How does the dried flower wreath workshop work?
To be completely honest, I didn't expect such a place when I pushed the front door! Chairs hanging from the ceiling, rolls of fabric everywhere... It's a rather unusual place to take a floral art class. Lisa, the hostess, tells me that we are in the workshop of her father, an upholsterer and decorator. So it's all self-explanatory. On the large table in the centre of the room are all kinds of flowers and foliage, offering a wide range of colours and textures.
To discover
- January: what vegetables and fruits are in season?
Lisa explains that they can be dried naturally or stabilized. The latter technique consists of immersing them in a solution based on vegetable glycerin to increase their shelf life and add colour, sometimes very bright, to them. So I'm going to have to work with different varieties of plants: sprigs of eucalyptus, hydrangea, gypsophila, broom bloom, limonium (or statice), phalaris, immortelle... I have to make small bouquets that I will then attach to a bamboo ring to create my wreath.
Good to know
Where? : 8, rue Gonnet 75011 ParisHow much? 59 €Who? From 15 years oldContacts: sauje.com; contact@sauje.com; 06 49 63 21 08Workshop: wecandoo.fr
Choosing the right textures and colours
The first step consists of a simple sorting of the flowers that will go into the composition of the small bouquets. I make a wide selection of colors, based solely on my tastes and desires. By experimenting with blending tones, I reduce the number of flowers selected to keep only those that go well together. It took me a little while but it's decided, there will be blue, green, red, white, yellow, gold... I check in with Lisa, who gives me some advice on how to best balance the shades of my future bouquets. I will have to make between 5 and 7 in order to cover half of the bamboo ring (20 cm in diameter) of the wreath.
The flowers can be dried naturally or stabilized. Eric Beracassat for Le Particulier Vie pratique
How do I assemble the elements on the crown?
It took me a little time, though, to make my 6 bouquets. The idea is not to do the same one every time, but to stay in identical shades to maintain a certain harmony of colors. Lisa takes a quick look at my work, makes a few small adjustments so that I can take the next step. It is now a matter of attaching the bouquets to the bamboo ring, to form the half-crown. The first 5 are hung in the same direction, overlapping each other to hide the unsightly stems. They are, too, held together by floral tape. The last one is placed in the opposite direction, to facilitate the junction.
Fine-tune the finishing touches
No matter how hard I try to arrange the wreath by replacing the flowers as best I can, I can't fill the remaining area between the last two bouquets. Lisa then suggests that I choose between a hydrangea head and an immortelle flower to cover this empty space. I opt for the second one and fix it with hot glue. All you have to do is wait a few seconds, the time it takes to dry, and you're done.
The first 5 bouquets are fixed in the same direction on the ring, only the last one is placed upside down. Eric Beracassat for Le Particulier Vie pratique
What is the outcome of this workshop?
I had the chance, as part of this column, to learn the techniques of composing a bouquet of cut flowers. Thanks to Julia and Lisa's workshop, I discovered a new world, that of dried flowers. While there are some similarities in the techniques, the approach differs, as the ephemeral aspect is much less present. There is also a soothing side to working with this material, to thinking about the harmony of the shades. It's a really nice time, very relaxing.