Well
the eagerly anticipated email arrived in my inbox on the 20th March,
it had been a month long wait with speculation of what this years brief would
be, would we be as pleased as we were with the dress schedule or would it
horror of horrors be something we hated… the wait was over it was…
Design and create a fantasy floral
tree to celebrate 150 years of Alice in Wonderland, the tree was to be inspired
by Tulgey woods and we were encouraged to be imaginative and creative whilst adhering
to the rules of at least two thirds fresh flower and plant material and strictly
no artificial flowers to be used.
Once
again my designing process started with internet searches, watching the films
and building up a mood boards of inspiration.
Now
this tree could be a whopping 3m high and 1 ½ meters wide so my first thought was that it needs to be made in pieces that could for one allow me to get it
through doors and get it to fit
and travel in a van to London. It also
needed to be sturdy – didn’t want to cause a domino effect where the falling of
my tree managed to wipe out the other 13 exhibitors tree’s like a fatal
lumberjacking accident.
So
this brought up the question of how do I
make it? I mean how on earth do you go about making a tree?!? Cue a trip to
B&Q where I bought a fence post, decking boards and bannisters and some
metal threaded rod, I’d been inspired by
the basic construction of a bird table base! To help with the balance issue I decided
to opt for a tree that was symmetrical, a square fence post meant four branches
and four roots and gave actual weight to
the base to avoid the dreaded topple effect.
The
roots were made by fixing the square banister poles at an acute angle ( 2 different angles to vary the
heights) to a cross of decking boards forming the base. The branches were added at two
different heights to the sides & the top of the fence post by drilling a hole
and sitting on the threaded rod. The rod
had also been fed through a drilled hole in the fence post trunk, held in place
by nuts. The result was a very basic tree structure.
To
add to my five armed structure, four arms and a top section I used very long
screws as an anchor point to build on with lengths of wire that were taped into
place with good old floristry pot tape -
boy that stuff is strong. This created the
final ‘bones’ of my tree's skeleton.
Next
was adding ‘muscle’ onto the ‘bones’ of my tree, my first thought was paper
mache but juggling this epic tree with a 5 month old baby I decided this would be
too time consuming & messy so my friend google came up with the answer…. Paverpol! Fabric
sculpture was going to be a new technique to me, but it meant I could add form
to my structure by using tin foil, mess free, quick, no drying time, could add
very thick layers, it was the ideal solution. To add a natural element to the
structure I added palm mule rings at the
branch junctions ,held in place by that
super strong pot tape again.
After
my ‘muscle’ was complete the tree needed a final ‘skin’ this was going to be the
fabric element of the fabric sculpture. Tearing narrow strips of brown cotton I
wrapped each individual branch, starting at the tips and tucking the ends in as
I went ( the same technique as ribboning a wired bouquet!) . Each subsequent piece
of fabric held the previous piece in place so very little gluing or mess was
made. Many nights followed sat on the sofa twinning fabric around wire and tin
foil until the whole structure was now brown. I then coated my fabric in paverpol, which I had slightly
diluted with water and brushed on, turning my soft fabric into a crispy shell (still flexible enough to bend and shape the branches a little more if needed).
I added texture by using another art inspired product – crackle glaze - smearing it on in rough patches and rapidly drying, a technique known as demented derma. I added tones of brown with acrylic paint and spray paint and a slight shimmer with a fabulous green metallic wax. Finally a few top coats of varnish seal the layers and stop water tarnishing the design, also enabling me to use my tree as a garden sculpture after Chelsea. Theres nothing worse than spending weeks and weeks making something for it then to become useless, I love a reusable structure!
The
next thought process is how to add flowers to the design, well I’d been
inspired by the film and also by bonsai tree’s where there is a pillow of
foliage sprouting from the branches. So how to make them? Well I’d seen on
social media some fabulous designs by Ignacio Canales Aracil a Spanish artist who
creates structures with pressed flowers and I wanted to use this effect. Time
wasn’t on my side so I had to find a way
to create a similar effect in a shorter period, I also wanted a fuller style.
Cue the powers of Pavorpol yet again.
Making The Canopy
Ingredients;
a mister spray filled with 75% pavorpol
and 25% water. This creates my glue to knit the textures together. A bowl of the same pavorpol and water mixture.
Selection of dried flowers ( I had bougainvillea, leonotis, broom bloom, oak
leaves, hydrangea, grasses), Tillandsia moss, sisal (orange, cerise and
burgundy)
Method
·
Tease out a bundle of the tillandsia and soak
with the pavorpol mister, scrunch together so fully coated in the solution but
not drenched ( no extra liquid)
·
Tease out again into the vague shape
required.
·
Add fine strands of the dry sisal over the
top, then the grasses
·
Dip the broom bloom in the solution bowl and
shake to remove excess fluid
·
Place on the tillandsia nest in a radial
arch, repeat with the petals and flowers again soaking in the solution until
covered but not soaking.
·
Add another fine veil of tillandsia over the
top
·
The final layer is a thoroughly soaked fine
veil of tillandsia.
·
Leave to dry for a few days.
As
you can imagine this was a time consuming job, especially considering I made
over 40 of these! I again sealed with a layer or two of varnish as the pavorpol
discolours with water unless sealed and I’d want to spray the flowers to keep
them fresh. The canopy pieces were fixed onto the branches with reel wire at
various points.
Next
i added the finishing details , I had created a porch out of individual pieces of fir cones
and a little door – this would become the dormouse house at the base.
Now
apart from a few of the animals I wanted to keep the alice in wonderland theme
simple so I chose to concentrate on the suits of the playing cards. Using large
cookie cutter shapes I bent and formed aluminium wire into hearts, clubs,
diamond and spades and filled with a layer of cocoas fibre, covering again in
pavorpol to stop the fibre shedding and splitting. I also had small charms
attached to a fabulous multi toned and varied thickness of wool.
The
final step was the flowering of the canopy which included over 10 boxes of
stunning vanda orchids, tray upon tray
of phalaenopsis orchids, various houseplants and succulents and also the humble
chrysanthemum!
In
the end the tree had evolved to incorporate all four seasons in the one design.
The tendrils of the wool, tillandsia and amaranthus symbolized spring catkins,
the bountiful flowers symbolized summer, the dried canopy, colour scheme and
berries were autumn and the bare
branches winter.
The
seniors were competing at the beginning of the week this meant flowering Friday
and Saturday, loading and travelling to London Sunday morning and setting up at
the show on the Sunday afternoon. We were allowed 6 hours to unload, set up and
add finishing touches, which silly ole me thought would be oodles of time, alas
it was not and the evening ended with me drastically running out of time and
barking crazed orders to my poor helper.
Watching
the others unloading their designs I had a fierce moment of doubt and was
constantly mumbling to poor Jon that everyone had created such weird and
wonderful designs and all I had was a blooming tree, that looked just like a
tree. Cue crazy doubts that lasted all night and Monday too, had I kept it too
simple in style? Was it too subtle in theme? Luckily Tuesday came with good news that I’d won gold with a very healthy 93% and three
points from Leong Leong who was crowned Best in show and Chelsea florist of the
year 2015. The year of the dress was fab as every single exhibitor won a medal
that was silver and above, this year was not such a happy event with only half
the exhibitors gaining a medal. I was one of only two golds, there were 3
silver gilts and 2 bronze.
Showing
what a challenging brief it had been this year, which i'm thrilled to have been a part of and done
so well at.
