Thoughtful Gifting, Inspired by Nature
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HOW TO
MAKE A WILD ARRANGEMENT
Interview by Diana Keeler | Photography Sean Jerd
BLOOMIST COLLABORATOR LOUESA ROEBUCK IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE FORAGED FLORA MOVEMENT. LEARN HOW TO MAKE SHOWSTOPPING WILD ARRANGEMENTS IN 6 EASY STEPS
Small or large, Louesa Roebuck’s foraged arrangements are famous for their natural drama. Here, she walks us step-by-step through creating a showstopper arrangement — from the best mindset for choosing flowers and other flora to working with larger arrangements and creating structure and weight with frogs
1. SELECT THE RIGHT FEW ELEMENTS
Just like at the fishmonger or the farmers’ market with cooking, it all starts with selecting the best ingredients. I use the analogy that if you have a beautiful piece of halibut, all you need is good olive oil, lemon, and salt. If you have too many ingredients, it can become confusing. It’s the same in the floral world – err on the side of fewer ingredients.
2. DETERMINE WHICH VESSEL TO USE
If you have beautiful work, you have to have a beautiful vessel. I’ve always collected vintage and outsider art vessels that I find beautiful, and I am lucky to have family pieces I treasure and use. My work is very much about being site-specific — it’s problematic to me from a design standpoint to construct offsite, transport, and plop something down. I encourage people to discover what vessels look good in their homes, in each rooms and for each event. Yuko Sato is a brilliant Japanese-American potter.
I’ve collected her work for years and years. I adore her old-world craft and sly sense of humor. She throws almost all of the ceramics used at Rintaro, and I call on her for my most discerning clients and events. Her work is honest and ancient feeling, beyond trend. I love to use culinary vessels in my work: teapots, sushi trays, soy pots something unexpected. Yuko’s work has become the backbone of my collection.
3. BEGIN WITH THE BONES
Keep it simple. Observe the negative space. Start with the big bone structure, then work down to the medium and small bits. As you move from large to medium to small to tiny, you will more effectively use all of your carefully selected ingredients. And make sure you always have something aberrant — you want a dangling passion vine, or a rose that’s already past its prime, or a slightly decayed persimmon or garish poppy. Don’t be afraid of a little camp.
Start with the branches that are the biggest, the most beautiful, and that have the most poetic curvature.
4. THINK BIG
I think people are fearful about scale — they’ll get afraid of a piece tipping over; just start with a heavy vessel. The work begins in the cut — if you’re foraging or gleaning, once you cut something, you can’t make it longer, so err on the side of curvaceous and tall. When you’re building your arrangement, start with the branches that are the biggest, the most beautiful, that have the most poetic curvature.
6. CREATE STRUCTURE WITH FROGS
Frogs are a really great way to create structure.There are countless vintage frogs out there. They’re beautiful as objects in your house, and they’re a great way to create structure for your arrangement.I have more than a love of frogs — I have a hatred of floral foam. Floral foam is extremely toxic and basically never breaks down in the ocean. Most florists use floral foam to create structure — I’ve never used it, because it’s toxic on many levels, including not breaking down in our oceans. I believe in a more ikebana approach, using gravity and the form of the flora to create structure.