IPBI DPC Bandung Monthly Gathering: A Flower Decoration Demo for Easter

Hi All, long time no see, hope you guys are all ok.

Since we’re nearing Easter (wow time does fly so fast) as usual we’ll give you some ideas for flower decorations. Unlike last year’s Easter flower demo which full of serious theme arrangements, this year’s flower arrangements are more casual. A little bit taking much time for the structure but quite simple for the flower arranging. As we all know that Easter is always identical with eggs, that’s why Mrs. Ida Hermanto and Mrs. Kitty Catharina, the floral designers this time, use decorative eggs on their design, even the last one use a bunny head miniature on her design. She said that once upon the time, it is said the first animal to came out after the winter ends is rabbit.  Whether it is true or not, we don't know. However, the adding of those accessories have made the flower arrangement look more beautiful and really typical Easter.

And if you imagine the floral arrangement for Easter should be white, yellow, orange and purple, forget it!! That's the old opinion, now it's more colorful. You can use any color you like, just like the following image shown:

And here’s a sneak peek on the first session. Look at the nest made from natural sisal mesh and also the colourful eggs on top. Those eggs were made by Mrs Ida's child. Gorgeous!!

The finished look, this flower arrangement used grouping, basing, terracing and sheltering techniques. For the complete step by step tutorial, you can view them here.

For the beginners who would like to try this flower arrangement, we must remind it in advance that it's quite expensive since it needs a lot of materials. It's more suitable for commercial flowers hamper for Easter.

And the second session to perform the demo is Mrs. Kitty Catharina. Most of the materials she used here are flowers and foliage taken from her garden. So, who said garden flowers can't be beautifully arranged? This one proves it! 

For the complete step by step tutorial, you can view them here.

The detailed look seen from above. The bunny head miniature looks cute, right?

About 71 members were present at the last monthly gathering of IPBI DPC Bandung. And by voting, Mrs. Ling Ling was elected as the chairwoman for the period 2013 - 2016. Congratulation!!!

Note:

The images taken at the IPBI monthly gathering, February 28, 2013

The floral designers are Mrs. Ida Hermanto and Mrs. Kitty Catharina.

From The Seminar held by Dorothea (3): Fresh Leaves from The Garden

Still from the Dorothea’s seminar, this time using fresh leaves which most of them usually found and planted at most of the garden here. Since it didn't use any flowers at all or all were leaves, it didn’t mean that it’s not beautiful or cheapy, just look at this!!!

Right, isn't it? Though using garden leaves, the leaves arrangement looks unique. This time, Mrs. Hanny, the floral designer, used black salix and the foliage's kadaka or asplenium, white-green cordyline folded in the middle into two and placed by using terracing technique, mini red cordyline, phillo sellum, xanadu, dracaena reflexa and caladium.

Well, this leaves arrangement is suitable for the Pre-Easter or the Advent season.

Note:

The floral designer’s  Mrs. Hany 

From The Seminar held by Dorothea (2): Woven Palm Leaves

One of the four displays shown at Dorothea's seminar was the flower arrangement using woven palm leaves. It was made by Mrs. Kitty Catharina, a member of Dorothea from the parish of St. Martinus, Bandung. She used ‘elegant’ type of palm leaves (Latin, Chamaedorea elegans), which are really suitable for being woven.

This is it, the look of 'elegant' palm leaves that have been woven. It looks natural and really elegant, isn't it?

The flower arrangement seen from the left side. The materials used besides the 'elegant' palm leaves are florida beauty, schefflera and Lady Palm (Latin, Raphis exelsa) or in Indonesia it's popular as palm 'waregu'.

It’s seen from the front view.

An upclose look of the woven palm leaves

Manggar, the young coconut flowers as a focal point. Look fantastic!!

The light yellow is a kind of succulent. A bit unusual look but beautiful!!.

Home Decor Ideas by Eunice Teo (3) : A Simple Table Centerpiece with Crystal Accent

A little break on the bridal bouquet post series, yes… just to remind you all that we do have a home & décor section here on flowerdeily, so let’s check out this simple flower table centerpiece designed by Eunice Teo, AIFD

This time, she used a tall cocktail glass as a vase, yellow color foam and lots of crystal beads. Though the use of crystal beads usually tends impress glamorous and modern, she did the flower arranging in minimalist way by using not much flowers and leaves. And the white snapdragon and cordylines applied the horizontal design perfectly.

On closer look, not just crystal beads, she also used butterfly shaped crystal as a focal point on this table centerpiece.

And here’s a close up detail of the crystal beads swirled on the bottom of the transparent vase. Lovely!

