THE DAY OF LOVE & BLOOMS, FLOWER STORIES, SNOWDROPS & HEY WE ARE NOW AWAKE FOR SPRING! ...
Yep, we are back with a spring in our step so to speak with so many good stories for you this coming year.
We are starting off our Imbolc year in conversation with Terri from Worm Studio, yes of course we talk all things Valentines (we are leaning into the love!), we chat about Brigit and Queen Maeve & Irish flowers we loved to make for them, & of course we have all of our favourite GRÁ na BLÁTHANNA flavouring our floral world, inspiring us to intentionally make botanicals that sing Spring.
FLOWERS WE LOVED TO MAKE :
A FLOWER GATE OF FOLKLORE WHERE THE LAND MEETS THE SKY
“The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea,
And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say.
Angers that are like noisy clouds have set our hearts abeat;
But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet
Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.”
- From “Red Hanrahan’s Song About Ireland” – WB Yeats.
'Brigid represents the energy of the dawn, of new beginnings, hope and possibilities. At the festival of Imbolc when we celebrate Lá Fhéile Bhríde, Brigid's Day, the days are lengthening, the light is increasing. Hers is the energy we invoke to ignite the creativity that will birth new realities.'
- Mari Kennedy
This week, we know, the 1st February meant both the beginning of Imbolc and St Brigid’s Day. This seasonal festival marks the first day of spring in the Celtic Calendar; when the days grow longer and the weather becomes milder. The word Imbolc or Imbolg in Old Irish is generally accepted to mean “in the belly”, most likely in reference to the pregnant ewes that give birth in the spring. Bolg is the Gaeilge word for ‘belly’. In Ancient Ireland, Imbolc came to honour the Celtic Goddess, Brigid, (Brigit, Brighid, Bride, Bridget, Bridgit, Brighde, Bríd). Brigid was the Celtic Goddess of inspiration, healing, and smithcraft with associations to fire, the hearth and poetry. The word Brigid means “exalted one”. The root of her name, Brí, comes from the Indo-European meaning for female divinity. The Saint Brigid's Cross is one of the archetypal symbols of Ireland, while it is considered a Christian symbol, it may well have its roots in the pre-christian goddess Brigid. It is usually made from rushes and comprises a woven square in the centre and four radials tied at the end
I couldn't stop thinking about our Carrowmore shoot 5 years ago. After reading about Brigid & her many goddess & saintly forms, aswell as her powerful strength and care she gave to her land & countryside,
During our Blathanna flower frolics in Sligo, we built a hedgerow style gate where the land meets the sea & the images of it bring a togetherness of Brigid and Maeve in the mind... Snowdrops and whitethorn were both around that weekend to tell us that spring had finally sprung.
Native to Ireland, this bushy tree marks field boundaries and loves to hang around an archaeological site. Farmers leave it alone as it is known as ‘fairy thorn’ because it is considered bad luck from the fairies if cut down and has the magical power to last 400 years. Don’t worry, we minded this superstition but we ordered spirea to masquerade instead to create this ode in a gate to such a stunning stone circle. I wonder now if Brigid spread her cloak to mind these magical faerie trees too.
And of course serendipidity on our shoot would have it that we found a wonderful hedgerow beside the most perfect passage tomb in Carrowmore looking directly at Queen Maeve, herself buried in an unexcavated cairn on top of Knocknarea & frowned upon by Benbulben across the bay. Carrowmore 7 as it is known is a perfect dolmen surrounded by a full circle of stones & is a favourite amongst this great megalithic complex of ancient Ireland. This view was made especially special as no sign of modern living in electricity wires, poles or indeed houses are visible as you look through this stone framed space.
Feeling the forces of nature, mythology and legend as a gale blew around us, we ended up making 2 horizontal gates with a spring countryside feeling to channel the Fir Bolg warriors who were buried here after their battle in Moytura. We wanted to invite those legendary folk in. We also wanted to honour Queen Maeve who still stands fully armoured facing Ulster under 40,000 stones & we left a bunch of Irish lily-of-the-valley in the tomb to say thank you to the little folk for letting us play flowers in their field.
The magnitude of the moving air and the wobbliness of a Neolithic field surface made us work quickly by firstly creating a foliaged structure with winter skimmia to say goodbye to that season, Irish eucalyptus for a fragrant frolic.
Bunches and buckets were brought down a field lane, carried over barbed wire fences, chased after as the wind stole stems constantly and blew them down the field.
Each side of the gate had to match perfectly to mirror the tombs symmetry so masterfully made in Neolithic times. Spirea & ammi majus piled in frothing in the waves of wind. Then we added in fiery crocosmia and asclepia & deep furied red astilbe as if a nod to the strength of prowess of Queen Maeve standing tall and proud on her mountain above us. The delicate but silently strong blue delphinium & nigella were added in to illustrate our awe of the local sky and sea.
We caught our breaths laughing at the madness of our flower making situation but marvelling at the ancient magical landscape our gate opened into marking an end to our northwestern adventures in blooms.
