FLEURS DE VILLES

This past week I had the honor of working alongside 16 of Seattle’s talented florists adorning mannequins in botanical fashion for the Fleurs de Villes Exhibition at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

The giddy two months prior were filled with floral fashion day dreams, inspiration curation, excel sheets of flower combinations, budgeting, emails, sketches, mock ups, and more day dreams.

I have always been drawn to fashion as a form of art and self expression. I got that from my mother a long time seamstress who taught me about precious textiles like Liberty of London and Pierre Deux, taught me the joy of rifling through racks at yard sales and goodwill for the forgotten gems and who never let a halloween happen without the most bespoke, handmade costume. For much of my middle school carrier my best friend and I had dreamed up our own fashion line, embroidered our jeans and made outfits for the middle school dance out of table cloths. It’s safe to say when the Fleurs de Villes challenge came my way my inner 7th grader was out of her tree.

So where to begin? How could I best express myself as a designer? Ondine means little wave or sea witch in French. A name I chose as a nod to my island roots and love affair with the ocean. Botticelli’s birth of Venus kept surfacing as I sifted through my consciousness for a muse.

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

Segment of Botticelli’s Primavera

So I created a homage to Botticelli through a modern lens drawing off of “Birth of Venus” and “Primavera.” I wanted to balance  contemporary romance with timeless antiquity, large sculptural form with delicate texture, and the earthly with the oceanic. Locally foraged pearlescent lunaria and dried hydrangea grown by my mother-in-law made up her bodice. Braided bismarkia palms gestured a shell at her base and dried Tsunami palms created architectural sleeves echoing that of the shell. Spanish moss and limonium were woven throughout to create romantic delicate texture. Tulips, roses, lisianthus, carnations, and butterfly ranunculus made up the focal flowers. The design was free of foam and bleached flowers, two very environmentally taxing practices used in the floral industry.

Photo: Samantha Smith

Photo: Samantha Smith

Photo: Samantha Smith

The night of install florists came with buckets of blooms, plastic body parts, genius water source contraptions and armatures, and teams of friends and family. It was a long night in which I realized what being a florist really meant: 10% floral designer 30% shleper and 60% magician.

Be sure to check out the other incredible mannequins via the Fleurs de Villes instagram.

Special thanks to the Fleurs de Villes team for orchestrating, the Northwest Flower and Garden Show for having us, Pacific Place Mall and Hendrix Gin for sponsoring us, Washington Floral Service and Mayesh for being our flower partners, and Samantha Smith for the documentation.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

I am sure many of you have watched Ondine morph and evolve over the past three years unwed to a specific trade or title. Wearing a few too many hats. It’s irritating I know. Bad for business, most definitely. When I catch fright at the question, “what do you do?,” I know it’s time to get my story straight.

I was one of the lucky ones and knew I wanted to be an artist as soon as I left the womb and landed in my mother’s hands. Hands so capable of creation sometimes I think she created my hands just to make through me. A seamstress, a jeweler, an assemblage sculptor, a painter, and a poet. So the apple fell. I have bounced around medium to medium my entire existence and enjoy bouncing. I have always learned with my hands and have always wanted to keep learning. Organic material however seems to be my constant. And one that I know I will keep learning from.

My first job beyond my three months as an ice cream scooper was working for a gardener. I spent eight seasons gardening and each season brought new knowledge and new plants and blooms to venerate.

Ondine began as a need to bring creation into a career. It began as a desire to tell a story. A desire to create sacred space. A desire to cultivate marvel and harvest presence. And a desire to grow. Over the past three years these worlds, my art background and my botanical background have morphed into one to define the finally honed but ever evolving Ondine.

WE ARE A BOTANY-BASED DESIGN STUDIO. —And by we I mean myself and hopefully my future team of employees when I make it big but for now just a facade/manifesting of this business of mine being bigger than myself— We offer floral design and styling for events, accounts and photoshoots in Seattle and beyond. As well as interior plant design and styling for residential and commercial spaces. We bring the outside in.

And I am so damn grateful for the work that we do.

BIG LOVE

Everything about the Pacific North West, including my love for the place, is big. Perhaps that is why my love took hold. The simple magic of feeling small. The Gunnera, its emblem. Grandiose, prehistoric, botanical gluttony. This series is an ode to that big time love. Getting mesmerized, enchanted, perhaps even swallowed whole as I fall forever in love.

FLOWER FREAK

And so beings my Flower Freak series… If you’re a freak like me and blooms are busting out of your hands, head, and heart do reach out and let me take your portrait. Also if you have any flowers in all phases of life and death you would like to offer up to this project I would be forever grateful.