Yep, next post on this series, we’ll be back with the bridal bouquet post. Keep on checking J

Tips:

When using color foam, it would be better if you just let it what it is. Do not cover the foam. It will make your design look different but do not forget to soak the foam before you use it, ya.

And so is with the accessories, you must know what you use so it can be beautiful on your design.

A Mixed Tropical Color Centerpiece

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish every moslem the holy feast of Idul Fitri 1433H

 May the blessing, mercy and grace of the God Almighty always be with everyone on this earth.

Interested? For further information, please visit our webstore at: www.floplus.com

American Style Flower Arranging (part 5)

This is another example of American style to place big flower/leaf on top, which is not common at first, while in European style, the biggest material is usually placed at the bottom and the smaller at the upper. But as long as the small flowers/leaves are laid in grouping or you can also use terracing technique, so overall they will be looked big because they’re viewed as a unity and not per stem.  So, no problem with placing big material on top, right? It will even make the design look special and not customarily. We personally like this one. It’s unique!!

Close up look 

Here they are how to make this beautiful unique American-style flower arrangement step by step.

Step 1 Prepare a high acrylic vase. Fill the container with wet foam, leave 2-3 cm from top of the container then trim the edges of foam.

Step 2 Take 2 stems of big marble philo, attach the stems with wire. Then  by using sheltering techniques place  both leaves in the middle, not upright but slightly to the right.

            Take some ivy leaves. Hang them down opposite to philo leaves.

Step 3 Take 2 stems of orchid. Attach the stems with silver or copper wire, then place them on the right side.

            Take some statice then put on the left side to balance the orchid.

Step 4 Take 3 stems of gerbera, attach wire. Place them by using terracing technique starting from the middle to the left side. Arrange all the flowers facing above.

          Take 2 lemons, cut into 2 then prick the half lemon with skewer but careful, do not penetrate the other side. Then put them as focus by using terracing technique.

         Note: Do not use wire to prick the fruit, because fruit contains acid. If wire in contact with acid it would become rust which can change the fresh fruit into rotten as well as dangerously to be eaten.

Step 5 Take 4 croton leaves. By using terracing technique place 2 of them under the gerbera and the other 2 beside the orchid.

            Take some purple roses. Cut them short and place them between the croton leaves, above ivy leaves and statice.

            Take some ruscus. Cut them short, leaf by leaf. Then use them to fill the empty area so that no foam can be seen.

Step 6 Finished

The design looks like as if there was effect of rain or hot sun. Then the flowers would be covered by big leaves.  Just like umbrella protecting us from the scorching sun. Gorgeous!!

Note:

Pictures taken at the workshop by Andy Djati Utomo, S.Sn, AIFD, CFD, on May 16^th, 2012 in Bandung, West Java.

American Style Flower Arranging (part 4)

The American centerpiece in medium high

When viewed thoroughly, from any angles you see, it will form the 3 points in which if you draw an imaginary line among them it will become a triangle. So, this is the three-dimensional centerpiece that is very suitable to be placed on the table as home décor. 

Here’s the step by step tutorial how to make the American centerpiece

1.      Prepare the vase (rectangular shape), fill it with wet foam

Take 5 stems of gerbera, cut one of them with a height of 2x the width of the vase then place it upright in the middle of the foam. This will become the culmination of the centerpiece. Then place the four others surrounding it in group, each with different height. Arrange the gerberas facing all directions so that this centerpiece is beautifully viewed from the front, back and side.

2.      Take some caspea then place them on the right side

Take some red cordyline, place them opposite direction to the caspea by using terracing technique.

3.     Take 4 stems of hemalomena (a kind of anthurium but smaller), place them at the front (2 at the base and 2 rather high). Up to this stage, it has been looked like a three dimensional centerpiece.

Take some stems of snapdragon, place them between the red cordyline and the hemalomena and in the opposite also but shorter than the first ones.

4.     Add some statice. This flower is more purple than caspea but both of them are gorgeous and can be stand for days.

 As focus, use some purple roses, green carnations and red celocia. Place them on the three different sides at the center area by using basing technique and arrange them facing the different directions, too.

Finally, take 2 stems of futoy. Fill the stems with wire, then bend twice so that it become a triangular shape. Put the triangle near the green carnation area.

Finished

The american centerpiece viewed from the front

If in European style, the biggest material (whether flower or leaf) is usually placed at the bottom and the smaller at the upper, then in American style boldly laid big flower/leaf at the top. But overall, at first glance  some small flowers at the base look big because they are laid in grouping. So, actually it's only such a camouflage look! Have a nice try.

Note:

Pictures taken at the workshop by Andy Djati Utomo, S.Sn, AIFD, CFD, on May 16^th, 2012 in Bandung, West Java.