And I have had the same thoughts as Emer McLysaght in the Irish Times this weekend who asked a valid question :
'If Brigid, thought to have died 1,500 ago this year, was suddenly catapulted to 2024, what would she make of us?
In my mind she is wearing an antique lace dress as armour by Simone Rocha for Jean Paul Gaultier looking fierce carrying a silver steel rose with a ribbon cloak for good measure.
& OUR SIOPA LOVE DAY STORIES
THE DAY OF LOVE, YES, VALENTINES DAY FAST APPROACHES ...
WEDNESDAY THE 14TH OF FEBRUARY FLOWER FRIENDS...
When did you last do it? Buy flowers ... that is!
We know it seems corny or mad, but this year we are inspired by the fact that The Beatles used the word 'love' in their lyrics 613 times so ...we're leaning in with our divine dancing blooms.
We want you to give flowers oh so pretty so that you are the reason your love smiles & walks into a pole (obviously we don't wish anyone to hurt themselves but you need to give flowers to pack a punch of love, like, lust)
HERE'S THE HOW :
From Saturday the 10th of February, we will have a shop full of flowers of love in all shapes, sizes and colours.
Deliveries to your favourite people of your heart will go from Monday 12th of February - and now the BUT!
ORDER SOONER IF YOU WOULD SPECIFICALLY LIKE US TO MAKE YOUR FAVOURITE VALENTINES BOUQUETS FOR COLLECTION OR DELIVERY SO THAT WE CAN RESERVE YOUR FLOWERS & REALLY HELP YOU SHOW THE LOVE!
HOW?
Order online HERE
Email us at cornelscourt@appassionata.ie - Call us at 01 6112444 - Pop in and chat through all you need…
AND
We will have Valentines cards, bunches, plants, gifts, bouquets, & the big boot-iful red rose bouquets in our store each day to grab & bring home to your one true love!
‘You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.’
Dr. Seuss
NATURE STUDIES : Terri Chandler, Worm
Terri Chandler and Katie Smyth are the Irish-duo behind WORM London, a creative floral design studio based in north-east London. Their wild displays are naturalistic, with touches of foraged beauty and folkloric sentiment. From fashion installations to considered wedding days to special weeks in The Garden Museum as well as publishing their wonderful book called ‘Wreaths’, Worm make a magical job of telling stories with flowers. We had a chat last week with Terri who has recently moved home & it was just brilliant to chat all things botanical with a floral artist we love :
1. As we gladly move towards Spring 2024, what flowers would you like to see used more frequently by florists?
Anything locally grown locally. I love the gentle tones that Spring brings in this part of the world, starting with gentle whites and pale yellows and slowly turning more candy coloured as the season evolves. It brings such a sense of hope with it. Here, look what’s yet to come!
2. Do you have any favourite flowers? What is your favourite flower season?
Spring. I think it’s because we haven’t been subject to flowers daily when out and about since October and suddenly seeing snowdrops, narcissi and muscari popping up is so exciting and such a mood lifter.
Summer is wonderful but standing underneath a mimosa tree in full flower in February, smelling the incredible scent has some magical power of blowing the cobwebs away.
3. What has been your favourite event to work on in the last 12 months and why?
We don’t tend to do much work abroad if it's going to be a sustainability disaster but we managed to make a wedding in Provence work last year. We were able to hire someone locally who helped us source what we needed and had a little studio on site at the venue which was Chateau la coste. The Chateau grounds are home to the most amazing sculptures by Calder and Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin and Sophie Calle, just to name a few and it was really inspiring to spend a week there sourcing and creating amongst so many great works of art. We got a local studio to make beautiful terracotta pots and got lots of locally grown plants that were planted on the grounds after the wedding. it was a really lovely and creative atmosphere and I think it showed in the work.
4. Who inspires you in creativity, design, floristry?
So many people and places, Moira Frith for use of colour, Lily Yeats, Derek Jarman. gardens like Great Dixter and Sissinghurst to name a few. I (Terri) have just relocated back to Ireland after 20 years in the UK and am so excited to explore some inspiring Irish gardens.
5. How do you think we can help our flower world move more sustainably?
Buying flowers in season from local growers. This is the most important thing. If it’s Spring or Summer then you will be able to access beautiful flowers, they don’t need to have got a flight from Ecuador to get to you. There are lots of Irish growers who sell cut flowers now and that is really brilliant.
Secondly, ditching floral foam. We haven’t used a piece of floral foam in 6 years, if we can’t make something without the use of it, we won’t make it. That has meant turning down jobs but it’s too important to us. Letting the seasons guide us makes us more sustainable without having to try too hard.
6. Where would be a dream location to create your favourite florals for?
I think we are more excited by themes. We love working to a theme or a narrative, and with that in mind it would be so lovely to design something that could be part of a set for a theatre or ballet piece, being part of a story on a stage.
