Floristry is a unique discipline that requires creativity, technical skill, and patience. Too often, new florists give up on their dreams when their first bouquet doesn’t have the impact of one from a professional florist. There is nothing wrong with the beginner’s work. It just needs to be improved. And, like everything else, this means practice.
There are various things that must be practiced if you want to improve your skill in floristry.
1. Handling Flowers
Not all flowers respond well to cutting, pulling, bending, or other processes that may be needed to make arrangements. Some are more delicate than others, and handling them too harshly results in bruising and other damage. The better you handle flowers when first taking them out of the box, the more they will last. Practice will help you recognize each flower’s requirements and learn how to best handle them.
2. Arrangement Techniques
When first learning to arrange flowers, you may find it tricky to know how to layer flowers, what focal points to use, and so on. Practice will help you see the right way to layer, how to balance a bouquet, how to create depth, and more.
You will inevitably make some mistakes, but with time, those mistakes will teach you the things that work and what doesn’t, such as if stems are too short, a bouquet feels unbalanced, or colors clash.
3. Composition Guidelines
While there are guidelines to follow when arranging, composition takes experience and practice. If you have a hard time with knowing when and how to use structure, proportion, and spacing, this comes with practice. The more you do it, the better you will become. After a while, you will just see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to how flowers look with one another. This cannot be taught; it must be learned by doing.
4. Combining Flowers
Experimenting with various color combinations and textures is another way to improve floristry skills. You will eventually learn which flowers look best together and how to combine colors in aesthetically-pleasing ways, or use them to create a contrast, for example. The more you try, the better you will become with finding the most interesting ways to combine colors and textures.
5. Problem Solving
Floristry practice will also help you become a problem solver when it comes to your arrangements. If flowers arrive damaged, if a stem is too short, if a bloom simply refuses to cooperate, and so on, practice will help you figure out how to deal with this and not lose your cool or ruin your design. You’ll learn which tools to use and how to adjust the arrangement when you’re stuck, and it will all be because you kept practicing.
Confidence
Practice helps build confidence as well. With every arrangement you make, your skill level will grow. Once you learn the ropes and start to create, your self-belief will grow as well. You’ll stop depending on tutorials and feel free to design whatever you want.
It’s for these reasons, and many more, that we encourage students in our course to practice. Practice is the best way to learn the craft. By using our course to practice flower arrangement, you can become a better florist with every attempt.