American Style Flower Arranging (part 3)

Gingers on the flower arrangements? Oh, ooo no way ... how come? Here is it, a flower arrangement which uses gingers as accessories. And actually, it's a medium-height of flower arrangement.

The image is the view from above.

The material used are carnation, anthurium, bromelia, omprina, celosia or cock-comb while the foliage is silver grass or simelaria, curly futoy stems, anthurium leaves, lily paris leaves or lily grass , foxtail, red & green cordyline and ruscus. Gingers and woven rattan balls as accessories, skewers, wire, a kind of soft copper wire, but this time choose the shiny white colour or silver as supporting tool.

Here is the step by step tutorial if you’d like to make it.

1.       Prepare a long container or a rectangular vase, then filled with wet foam.

Take some curly futoy stems, give floral tape at the bottom, then tied with wire. Do not forget to insert 2 pieces of skewer for easily placing.

2.       Take 3 anthurium leaves, then place them by using terracing technique.

Take 2 woven rattan balls, put sisal inside then placed them as focus at the center of the flower arrangement. One at the front and the other one a little bit at the back.

Take 3 lily grass, woven them by using soft silver wire then tied the edges by using bunching technique and then give floral tape. This technique is to shorten the working time. Attach the other edge with skewer and then placed it on the oasis.

1.       Take 6 gingers, choose the smooth-wide ones and then place them in 3 different places (front, back and right side) by using skewers, each contains 2 gingers

Take 4 bromelia flowers, place them on the right and left side just like cresent form.

Take some foxtail leaves to cover the left side area, the more and more toward the center. If not like this, then the terracing technique is failed.

Take green cordyline leaves, again used the terracing technique.

2.       Take red cordyline leaves, used basing and terracing technique

Take 2 alokasia triangularis leaves or ‘tombak irian’, placed them high and in front of the green cordyline.

Put the simelaria and carnations in different groups, under the alokasia leaves

Place the red celosia between the ginger and curly futoy stems.

Add omprina to add depth so as not to be flat.

Take 2 green anthurium flowers, wired and then placed beside the front gingers.

Finally insert ruscus into the empty place so that the wet foam can be seen. Cut them short.

Done.

Up close look from the front side (image above) and from the back side (image below).

Note:

Pictures taken at the workshop by Andy Djati Utomo S.Sn, AIFD, CFD, on May 16^th, 2012 in Bandung, West Java.

American Style Flower Arranging (part 2)

The materials used to make the flower arrangement like this are snapdragon, gerberas, red and yellow celosia or cock comb and the foliage is anthurium leaf, red and green cordyline, futoy, alokasia or tombak Irian, justicia or rugball and ruscus.

And here’s the step by step tutorial:

1. Prepare a round ceramic vase of medium height (15 - 20 cm). Fill in with wet floral foam, cut the top but leave 1 - 3 cm from the mouth of the vase and then trim the edges.
2. Take a stem of snapdragon flower, measure the length approximately 3x the height of the vase, cut it. Then put it a bit in the middle, not in upright position but slightly skewed to the left. Do the same for the other two snapdragon but with different length, shorter than the first one.

Take 3 anthurium leaves, put it in sequence by using terracing techniques, give among them a bit distance so that not to stick together.

3. Take 4 pieces of red cordyline, fold three of them each in different length. First put the longest leaf approximately 135° toward the right opposite the direction of the anthurium leaves, after that do the same for the rest of the leaves, all lead toward the middle.
4. Take 3 pieces of green cordyline, now place them across from the red ones. Now the flowers arrangement has 3 dimensional look.

Take a gerbera, cut very short then attach at the front. From this one, do the same with the other four gerberas by using basing technique but in different height. 

Make all the gerberas facing upwards, so they look like flower protected by the other higher flowers.

1. Take some futoy stems (20-25 cm long), stick together by using wire, then place it in the middle of the arrangement. (You might need 2-3 skewers to do this)

Take 2 alokasia leaves then put them opposite direction to the snapdragon.

2. Take some red celosia, cut them short and place them at the front on the left side of the gerbera while on the right side filled with 2 snapdragon (cut shorter than the other snapdragon placed opposite)

Take 2 stems of yellow celosia, placed below the alokasia.

3. Last one, put justicia or rugball among yellow celosia, green cordyline, and red celosia. Then fill the empty place with foliage, cut it short to cover the floral foam. Make sure that there isn’t any floral foam seen, ok?
4. Done.

The flower arrangement seen from the front and side view.

Up close look (image above), the red and yellow celosia look fantastic while the justicia or rugball looks so cute, doesn’t it? It is alike yellow sisal.

Note:

Images taken at the workshop by Andy Djati Utomo S.Sn, AIFD, CFD, May 16th 2012, in Bandung.

