Wine Bottle with a Floral Ribbon
Supplies: Wine bottle, athletic tape, OASIS cold glue or Fitz Enhanced Adhesive
Materials: Leaves, eucomis and hydrangea blossoms, yarrow, coxcomb, succulents, rhipsalis, sedum, bunny grass, seedpods of rue, poppies, pokeweed and Queen Anne’s lace
Prepare the base of your design: Cut your strip of athletic tape to whatever length and width you desire, then adhere it to the wine bottle in whatever shape you like. Glue leaves onto the tape to hide the mechanics.
Decorate with textures and botanicals: Decorate the leaves with various blossoms and textures. I like to use lightweight materials that hold up well out of water since this design does not have a water source.
“Françoise has taught me to be curious, to cultivate my artistic voice and I've really learned to see the floral and plant world with new eyes. She will inspire you and continue to elevate the world of floral design ever more!”
Susan McLeary
What's Foraged Design all about?
I don’t know about you, but I fell in love with flowers at an early age. My mother loved to buy flowers from the farmer’s market in Belgium, or cut them fresh from her own garden. I began helping her arrange them as a child. I was fascinated by everything floral—from designing centerpieces for my parents’ dinner guests to watching seedlings grow on the windowsill in my father’s study. Simply put, the world outside has been a part of me for as long as I can remember and inspires me to this day just the same. So it's no surprise that for this course, I wanted to bring the outside in, relying solely on foraged materials to adorn the home, events, and everything in between.
In my professional design and teaching career, my signature style of Textural Woodlands and Botanical Wearables have created a global following, and I’ve translated these styles into creating unique designs that go beyond the traditional. With that, I've created ten new lessons for this series to inspire, teach you new mechanics, and help you build your repertoire so you may offer more to your clients and grow your knowledge of, and confidence in, floristry all while being a bit kinder to the world around us.
Let's start at the beginning...
What will this course teach you?
If you haven't taken any of my previous courses, don't worry! Foraged Design is totally accessible to all ranges of floral design experience and skill. In this course, you will learn how to create ten unique foraged designs. These lessons were developed using my latest mechanics and techniques to create structure, shape, and above all, to design with a more sustainable approach.
I hope this new series will spark your curiosity and open your eyes to seeing the possibilities of environmentally conscious design.
Want to see what you'll master?
Eggplant, Pear, and
Artichoke Arrangements
Showcasing the natural beauty of produce from the market, I've created three designs to turn the edible into the incredible. You'll find an eggplant blossoming with pieris, poppies, and tillandsia; an artichoke utilizing cornflowers, oregano, and acorns; and a pear harvesting blackberries, nicandra, and love-in-a-puff.
Vase Arrangement
with a Twist
Learn the mechanics to cover an ordinary container by attaching paperbark maple to create an eye-catching arrangement that uses a variety of botanicals and textures such as hellebore, evergreen, and trumpet vine. You’ll also gain insight into flower deconstruction to find new ways of using materials.
Four Botanical
Napkin Rings
Turn an average place setting into an eye-catching showstopper with botanical napkin rings. I've put together four separate designs to inspire and elevate your next dinner party: flowers & texture, orchid, woodland, and textural designs. It's amazing how something so simple can make such a difference!
Wine Bottle with
a Floral Ribbon
For this design, I've incorporated an innovative technique for decorating a wine bottle (or any other bottle or container) that can be given as a beautiful gift when visiting friends and family. No need to recycle those bottles just yet!
Framed
Woodland-Scape
Create a stunning foam-free woodland landscape within a frame of your choosing. I use a variety of textures and botanicals to create visual interest in a piece that you can display on your dinner table or even hang in your living room.
“It's hard to put into words how fantastic Françoise is as a teacher and a designer. She's truly changed the way I look at floral design. There's no one that looks at botanical materials the way that Françoise does.”
Alison Ellis
I can't wait to see what you make!
These ten Foraged Design lessons will inspire you to see with new eyes and to tap into your own passion for floral design, all while gaining confidence in becoming a more environmentally conscious creator within the natural world.
This is a wonderful time of year to find and use woodland and botanical materials and to practice and share your creations with family, friends, and clients. Taking time for yourself to pursue what you love and learn new skills is a fantastic way to reinvigorate your passion and expand your floral offerings.
Post your design creations on social media, and use the hashtag #foragingwithfrancoise for a chance to be featured! Voilà!
Don't forget to check out my other courses!
From Woodland Design to Botanical Wearables, I have a wide selection of online tutorials to explore. All of my courses will help elevate your craft, with a continued focus on the underlying mechanics that make every design creation truly sing.
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