Flower Design Made Easy is a flower arranging and floristry DVD with some very good aspects and some which I found a little tedious. I enjoyed the flower designs and arranging very much and the presenter was very competent but I found there were too many menus and would have preferred the DVD to run through each section without all the playing each section independently and having to back to the section menu each time.
The basic information section which contained information on conditioning, tools, after care etc, was very good, despite having to access each one individually, which perhaps is good if you want to review sections a few times. I am not sure about her method of leaf shining with olive oil, it did give the leaves a lovely shine but would it not make them prone to collecting even more dust than if left naturally shined. I'm not really a fan of leaf shine, except where the arrangement calls for it and certainly wouldn't throw leaf shine at every bit of aspidistra, fatsia, monstera or phormium that I used (as one of my class mates at college did!!). In a very artistic of architectural design leaf shine can work well, but often a clean leaf works much better giving a totally natural look.
She did use lots of garden foliage, chrysanthemum and carnation which meant a lot of the arrangements were well within the pocket of the ordinary arranger - again it is nice to see lots of exotics and expensive flowers used, but those arrangements are often difficult to recreate due to the cost and availability of some materials. She also used some calla and some very large gerbera so added some more expensive material into the DVD which balanced the materials out well.
I also felt she threw the threaded grasses at almost every arrangement which was perhaps overdoing it slightly, some I didn't think they worked with naturally, but did like the way she threaded a variety of items onto the grasses such as hypericum, which makes a much nicer and more natural alternative to beads. I also loved the basket she used for one arrangement which was so rustic and unusual.
Some of the designs were a little too ambitious for a beginner, so I feel this DVD would be more suited to the improving and more advanced arranger. She was very clear in her explanations of how to do and the techniques she showed which is vital in any DVD such as this. Her explanations and demonstrations of a aqua packed hand tied arrangement were very good and I feel I learnt something from it too as she gave a very good explanation of how to spiral the stems and how to place stems to ensure you get the spiral.
Overall a good DVD but more for an intermediate arranger, a complete beginner may struggle to achieve some of the arrangements she created, but all flower arrangers would gain something from this DVD.
Ciao
Sue
XX
Reading challenge 14/16 - currently reading If I Was by Midge Ure