A Simple Gift Flower

Now, if you all wondering what exactly we did on the flower workshop at Hero supermarket last month, this is it.

Tadaaa!!!! A very cute and simple gift flower!!! This flower arrangements can be used as gift or as home décor. This is a new trend in which the flowers put side by side very tightly so that you can not see any empty place or can’t see the wet foam inside.

The grandma seriously put the flowers altogether. Since there were not many kinds of flowers used, so it’s not expensive. All you need were a small ceramic vase, some daisies, white roses and few indian bracelets as accessories.

Here’s the step by step :

1.      Prepare the pot and put wet foam inside

2.    Cut lots of daisies in same length, arrange then in four corner first to determine the radius of the flower arrangement. That was the old method (European Style) that we usually did before but here, use the new method, just place the daisies very tightly around the the oasis. The last method’s easier and quicker than the previous one but you have to keep the daisies in the same direction otherwise you’ll get unsymmetrical flower arrangements as a result!! So, which method you choose is up to you.

3.      Just put all the flowers side by side until the pot filled. By putting the flowers tightly side by side, the flower arrangements become more sturdy and can not easily broken if coincidentally rough touched. But off course it needs more flowers to do this.

4.      This is the outcome, but just daisies will be boring, so

5.      Put 2 white roses as focal point. It would be better if you choose the blooming ones.

6.      Done and here’s the result!

This is the final look after the indian bracelet attached. Cute, isn't it? It’s simple, even the first timer in arranging flowers at the workshop all managed to do it, so we’re sure you can do it also. Do try this at home and stay tune for our next post…..

Simple Recycle Idea

To make a flower arrangements for home décor, most people will think of expensive vase, a beautiful complicated arrangements and so on. Well, there’s price, there’s quality. A unique, and artful vase is surely expensive, but yes, they will give an elegant touch to your home. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that a more affordable vase will surely look bad and cheapy as a décor. This arrangement is one proof of it. Made by using used sauce bottles, the flower arrangement will make your house look more lovely and also help save the earth by reducing waste! What a good idea!!!

To make this arrangement, you will need yellow fiji, another varian of chrysanthemum, ivy leaves, floral green plastic tubes and some wire. First, fill in the floral tube with water then put its cap tightly. Put the stem of ivy into the tube through the cap then make circles of ivy. Do this until the desired thickness and size then secure with wire. Then put three green bottles (you can use beer bottles, sauce bottles etc, but best in same size and colors and labels removed). Put the ivy circle on them, secure the bottles and ivy circle together with wire (must be strong enough so not to fall off). Last, put one fiji or chrysanthemum flower in each bottle…done!!

Here’s the close up look of the flower arrangements.

And here is another idea of arranging the chrysanthemums : first get a small plastic used-bottle (you can use plastic bottles for yoghurt or other kinds of drink), wrap it with colored tisue paper, and put some furry wire around it, secure the wire to a long branch. Do the same with the other bottles and branches.Then just put the chrysanthemums into it!! So, now you have a pots-tree-like with chrysanthemum flower in it.

Okay, stay tune for our next post!!

Pictures taken from Flower Arranging Demo at Hero Supermarket

Floral Designers: Mrs. Angelina, Mrs. Winny, and Mr. Okky

Our Community Easter Party

Yup, it’s custom flower project time…… It’s been a while since we're making the last custom project, but this time Floplus did it again!!!! It's for our church community Easter party. Well, post Easter actually, we made this flower pot arrangement, inspired by our workshop at Hero supermarket a few days before. In this arrangement we used daisies, roses, caspea, ivy and lily paris leaf. Lovely isn’t it?

Another view of the flower arrangement. For more details and pricing, please visit our webstore at www.floplus.com.

The party itself was held at Mrs. Yoke's house, quite a lot of us came, including the men and children. Since easter is identical with egg, there’s the egg decorating contest, in only 15 minutes… sheesh, so little time!! Since most of us are ladies, it’s not surprising that flowers are quite popular as decorating themes.

And here's all the participants' eggs!!!! They're about 25 decorated eggs on the console table. I chose a lotus flower theme with a bunny inside, while little Flo made the blue chicken. No.., not because she loves chicken, but because she wanted a décor theme that can be done quickly and use as little material as possible (smart girl!). 

The judge was supposed to be Annabelle, the baby girl, here shown she’s studying the row of decorated eggs. However, since she couldn’t decide, the judging job went to Mr. Chris, our choir teacher.

What’s a party without food? And this time it was the all Indonesian food party!!!

Thankful, our eggs went into the best ten and we both won prizes which consisted of snacks, chocolate and a reading glasses!!! And each people who was present seemed having such a fun time that day!!!!

The blue chicken which won prize made by little Flo, cute isn't it?