Uncategorized

“Collaboration”, the 2008 AIFD (American Institute of Floral Designers) symposium just took place July 5-7 at the Chicago Hilton in beautiful downtown Chicago.  It was my first time attending a flower meeting, and boy was it different from all the scientific meetings I attended as a graduate student!  It felt like I had walked into one big happy family reunion, and despite me being a first-timer, I received a warm reception and everyone I met was friendly and lovely to talk to.  The number one goal for these symposiums is education and I was floored by the creativity and incredible openess of how each world class designer presenter revealed how he or she made a particular arrangement or installation.  There were demonstrations and after each program, attendees are able to photograph and visually inspect each work closely.  There were no unplublished data to protect and no competitors to dispute.  I could ask anyone any question about his or her business, designs, or methods, and he or she would answer truthfully granting me incredible advice.  It was perfect for a newbie like me and I learned so much!  Everyone was there to help each other out, to network, learn, and further advance the floral industry.

Here are some pictures from two of the fancy dinners – the inaugural dinner for the new AIFD inductees and the final night’s dinner:

A couple of weeks ago I checked out the Living Flowers Ikebana and Contemporary Art exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. This special exhibit started June 15 and will continue until September 7, 2008 and showcases the different ikebana styles of the Ikenobo, Ohara, and Sogetsu schools. The ikebana will continue to change throughout the exhibition, so you should go back periodically to see the new works of art! I was particularly floored by the more modern works presented in the Sogetsu style. Since photography was not allowed, I had to sneakily take these pictures using my phone (sorry for the quality!)

I loved the clean and modern look of the arrangements. Going through the exhibit inspired me to learn and practice ikebana – which roughly means to “bring life to flowers”. Flowers are dead when they are cut and are given new life when they are arranged. Interesting, neh?

Anyway, so I really liked the modern and gutsy ikebana arrangements from the Sogetsu school of thought and looked online for classes and workshops offered by Sogetsu. Not too much in the way of online information for the Los Angeles branch (like a website) but there’s a list of all the local branches of Sogetsu listed on the Japanese website. For learning for the first time and practicing, I think I would like to take a class offered by UCLA extension taught by Kyoko Kassarjian, who holds the highest teaching rank of riji by the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in Japan. They are offering the intermediate level course for summer 2008, so hopefully they will offer beginner again in the fall! In the meantime, I plan to go back to the museum to see different Living Flowers ikebana!!

Cowabunga, branches are hot! Flip through a Pottery Barn or West Elm catalog, or go to a wedding here in Southern California, and chances are you’ll see some branches. In the home, they give a very organic and rustic-urban feel. Many types come sand-blasted for that clean, modern look. Branches seem to look good everywhere! Just by itself on a coffee table, on a dresser as a way to display jewelry, or mixed with flowers in an arrangement – the uses are endless!

There’s a wholesaler called “Wasabi-Green” in the Southern California Flower Market in downtown Los Angeles that sells a nice variety of manzanita and ghostwood branches as well as other types. They also carry shells, mosses, pods, and a variety of dry natural items from land and sea. Outside of the market, there are a few additional wholesalers that carry branches. In particular, on the corner of 8th and Wall, there is an interesting wholesaler called Unique Sarah Total Floral with tons of branches piled up high against the windows – you can’t miss it! They have many beautiful branch arrangements on display and for sale – it’s a lot of fun just to walk around the shop.

Since I am trying to keep my retail prices on the lower end as I am just starting out, I wanted to find an even cheaper source for branches. If possible, I wanted to buy them from the people who the wholesalers downtown ordered from. And that’s how I stumbled upon one of the most amazing and fun shops here in SoCal – Roland’s of California in Rancho Cucamonga!

Yesterday I took a trip out to “BRancho” (says Hubby) for Roland’s awesome June sale, where everything in stock is 15% off! I had to share the wonderful experience of Roland’s with someone, so dragged Hubby out with me. Rancho Cucamonga is about 50 miles east of Santa Monica, a straight shot down the 10 freeway. After passing downtown LA, the yummy Chinese food of the San Gabriel Valley, and the mega car dealerships of Covina, you arrive deep in the heart of the Inland Empire.

Rolands of California is at 8758 9th St, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. There is a main building that houses the shop where you can see all the great decorative wood, dried and preserved flowers, pods, and mushrooms, as well as silk flowers and containers. There are two other large buildings for employees only where I assume they keep their stock and do the cutting, sorting, and sand-blasting. When you walk into the main shop, it’s like stepping into a fantasy garden. And the people who work there are so very nice! Hubby enjoyed the chips, dip, cake and water!

In addition to the food, there’s an amazing assortment of wood…

Dried flowers…

Dried pods (so cool)…

And other fun things like lafta balls!

We left with a car full of manzanita branches and other fun stuff!

The other goodies:

It was a successful trip – I only wish I had gotten more stuff!