Ruby & Grace floristry workshop at the Spirit of Summer fair

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I hope you had a lovely weekend. Wasn’t the weather here in the UK wonderful? On Saturday, I visited the Spirit of Summer fair at Olympia in London. The main reason that I went was to take part in a floristry workshop, which was being run by Hannah Bignell of Ruby & Grace. It was scheduled to start at 11.30am and when I arrived at the fair at 10.30am, there was already a queue! I was taken a little aback and at the same time happy to see how popular floristry is! So, I grabbed a cup of tea and joined the back of the queue. Time passed by so quickly as I talked to the other ladies and I had a particularly exciting conversation with one lady…details of which I hope to share with you in the future.

So, back to the workshop. Hannah, the owner of Ruby and Grace, started off by demonstrating how to make a stunning vase arrangement. And below you’ll see step-by-step photos of how she created it. She used two different types of eucalyptus…

…then she added pussy willow…

…plus pale blue delphiniums and hydrangeas…

…followed by Memory Lane roses, ammi, guelder rose, snapdragons…

…and then finally, peonies.

Ruby & Grace is the resident florist at Cliveden House and Hannah mentioned that she would create arrangements in this natural, English country garden style for the venue.

Here’s a close-up…

Next Hannah demonstrated how to make a simple posy design using roses, lisianthus, alchemilla mollis and pistachio. Then, everyone at the workshop made their own arrangement. (Here’s a photo of us all in action.) And below is my finished design. I loved the little touch of attaching a label with ribbon to a pussy willow stem.

It was so lovely to meet Hannah and her team. Pictured left to right below are Andrea, Marie and Hannah. Ruby & Grace are running floristry workshops at Cliveden in June and July, if you’d like to take part. Here’s a link to the details.