Schedule Two: Tied Design
‘Skilfully using colour to achieve a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing effect’*
Colour is often the first thing to strike you when you view a design, how it is used is hugely important, it’s not just for decorative purposes, but can be for directing the eye or for giving an impression of visual weight and size.
The competitors had already planned their designs in advance, bringing their flowers and sundries with them, so on the day, it was simply a case of putting it all together.
However, creating a design within a strict timeframe, in a warm marquee being watched by an engaged, but chatty audience was a challenge, but one that all the competitors rose to magnificently.
So how did they use colour?
This tied design is full of intense colour, orange and pink at full saturation which creates an intense and flamboyant effect, which is exaggerated even more by the coloured Perspex in the framework.
Charlotte’s tied design was a largely analogous scheme of pale pink to deep red. All of these colours are next to each other on the colour wheel, but to be truly analogous (or adjacent) there must be at least three colours to include one primary colour, in this case the red ranunculus.
No framework, no support, no sundries apart from garden twine, this tied design relies completely on the beauty of its flowers and colour scheme. The yellow and pale orange Gloriosa link the peach roses with the craspedia and hypericum berries. The same grading of colour and size is used with the Clematis, scabious and tiny berries of Talinum.
Both hand-tieds use bold areas of colour to move the eye around the design and to add visual weight.
Having the largest and brightest flowers, blue delphinium, blowsy pink peonies and lime Viburnum concentrated in the centre of the designs balances the arrangements and accentuates the symmetry.
*Definition from The Professional Florists’ Manual by Lynda Owen
