Favored Materials for Wearable Floral Designs
Reliable foliage and flowers to use in long-lasting corsages, sturdy flower crowns, all-day boutonnieres, and floral jewelry.
The challenge of a florist is to create perfectly-timed art out of natural, fleeting elements. Wearable flowers are one of my primary areas of interest and what I focus on as a “studio florist” and teacher. It’s safe to say that I am obsessed with The Art of Wearable Flowers.
These artful requests are incredibly rewarding to create, but require material knowledge and engineering know-how — especially if one intends to create artful pieces out of unexpected ingredients.
I depend on long-lasting, sturdy (naturally dried or fresh) materials - reliables - to execute these designs so that they look great for the length of the event they’ll be worn for. With these hard-working materials as my primary elements, I can focus on the artistry of the pieces and worry less about them wilting.
Longevity factors for wearables
When one is making wearable floral pieces - long-lasting corsages, sturdy flower crowns, all-day boutonnieres, fresh floral jewelry and more - one typically removes the stems completely, so stem sag is not a concern.
The concern is hydrating the surface of the petals and leaves of the design elements to keep the piece looking fresh for the amount of time it’ll be worn. For a typical event + testing, I estimate this to be about 7-8 hours. To create these pieces I utilize long-lasting materials that I know will perform well, but I also incorporate more delicate materials and boost them in the hydration chamber.
Different designs, different needs…
Large-scale installations are a bit different, but I do enjoy comparing them to wearables. I see them as corsages for a room, as they too are only meant to last the length of their event. Also unlike wearables, stem-length is important to the success of these large-scale designs. In order to achieve an abundant look and size designers often want to maintain as much stem length as possible.
Similarly though, I lean heavily on reliables for crafting installations, because I don’t want the design to depend on weighty, cumbersome, costly, wasteful, or time-consuming hydration methods.
Please test on your own and share what you’re loving by tagging me @passionflowersue on social media!
Ready to go further?
For more on the hydration chamber, and how to make your own floral wearables, check out my book “The Art of Wearable Flowers,” and my extensive library of self-paced online classes.