Ribbon: Honey Silks & Co | Graphics: Grey & Cake

Tobey Nelson, owner of Tobey Nelson Events + Design, dreamed up a workshop opportunity for floral professionals wanting to expand their creative horizons and update their mechanics (while learning how to avoid floral foam in their practices). The result was a spectacular workshop held this spring at Comforts of Whidbey winery and event center just outside of the quaint seaside town of Langley, Washington. Teachers for the workshop included: Susan McLeary (Passionflower), Kaleb Norman James (Kaleb Norman James Design), and Debra Prinzing (Slow Flowers). Tobey offered to stop by the Brouhaha and share a little about the workshop today and we’re thrilled to bring some of the workshop attendees’ designs to you through the stunning photography of Sullivan & Sullivan!

Teacher: Susan McLeary (Passionflower)

Teacher: Kaleb Norman James (Kaleb Norman James Design)

Holly Price (Unique & Chic Event Rentals and Design)

Sylvia Lukach (Cape Lily)

Tobey:

The Whidbey Flower Workshop is a creative retreat for professional florists.  It is an opportunity to take time out to invest in oneself; to build skills while designing for your own heart instead of to specifications from a client.  Build trust in your creativity, learn new skills, improve your portfolio, and make new friends!  We accomplish all this in a relaxed, fun and pampered environment, around a central theme of “slow” and sustainable.  We employ a variety of foam-free mechanics and work primarily with locally grown flowers.  Our meals are cooked with love and attention with lots of local ingredients; the wine we serve is “slow” wine (grown and made on the host estate).  We have views of the Puget Sound, tall trees, grapevines and cows while we work.  All this combines for a pretty magical interlude.  Here’s a peek into this spring’s session.

Design: Mimulo | Model: Chana Hecht Frankel

Elise Luck (Sweet Luck Farm)

Sylvia Lukach (Cape Lily)

Sarah Kistner (Stone Meadow Flowers)

Chana Hecht Frankel (Mimulo)

Sarah Kistner (Stone Meadow Flowers)

Tip from Teacher, Susan McLeary:

Listen to what you are craving as an artist, and put that work out there.  Stop focusing on the thing that you think people want to see, and make instead the thing that’s inside you that YOU really want to see.  Then people will start reacting to your work, because the passion is there.  If we all did this, think of the transformation that would happen in the floral industry!  And think of what clients might start asking for!

Tobey:

This is better than any tip about mechanics – which Susan has loads of (you should buy her courses or study with her!) – and it is the heart of what I am trying to create with the Whidbey Flower Workshop.  There are no clients there – only you, the student.  Come and make what you are inspired to, not what you think is expected!

Bergen Carey (Fire & Blooms)

Nancy Nisbet (Rhodesia Flower | Elixer on the Willapa)

Chana Hecht Frankel (Mimulo)

Laura Wiltse-Tibbets (West Wind Florals)

Plans are already underway for The 2018 Whidbey Flower Workshop.

Darcy Macpherson (Silver Thread Gardens)

Marje Cristol (Linnaea Farm Design)

Tobey Nelson (Tobey Nelson Events + Design)

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All photography courtesy of Sullivan & Sullivan