a simple spring tulip arrangement

After completing my first basic floristry course in February, at the beginning of March I decided to start another! I've now nearly completed Willow Crossley's Guide to Floristry course on Create Academy, and I'm feeling more and more inspired as the days go on.

At the weekend I created a simple spring tulip arrangement, following techniques from one of Willow's tulip lessons. Rather than sharing a detailed step by step guide, I thought I'd link you to some of her free floristry videos found on Instagram and on YouTube, so you can create this arrangement yourself, and get a feel for her style before you choose to invest in the course. 

To create a tulip arrangement, you will need:

- A selection of tulips (mine are from Bloom & Wild, but supermarket tulips will be perfect!)

- Chicken wire (I bought mine on Amazon)

- Pot tape (I bought mine on Amazon)

- Floristry scissors (mine are a pr product from Bloom & Wild)

- A bowl or jug (mine was a £3 find on Facebook Marketplace!)

So, here are the basic steps...
1. Secure your chicken wire into your bowl with pot tape - examples here & here

2. Fill your bowl with plenty of water - tulips get thirsty! 

3. Make sure to consider where your arrangement will live in your home, as this will impact how you place the flowers. Will it be seen from all angles, or placed against a wall? Will you view this on a low coffee table, or will it be eye level on a shelf? 

4. Then it's time to start your arrangement! The chicken wire is there to allow your stems to be placed in angles that you wouldn't be able to without, so at first it's about building the structure and establishing the shape (example here). When chopping your stems, chop little by little to make sure you get them at the perfect height! 

5. The great thing is that as you build your arrangement, it's very easy to move the stems from the chicken wire and place in different positions - just ensure that your stems are as clean as possible (no unnecessary leaves, for example), so they don't get stuck as you pull them out.

6. Experiment with nifty 'reflexing' trick with the petals - see how Willow does it here!

7. Then it's just a case of seeing where the arrangement takes you. There's definitely lots of trial and error involved, playing with the height, flow, colours - everything! It's so satisfying when you see it all come together. 

8. Make sure the neck of your vase is covered so you can't see the pot tape - this is where the extra curved stems or the reflexed petals come in handy!

Here's what mine looked like halfway through...

And there you have it! I'm so proud of the final arrangement. Never had I considered displaying tulips in such a way before. I hope this inspires you too!

At £114 for Willow's course (usually £127, but if you sign up to the mailing list you'll receive a discount code), it may be pricey to some but with 35+ videos covering all aspects of floristry, for me it has certainly been worth the money. I'm already itching to create more arrangements!

Love, Jazz x

P.s. Get £10 off Bloom & Wild flowers with my link, and I'll get £10 credit too!