Bud vases and books, a July Quickie Workshop

The theme of July’s quick floral workshop or ‘Quickie‘ as we affectionally know them, was bud vases and books.

After a busy June and heatwave number one the cut flower beds were quieter than I expected. The plan was to create a the whole workshop around the daisies and the remaining Feverfew crop but the plants had other ideas and set seed. The bud vases I had also planned on using took longer to arrive than expected so it was back to the drawing board.

Now experienced at running these wonderful monthly craft workshops, I stepped back and looked at what I had. First stop was my own achieve of ideas. For my own personal development I’m looking back at past projects and realising how lovely some of them are. Past flower pressing projects and Summer scrapbooks fed into the July feelings of ‘Gather’.

As we arrive in high summer I want to bottle up the warmth, sunshine, colours and of course flowers. Preserving and collecting all of summers bounty’s sustains me throughout the winter. This can be anything from petals, seeds, colour combinations, new flower varieties. Like a summer squirrel, it all forms a winter pantry of inspiration. It was important to pass that on.

On a practical side, now is the season to start saving seeds. As part of my Quickie workshops I like to offer real time practical advice on growing flowers. What better way to explain than by letting my attendees see and feel the flowers for themselves. As part if this workshop, I shared how to save seed. Providing little envelopes for them to gather falling seed as they their created bud vases and books.

Each workshop I talk about the cycles of the garden and now over a year of workshops under our belts, my wonderful regulars have now experienced how the cutting garden grows for themselves.

These high summer months provide a natural pause in flower growing. The big late summer stars like Cosmos and Dahlias are still finding their feet and bulking out (I hope). With a lightness in the beds, everyone was free to snip whatever stem took their fancy. There was a moment when I looked up from the table and saw everyone happily wandering the flower beds, snipping away. It was pure delight and reinforced how important and unique these Quickie workshops are.

From an uncertain start, this bud vase and books workshop was gorgeous. My camera roll reveals so many photos of happy hands, gathering and creating mementos of summer. We take a break over August meeting again the first Saturday in September (5th at 2pm). Then the first Saturday of the month going forward, contact me here or via Instagram if you’d like to book at place. I’m based in Leigh-on-Sea and always have the best mix of people at the table.

If you don’t want to miss them, sign up to my Newsletter. Each month I dedicate a whole section to workshops so you won’t miss out. Can’t wait to see you in September.