Main Entry Image (click to enlarge)

Sustainability Statement

‘Focusing largely on Sustainability & Community my aim of this challenge is to inspire all of us to reconnect with each other & our environment.

For event work it is important for me, to first & for most, meet the event brief as follows: Design an indoor semi-permanent installation to be enjoyed over the duration of an entire Flower & Garden Festival (18 days) in late winter.

Design with a message & consider using foraged botanicals, visitor interaction with the display, scent & sound.

Guidelines: No floral foam, bleached or unnaturally dyed material, minimal plastics & wastage.

Festival supply: Flowering potted tulips.

For ease of assemblage on the day, I recycled a wrought iron chair & pre weaved ivy vine in a free form technique guaranteed to last months in form on the chair, selecting dried flax flowers, palm leaves & sticks for base structure, all held in place with ivy vine. The longevity of seasonally, freshly picked greenery from my garden, included flax, asparagus fern, xanadu, aspidistra, ruscus & cycad ferns all placed into water containers hidden behind the chair. In addition, I used three glass water jars wired to the back of the chair for upper greenery placements ensured reliable freshness. Tulip plants, wrapped in paper bark, dodder vine & moss were placed into the design, and continuously opened throughout the event.

Titled - Sit & Unwind in a Woven Moment

To ensure a safe approach for visitors to the chair, I considered the design aesthetics & placed all the botanicals from low in front to high around the chair. I incorporated lots of textures & earthy brown, green & natural colours with an organic stick weave featured on the back of the chair. This also created an opportunity for people to sit comfortably for a photo opportunity or to rest, smell the scent of nature & listen to bird song playing quietly in the background.

The installation time for the chair was 3hrs and, dismantle time was 2hrs with all dried plant materials, sticks & moss collected for reuse. The potted tulips were sold at discount by the event organisers & given away. The woven chair base will be reused along with the organic stick weave. All compostable botanicals were collected in a green bin provided by the event organisers, and my contaminants were the vine wire which I collected & will recycle & reuse in future designs.

This was a challenging event brief that allowed me to think ‘outside of the box’ of my usual design process for event floristry. The Freesia challenged coincided with this event which allowed me to expand my thinking on environmental responsibility, influencing my design decisions such as choice of materials (composability), techniques used in construction and the reuse, and repurposed of my design components. In addition to that, I was also challenged to create a design that enabled visitor interaction, that contributed to my goal of creating something that incorporated suitability and community, reconnecting people with our environment.’

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List of Botanicals & Supplies Used

Supplies
- Jute String
- Recycled Fabric
- Feathers
- Hemp String
- Flax Moss
- Wrought Iron Chair
- Large Containers
- 3 x Glass Jars
- 1m Vine Wire
- Cushion with second hand t-shirt covering

Botanicals Used
- Ivy Vine
- Dried Flax Flowers, Palm Leaves, Sticks, Paper Bark and Leaves
- Potted Tulips
- Assorted Seasonal Ferns and Leaves
- Moss
- Dodder Vine