Grand Floral Staircase

The Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte is a 142-step monumental staircase from 1608 in the old part of the town of Caltagirone, located on the island of Sicily, about 70 km southwest of Catania. This breathtaking staircase that connects the high part of the city to the low part, is the center of many cultural events in Caltagirone.

http://sudestsicilia.it/en/places/caltagirone/staircase-santa-maria-del-monte

The peculiarity of the staircase is each step is decorated with different hand-decorated ceramic tile, using styles and figures derived from the millennial tradition of pottery making. Twice a year this staircase is used a backdrop for which images of patron saints and other local themes are illustrated using thousands of flowers or candles.

Photos: Andrea Annaloro/Municipality of Caltagirone

Between the month of May and June, the town celebrates La Scala Infiorata, the flower festival of Caltagirone. During this period the Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte is decorated with hundreds of potted plants artfully arranged to create beautiful geometric patterns that climb up the staircase. Then later in July, the Luminaria Festival is held in honor of the town's patron saint, San Giacomo, and the steps undergo yet another transformation. The staircase is illuminated with thousands of candles of different colors arranged in order to reconstruct an artistic drawing of several tens of meters.

The represented themes divide ideally the staircase in a dozen of sectors, in which figurative, geometric and floral elements representing different styles and different eras alternate: from the Arab-Norman to the Angevin-Aragonese one, from the Swabian to the Spanish one until chiara montana, passing through the inevitable baroque, the eighteenth and the contemporary nineteenth-century one.

Paper Cutting

The art of paper-cutting in China may date back to the second century C.E., since paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China.
As paper became more affordable, paper-cutting became one of the most important types of Chinese folk art. Later, this art form spread to other parts of the world, with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. Because the cut-outs are often used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to as  window flowers or window paper-cuts. People glued the paper cuts to the exterior of windows, so the light from the inside would shine through the negative space of the cutout.

There are two methods of manufacture: one uses scissors, the other uses knives. In the scissor method, several pieces of paper — up to eight — are fastened together. The motif is then cut with sharp, pointed scissors.

Knife cuttings are fashioned by putting several layers of paper on a relatively soft foundation consisting of a mixture of tallow and ashes. Following a pattern, the artist cuts the motif into the paper with a sharp knife which is usually held vertically. Skilled crafters can even cut out different drawings freely without stopping.

There are several great paper cutters such as Maude White.
New York-based artist Maude Whites comes from a family of visual storytellers> She was fascinated by the various stories and ways of telling them that she experienced in her youth. The discovery of paper as a medium for her own visual stories came next.

Incredibly enough, White works by hand, using a craft knife to cut tiny lines and draw images with the paper’s empty negative space. “I have great respect for paper. When I cut, the thin membranous material reveals its strength to me,” the artist explains on her website. “Paper is everywhere and it has been telling stories for centuries.“

To check out more of her work, visit White’s online portfolio and keep up with her latest creations, including fascinating process photos, via her Instagram account. She also offers some of her creations for purchase via Etsy at Brave Bird Paperwork

Breathtaking Floral Art Hangings.

Meet Rebecca Law

In the past five years, she's designed dozens of breathtaking pieces: a whimsical rose-garden-turned-wall-hanging for an upscale restaurant, pink peony garlands and chandeliers for a Jo Malone London fragrance launch and a grand suspended curtain at La Monnaie opera house in Brussels, where Law and a team of 50 strung nearly 5,000 blue and green hydrangeas (carefully tying each one to copper wire) above the stage. The work is painstaking, and it happens fast: "When you're using fresh-cut flowers," says Law, who handles an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 every year, "they typically need to go up within 24 hours. It gets intense."

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/rebecca-louise-law-floral-art#ixzz4TxxWkglL

The daughter of a gardener, Law is finding a different outlet for her love of nature. A classically trained artist, she started off painting flowers, abstract works inspired by the bold colors of Kandinsky and Rothko.

Some installations are permanent, such as 150,000 flower work "The Canopy" (2016) at the Eastland Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Others are dismantled, with some flowers encased in glass and kept by patrons.

Floral Sculptures

Flowers are often the subject of artist such as the wonderful examples below.

Hitomi Hosono
The japanese ceramic artist’s subject and theme and influenced by various botanicals — blooming foliage, leaves and flowers studied in the garden, as well as collected memories of nature from her own childhood in japan, where her family runs a small rice farm.

‘I find myself drawn to the intricacy of plants, examining the veins of a leaf, how its edges are shaped, the layering of a flower’s petals. I look, I touch, I draw.’

The artist’s technique draws initial reference from the 18th century potter josiah wedgwood, who used thin ceramic reliefs or ‘sprigs’ applied as surface decoration to a piece. through extensive experimentation with different methods and clay bodies, two new sculptural ways to use approach emerged: one is to cover the entire surface of a shape with sprigs while the other is to construct the art object solely out of many layers of the relief, carving each with modified dental tools to add incredibly fine details.colossal.com/

 
 
 
 

 
 

Working from a tiny table in the nook of her living room, California-based artist Angela Schwer crafts explosive dahlias, gardenias, poppies, fungi, and sea creatures all from a custom blend of polymer clays. Meant primarily as decorative objects, the dense handmade pieces are surprisingly detailed, assembled from hundreds of perfectly formed clay pieces and formed into large tiles that can be hung from a wall or set on a table. You can see more in her online shop, Dilly Pad.
 colossal.com/






London-based artist Rachel Dein of Tactile Studio has spent the last few years perfecting the art of plaster casting, an admittedly straightforward process of pressing objects into clay and then filling the voids with combinations of plaster and concrete. However Dein’s time spent as a prop making apprentice for the English National Opera, The Globe Theatre, and The Royal Opera House, has greatly influenced her techniques, elevating a simple craft process into something else entirely.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/10/plaster-cast-plant-fossils-rachel-dein/

The New 2017 Trends

Flower Trends Forecast 2017 identified five emerging trends in consumer preferences for their cut flower purchases:

• The French Connection. The French Connection trend is luxurious and sophisticated. The color palette features soft red hues, hints of orange and chocolate brown, as well as other muted earth tones. Small botanical prints come together with lace overlays decorated with adoring delicate blooms. Romantic blossoms of roses and orchids complement viburnum berries within pedestal vases and refined metallic vessels.
• Force of Nature. The Force of Nature style invokes casual nautical themes overflowing with garden wonders. Serene shades of blue and green calmly mingle with bright white. Bundles of hydrangea and corn flower come together with nigella and scabiosa and are housed in frosted and clear glass vases. Subdued patterns harmoniously connect with aged metallic finishes.
• Modern Wonders. The Modern Wonders look unites the young with the old as it morphs modern sophistication with cultural antiquities. Picturesque chic lines combine with aged Asian style through beaded accents, irregular geometric patterns, and crafted textures. Graphic oranges and reds are offset by hints of gold and muted purple. Anthurium come to life alongside ginger, cymbidiums, and astilbe.
• Into the Jungle. The Into the Jungle theme is rich in exotic prints showcased in brilliant muted tones of tropical hues. Sun-kissed shades of orange, yellow, and red glisten alongside earth-tinged gold. Calla lilies and bird of paradise cluster together in hand-woven baskets and cork covered vases. Heliconia, pincushion protea, and bromeliads are accented by moss, vine, and bamboo.
• UrbanLux. The Urban Lux design is big bold flowers making single statements in a repetitive design.

A new video summarizing the emerging preferences found in Flower Trends Forecast 2017 is now available. Visit http://www.flowertrendsforecast.com/video or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJH2cXddT8 to see the newest Flower Trends Forecast video.