Bringing you flower lasting glimmers to brighten this grey week
Your Thursday morning coffee read!
‘February is the border between winter and spring’ - Terri Guillements
Ahoy there, we made it out of the Love Tunnel and are nearly back to ourselves. A million thanks to you Flower Lovers and of course your Lovers for all the Valentines support, it was great to see so many of our regular men bringing home bunches to you, their one true love. We so so appreciate you choosing us to make your favourite blooms.
And that brings me to this week’s drop… Perhaps it is the forced commerciality of Valentines Day, perhaps it is the dogged & sometimes aggressive debates on social media about sustainability in the flower world, perhaps it’s just that we need to just stop and mindfully appreciate the magic of botanical nature…all of the stories this week literally appeared as my brain drove itself over in thought. Each one explores the ephemeral nature of flowers in it’s own way. I hope that they give you as much (flower) food for thought as the green energy they gave me to start moving on into happy bright days of Spring. I hope also that this set of floral stories gives good glimmering amidst these far too grey days that need to go. I hope the third time I use this verb, that the sun comes back from his holiday soon because so many more bulbs in the garden need to bloom including myself!
And now this week :
Did you ever think Jeff Leatham, world renowned floral artist would demonstrate how to make Lego bouquets or have you had the privilege to wander through Rebecca Louise Law’s cascades of preserved flowers? If you have weekend plans, why not visit a wonderfully curated exhibition called ‘All Flowers in time bend towards the Sun’ in Dublin Castle & see how these Coolree vessels cured a grey day this week. Kristen Gvy tells Drew Barrymore the true purpose of flowers & then we find inspiration in words & song yet again.
And as always, let us know if you would like anything featured or if you already have a favourite flower story. It is always lovely to hear from you. Hope you enjoy this morning’s coffee read. Ruth X
SOME FLOWER STORIES -
A gathering of all we spotted this week whilst working in our store of seasonal blooms :
IN LEGO - JEFF LEATHAM BINDS BUNCHES MADE OF OUR FAVOURITE BRICKS
Perhaps I am behind the curve but just thought I should have a look at the Lego Botanicals launch so strongly vying with real flowers at the moment. First of all, Jeff Leatham, a florist I have met and admired since I started flower school in McQueens London is now a Lego Brand Ambassador. Then, Jeff has just launched his first book 'Flowers by Jeff Leatham' and it was the introduction to my seeing how single varieties of blooms could be bound, bent over, manoeuvred and leaned to create drama, volume and impact, I was hooked. Luckily I was able to fill my Jeff Leatham cup by visiting the Four Seasons George V in Paris each time I went to a trade show and then finally got to meet the man himself over dinner in Brown Thomas at 9 months pregnant with nearly fourteen year old Roman!
So...it was a big surprise in one way to find Jeff emulating his favourite forms of display for Lego Botanicals. This collection does look fun, I think I am finally over my scars of building bricks for hours with the kids and piercing my feet with the pieces as they lay exploded unexpectedly on our floors. Lego have created this considered range to help us all express our creativity in new exciting ways with plants and flowers. The idea is that then you have flowers that live forever with minimal care and plants that can't be killed even by the least greenfingered/overwaterers amongst you!
I do admire the thought and production by Lego - here is a video where they explain how they designed the Wildflower collection using already created Lego shapes and it is all so beautifully earnest full of flower love.
I love the way Lego for their range “Le Florist”, have studied florist websites and social media channels to really recreate flower shops, flower stands, creative flower shots, floral descriptions and how to make flowers into bouquets and more.
The 8 minute video with Jeff Leatham is gorgeous, there is a vibrant floral set and space and Jeff the floral artist that he is really brings in the meaning of flowers to him and the essence of what creating flowers for people is all about. He interestingly mixes up actual real flowers with the Lego varieties and highlights the intricate details of each brick built flower and stem. Bravo Jeff Leatham and Lego for coming up with a whole new way to look and make with the world of flowers. I am biased when I say that I prefer the real thing but I do think that one of these Lego flower sets would bring lots of mindful time of joy and creativity especially in these far too grey February days.
IN SAATCHI LONDON - REBECCA LOUISE LAW CREATES 'LA FLEUR MORTE'
Just open this week in The Saatchi Gallery London is another exploration in floral presence within our contemporary culture. The focus is on how flowers have been used as symbols, metaphors, in stories & myths, as messages and meanings...there are 500 unique artworks, all exploring different themes…
‘I look at a preserved flower and I see time.
I see survival.
I see life.
And I see death.
But there is a spiritual place.
In-between.
A place we can connect.
A place we can value.
A place we can stop.
And think.
And be.’
Rebecca Louise Law
Only one room is dedicated to a bespoke installation display of 100,000 dried flowers by Rebecca Louise Law with flowers prepared by participants in workshops in the exhibition space.
