“The Flower Workshop” book by Ariella Chezar

I fell in love with Ariella Chezar’s book called “The Flower Workshop” that I read earlier this year and had to meet her in person.  The opportunity came earlier than I expected.  She was one of the guest speakers at Bouquets to Art at de Young in San Francisco in mid-March. She is beautiful inside and out.  I like her progressive San Francisco personality, sophisticated Dutch heritage and down-to-earth attitude of living in East Coast.  You can see how much she cares about plants by observing how she treats them.

 

Below is my review on her book.  She was kind enough to sign her book I brought.

Book:  The Flower Workshop
Authors:  Ariella Chezar with Julie Michaels
Photographer:  Erin Kunkel
Published in 2016

Ariella Chezar’s floral design and her love of nature truly reflect mine.  She incorporates local seasonal plants that you can grow while featuring unusual cultivars of flowers that you can only find at flower markets.  Even though she grows her hundreds of plants at her huge farm in Berkshires, Massachusetts, some plants can be grown at small space and supplement your floral materials, especially branches and vines.   What I especially like about her approach is that she avoids commercial materials like floral sponge (which is not biodegradable) but utilizes frog pins or tall vases to anchor plants.   Her sophisticated design principle is a lot to do with her color schemes whether she chooses complimentary or contrast colors.  The photo shoot settings are also beautifully arranged with simple vases and backdrops.  Some plant materials are hard to recognize in shallow-focused photos, but all the pictures are very artistic.  This is a beautiful coffee-table book as well as a reference book for your next arrangement.