Come on Eileen
What a wonderful opportunity to be involved in such a large scale event, working alongside such inspiring women!
In July 2021, I was invited by Rachel at Tallulah Rose Flower School to join her team for the RHS Tatton Park flower show. As part of the Fleurs De Villes exhibition, we were asked to create a floral couture gown to dress a mannequin for the 5 day event. The given brief was that it needed to be pink in honour of Breast Cancer Research, but the ideas and creation were totally up to us.
Take a look at our journey to create a beautiful piece of floral art below…
(All imagery has been provided by the lovely Jessica Reeve Photography)
The Ingredients
British beautiful blooms
We used North West flowers to create our blooming brilliant piece.
Local flower growers, Carol at Carol’s Garden, Suzie at Picked at Dawn & Hannah at Ixia Botanicals, supplied us with the most incredible mix of blooms.
The design, the flowers, the company - it was just the most incredible medley of ingredients. I couldn’t believe how Rachel had brought it all together!
My favourites had to be the roses, malopes, and first zinnias of the season.
The Frame
Woven willowy goodness
Eco mechanics were at the heart of our piece, and these couldn’t pass by without me mentioning the custom willow skirt.
This helped us to structure the piece without floral foam, and we fixed reusable cones as our water source for the fresh blooms.
Photographed is the lovely Lynne from Lady Lavvender and I filling up with plenty of water for the 5 day event. She was a truly amazing & inspiring individual to work with, and the finished piece was titled ‘Eileen’ on her own personal requests. More details on the backstory and its origins can be found on her own personal posts.
The Skirt
Dreamwork Teamwork
We crammed every nook and cranny of the skirt with bouncy and bright flowers. From achillea to malope to rose to cosmos, the skirt was a sea of textures and colour.
What a joy to work alongside the one and only Rachel Wardley, owner of Tallulah Rose.
She was a massive inspiration as to why I became a florist over the last few years. It’s crazy to think I’ve gone from learning from her directly at the school, to learning from her in collaboration on a piece of floral art. She was the main reason I started to understand the impacts of non eco friendly floristry in the first place.
Feeling a little overwhelmed at how much I & my businesses have grown over the last year!
The Finishing Touches
Up you get
Adding some last finishing touches - a plaster, floral crown and jewels ensured that our piece had an impact and portrayed the message we intended.
Working with the glorious Becky from Erda Botanicals, we all wizzed through this final stage in no time. What a powerhouse of a woman!
She’s arrived!
The finished piece
And the lovely ladies that made it happen.
Thank you for including me in this creation. It was an incredible experience and I’m so happy to have been a part of it.
The highlights:
A very big thank you to Rachel, and the rest of the team who made this happen.
Chat to you all soon,
Jenna x