‘Using the dead flower as my sculptural material has enabled me to explore our capitalist culture and our insatiable appetite for more. I began collecting flowers in 2003 with waste flowers from the commercial flower industry. As well as this resource, many flowers in my archive have been donated from gardens all over the world and today I grow my own. I never throw any flowers away and I collect the floral dust that falls while I install. Valuing what the earth provides us, is paramount in my works ethos’.
Rebecca is renowned for her immersive installations using preserved flowers and strives to give each flower head the same importance as a paint stroke. From 2003, she started to dry her exhibition flowers in her initial showspaces, always saving them to use in future sculptures and installations. Her commitment to sustainability let her to collect every flower, dust particle, petal and then to keep them to use again.
'She now has a collection of over 1 million preserved flowers exhibiting in the USA, 250,000 flowers exhibiting in Asia and Australia and a collection of over 500,000 flowers exhibiting in Europe. This body of material keeps growing and with each new exhibition an extra layer of flowers is added to the existing material. Any dust left after installing an artwork is swept up, archived and encased in glass frames.'
Rebecca now not only creates installations from flowers she grows and gathers herself as she adds to her vast preserved collection of blooms - this means that each exhibition increases in immersion. Visitors can feel, touch, walk through and experience the colours, forms, textures and really engage with the artist's theme.
‘A dried flower holds time. A fresh flower holds a moment, and both are equally special. The beauty of a dried flower is being able to revisit it and observe it as a preserved object of the earth, a perfect form of nature that holds onto its fragility.’
What I love is that Rebecca treasures each flower, each petal, she brings the ephemeral nature of cut flowers to a halt by fixing it's blooming in time through preservation. Her focus on community taking part in her process also dissolves any anxiety about approaching art as each person is so proud of their involvement in her explorations of the human connection to nature and the life cycles there with.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT REBECCA LOUISE LAW HERE
IN DUBLIN CASTLE - ALL FLOWERS IN TIME BEND TOWARDS THE SUN
This exhibition title is taken from an unreleased song by Jeff Buckley & Elizabeth Fraser & is a curation of a diverse group of artists showing in The Coach House at Dublin Castle from this week. Paul Hallahan & Lee Welch have brought painters, sculptors, photographers & installation artists for this show which explores oppositions between fragility and strength, interpretations of the landscape & the natural world versus an exploration of identity and migration, a juxtaposing of reality and imagination.
The idea is that we as attendees, are invited 'to reflect on the complexities of existence, illustrating how these dualities, far from being strictly oppositional, are deeply intertwined—each bending towards the other like flowers reaching for the sun.'
Hallahan & Welch have brought together a fantastic foray of artists from our contemporary landscape including an Appassionata friend, Adrian O'Carroll whose sensory photography evokes such a calm & detailed observation of sights we all might walk through or past without his eye.
'All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun is an exhibition that we, Paul Hallahan and Lee Welch, have curated to explore the nuanced tensions between fundamental dualities that shape both art and life. Inspired by the layered contrasts in Flann O’Brien’s writing—such as rural versus urban, reality versus imagination, and seriousness versus humour—we’ve brought together a diverse group of artists who each engage with these opposing forces in their own distinct ways. Through painting, sculpture, installation and video, the artworks converge on the central theme of duality, examining how these contrasts coexist and often rely on one another.'
https://heritageireland.ie/whats-on/all-flowers-in-time-bend-towards-the-sun/
IN COOLREE WE GLIMMER - THE PERFECT VASE FOR BUDDING BULBS SA GHAIRDÍN
Gosh, with the sunshine-no-show the last while, there are hardly any budding bulbs to choose from. As a florist, I barely have cut flowers at home as they all go to yours…but I do love to have flowering plants which my planted bulbs should be right now. Queue this cool SPUN flower vase from Coolree I have just ordered for my very own…Made from solid hardwood in quirky colours and natural too, I being me have chosen the orange punky bright so that I can plop whatever decides to bloom it’s head to enjoy al desko whilst we plan out our Appassionata Spring ahead. It’s the little things and details that make the day shine me thinks.
IN TV LAND - KRISTEN GVY TELLS DREW BARRYMORE ABOUT THE WHY OF BLOOMS
Florists of the world unite, I so love how Kristen tells the flower truth and how the why of flowers is suddenly taken to heart by Drew Barrymore. Yay!
IN MUSIC - A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO TALOS
This tribute to Eoin French of Talos played around my head as I did anything I needed to do with the love flowers last week. I thought that this special piece on The Tommy Tiernan Show was so moving and beautiful and showcased the wonderful work of the too early gone Talos to perfection. The melodic harmonies are heaven, please listen.
‘We Didn't Know We Were Ready was written by Ólafur Arnalds, Eoin French, Niamh Regan and Ye Vagabonds, who performed the song with Jófríður Ákadóttir, Kate Ellis, Sandrayati Fay, Steph French, Dermot Kennedy, Laoise Leahy, Memorial, The Staves and Christof van der Ven’ - RTE.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - OUR WEEKLY GLIMMER:
“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size” - Gertrude S. Wister