7. Do you have any favourite flower books that you reference at all?
Yes! Constance Spry’s beautiful book called 'How to do the flowers’. The title alone is just brilliant, but her way with words about flowers in so inspiring. In the introduction she tells a story about a time that she is going to do flowers in a house and by the time she gets there using public transport she has hardly any flowers left giving them to charming characters she meets along the way. She says :
“That is one of the things flowers do for you, they break down barriers and make for friendliness, they crumble that wall of shyness that stands between so many English men and women, sometimes making their first reaction to a stranger hostile rather than friendly; you might call it the freemasonry of flowers”
8. What advice would you have for budding florists who are starting off?
Try to find your own style before adapting to someone else's. Going to get work experience with an established florist is really wonderful but I do think it conditions you to the style that you pick up there. Try messing around with garden or market flowers first and find your own style, your own sense of working with colour, shape and texture. Photograph your work and watch to see how your skills are growing. It’s always lovely to see a portfolio of someones own work than work they did that has a different brands identity.
WORM : https://www.weareworm.com/
BLÁTHANNA GRÁ - a gathering of all we loved this week :
IN LOVE : SIMONE ROCHA X JEAN-PAUL GAULTIER
In writing this piece, I actually went down a long visual tunnel combining Brigid, Maeve, Simone Rocha & her coutural interpretation of Jean Paul Gaultier's work.
She was the latest ‘guest‘ designer to be invited by Jean Paul Gaultier to bring her own spin to his remarkable legacy.
“Every piece really feels like me, but also feels very much in conversation with Mr Gaultier, which has been fabulous,” says Rocha. There’s an interesting dialogue, for instance, in the pieces based on hand-crocheted lace from Rocha’s home country. Gaultier used it often in his own collections, and it has always been fundamental to Rocha. But here, in one instance at least, she treats it with a degree of iconoclasm that would have done Jean Paul himself proud. “I knew I wanted to work with fragile, feminine intangible fabrics, but they needed something else hard running through them. This idea of the aluminium, the perfume can, became the root of the whole thing.” - Simone Rocha, The Business of Fashion
Starting with the accessories, Simone created earrings as umbellifer heads out of ivory beading, roses with their stems & leaves were recreated in silver casts & held by models along the sheet metal floor, crystal flower heads in the shape of a stephanotis head tattoed arms & sparkled on fabrics, the conical breast cups turned into upturned thorns.. And then the fabrics. How special it was to see Irish hand-crocheted lace interpreted with a feeling of iconoclasm after being lacquered in resin & dipped twice in metal. I imagined both pagan queens wearing the lace armour & moulded satins to inspire our people with strength and faith.
WATCH THE STUPENDOUS SHOW HERE
IN LIFE : A REST & RESET RETREAT
Last weekend, we went to the most nourishing days filled with a variety of yoga sessions, yoga nidra, sound healings & a Magic Earth cacao ceremony in the rural grandeur of settings, Lisnavagh House. I came back filled with sparkle & newness.
Síle & Clodagh have created a wonderful retreat space and we were fed with such good food by Emily. Due to our incoming lot of Hallmark Days, I unfortunately can’t make their next week but if you fancy it, book fast as these ladies will have a long waiting list.
Book via DM through Sile @thebodywhole / Clodagh @yoga_by_clodagh
IN WORDS : The Book of Do - A Manual for Living ed. Miranda West
We are longtime fans of The Do Series and drink the words of David Hieatt most days. Santa brought this book this year - the 50 photographs, 30 illustrations, 8 lists, 6 recipes, 4 diary entries, and hundreds of ideas around business, creativity, resilience and wellbeing have formed the perfect compilation for helping us make change in the flower world we do.
As Dick Dastardly says, 'Don't just stand there, do something!' And after our Hallmark Day interruptions, we will certainly be working towards making Appassionata more creative and sustainable so that all of you can have a better built flower and plant life.
IN MUSIC - Daily Listening to Mystery Train - John Kelly - LyricFM
We're not going to lie. It takes time to gear ourselves up after the December madness and the lurgy & melancholy of January with our impending Hallmark days approaching. BUT listing to Mystery Train each day from the night before gives such solace and joy to the soul.
It's also just a joy to hear such a radiant rollercoaster of music accompanied by John Kelly's dulcet conversation and tones. And the playlist is listed daily so we are often going down another music tunnel by researching music artists & then following their journey too. Try it out, the show will bring you around the world in past, present & tunes & keep you inspired as you daily al desko or divine ideas each day.
A SEASONAL SELECTION
What better thing to do than visit swathes of snowdrops to bring spring to your eyes even more. Three of our favourite gardens are hosting Snowdrop Trails where you can go visit and absorb the joy of the delicate white and green blooms peeping through the cold ground.
You might even pick up an addiction to snowdrops as you bump into fellow galanthopiles (an enthusiastic collector and identifier of snowdrop (Galanthus) species and cultivars) in these gardenscapes so close to us.
VISIT THESE SPECIAL PLACES HERE
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - A THINKING THOUGHT :
THE SUN
'Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?
by Mary Oliver