. Further details, plus information on our other Flower Courses and Workshops in Geelong and Melbourne can be found on our Courses Page.

Flower Spotlight….the Lily

Leave a reply

Whether they are doing a floristry course, or one of our flower workshops, students at Bloom College all have one thing in common: a love of flowers. We are lucky to have many types of flowers available to us in Australia – and in this post, we look at the ever-popular lily.

Common name: Lily, Asiatic lily, Christmas lily, Oriental lily, LA

Botanical name: Lilium longiflorum, Lilium longiflorum x Asiatic (LA)

Quick facts:

Lilies are originally from Asia and Europe, and are suitable for use in vases and foam. The stem length varies from 30cm–100cm. They are available all year, and are grown from bulbs (and forced to flower) most of the year in Victoria and NSW.

How to tell if a Lily is good quality:

For all lilies, choose straight stems and glossy green leaves.

Avoid stems that have dried out, or aren’t a fresh green colour at the base.

Oriental lilies have two or three white, pink, red or yellow large flowers per stem; choose stems which have fully developed buds which are about to open.
Asiatic lilies have several yellow, orange, red or white flowers on each stem; choose stems which have two or three fully developed buds which are about to open.
Christmas lilies have one or two very large white flowers; choose stems that have fully coloured (white) flowers which are about to open.

Colours:

Asiatics: White, yellow, pink, orange.
LAs come in paler, more pastel Asiatic colours – pink, mango, burgundy, rust, white/cream.
Orientals: White, pale pink, white with a burgundy strip, lemon.
Longiflorums: White, white with a burgundy strip, lemon.

Now that you know a bit more about lilies, it will hopefully help spark your inner creativity.

At Bloom College flower design school we create floristry courses and flower workshops for beginners, the hobbyist and those wanting to pursue floristry for commercial purposes. Our next Floristry Career Change Courses are starting in Port Melbourne in October 2015, and in Geelong in March 2016. Head here for more information.

Jeff Leatham – The Rock Star Florist and Artistic Director of the Four Seasons George V in Paris

Leave a reply

I was very privileged to recently attend a workshop, thanks to Bloom College for sending me! It was put together by Wedded Wonderland, held at the beautiful Intercontinental Sydney, in the Double Bay Grand Ballroom. They invited the very well-known and well regarded florist, Jeff Leatham, to visit us down here in Australia – and he accepted!

The presentation by Jeff was magical. He was engaging, personable, inclusive, and very funny. His stories of celebrity brides, large installations, and his involvement with the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris, were captivating.

He also did a practical demonstration of some of his most popular designs, using beautiful orchids, peonies, roses, callas, alliums and magnolia branches. His signature designs demonstrate bold groupings of the one botanical material, colour blocking and angling of bouquets into beautiful vases. He also enjoys submerging blooms beneath the water line to create bold magnification and dominance to the flower variety.

Going to events such as this really makes me realise how lucky and blessed I am to be a part of this fantastic industry. As Florists, we get to be creative, tactile, work with beautiful botanicals and engage with clients who share this love of flowers with us. I also love being able to pass these skills, knowledge and love of flowers on to all of my students too, and a big part of this enjoyment is that I get to watch them bloom into fantastic florists.

Jeff’s story from a country upbringing in Utah, to an International star of floristry that is globally recognised, and also the florist to so many well-known celebrities – shows us all the excitement and wonder that flowers bring to people all over the world. It also demonstrates the increased importance flowers now have on us as individuals. The demand for large scale floral installations in weddings and events is now evident in the work we do, and shows how the floristry industry is evolving into an important design addition at any event, party, corporate setting or wedding.

I highly recommend attending one of Jeff’s demonstrations if you ever have the chance. It’s also worthwhile keeping an eye out for any other professional development opportunities similar to this that you can attend. It’s important at any stage of your floral journey to do this – whether you are only just starting one of our floristry courses, or have been in the floristry industry for a while. It’s the perfect way to keep your knowledge up to date, and your excitement of the floristry industry blooming.

Rebecca Findlay is a Teacher at Bloom College. Here at Bloom College we value and pro-actively support the learning and continual growth of our staff, and as part of this we were pleased to make possible Rebecca’s attendance at this workshop.

EXCITING NEWS!!: Bloom College is developing some upcoming events with well-known designers – and we’d love for you to attend! To stay in touch with us, and to find out about such events, please sign up to our newsletter, or keep an eye on our Facebook page.