REROOTING: Floristry Course at McQueens Flower School

Being stuck in the pandemic and Working from Home in the last 15 months, I held a Full Time job in an Architectural Firm while running Echevaria.co on the side. Hours were crazy solely from working on my architectural job, and piled on top with the preparations done for the workshops, the wedding decor and all the bouquet deliveries. It started to wear me down.

I needed a break from this continuous cycle and take a step back to relook the bigger picture. Life is not a short sprint, it is a marathon. I felt like I was just sprinting everyday, waking up only to look forward to going back to bed. It was not sustainable.

That’s when my partner and I decided that we needed to leave for a little bit and get a clearer headspace of our situations and plan ahead. Here’s a bit of caveat though, we definitely did have help and was in a position where we had a friend who was willing to take us in in London, that’s the only reason we could take this leap. 

This break turned out to be the best thing that has happened to us both. We had all the time to ourselves to dig deep and reevaluate our situations and plan for the near future. It’s said that “Plans do not always go on plan, but not planning at all is a plan to fail.”

Best thing I did for myself at the end of 2021, was to sign myself up for a One-Week Floral Course in the world-renown floral school, McQueen Flower School. The school opened my eyes to the world of Floristry where I learnt not only the ways of sustainable mechanics for Event and Installation Floristry and even got insights of the Business aspects of the Industry. It was completely eye-opening. 

If you’re a fellow floral designer/ floral enthusiast reading this, do check out their Flower School, it covered a whole range of amazing skills and exposed us to a myriad of different flower palettes. 

Here’s how my journey went!

Day 01- Hand Tied Bouquets 

Day 1- we explored the Fundamentals of Spiraling, which was interesting to me. Considering that I’ve been making bouquets for the past 2 years I thought this would be something that I was familiar with, but it turned out that flower stems are much thicker than the sticks I usually use for our Succulent Bouquets, so this was definitely a new skills for me! 

Day 02- Low Vase Arrangements  

Day 2 saw us going through sustainable Low Vase Arrangement Mechanics which I truly appreciated. We learnt to work with the material called Agrawool, which is a sustainable alternative to green floral foam which is still very commonly used in the Floral Industry now. Agrawool is made from Basalt and a type of Sucrose that is degradable, compared to the floral foam that is made of petrochemicals that is completely non-biodegradable.

Considering this course aside, the fact that Flower School are so heavily emphasising sustainable methods is such an important point. This creates such a strong foundation of the practices of all the floral designers moving forward from this and it such an encouraging experience. 

Day 03- Arrangements in Various Vessels

Day 3 was definitely an eye-opener because it was a day course about Larger Scale Installations that were products usually for Commercial Clients or huge houses. Seeing the different combinations of vessels and flowers used just made me realise it was possible to create with almost anything! 

Day 04- Tall Vase Arrangement & Foliage Wreath

Day 4 had learning objectives that were perfect for seasons products- tall vase arrangements and wreaths, were products that were popular during the holiday seasons. I truly enjoyed this course as it was something I saw Echevaria.co growing into! 

Day 05- Large-scale Installation 

Day 5 saw us running through a huge Installation over a Fireplace. It had the prettiest, most romantic palette of lilac, magenta and pink, celebrating the arrival of Spring with the use of four different varieties of Tulips.

 The past week has been an absolute dream! I can’t be more thankful for four tutors who have guided us through this week - Sophie Powell, Christophe Berreterot, Theo Geoffe, Anastasia Mcgrellis. Their passion to Floristry has truly inspired me and I can’t wait to create amazing things with this set of newfound knowledge! 

In the following weekend, I deconstructed some of the works from this week and created some Vignettes at home, do take a look at them - Styling- Floral Vignettes at Home.