Papaya's Resident Flower Boy Tells All

Flowers are an intrinsic part of the PaPaYa! booth experience.  In a world of harsh lighting and long rolls of old orange carpet, the flowers offer that special touch of life that we love and cherish.

I'm lucky to be the one who creates the flower arrangements at most of the PaPaYa! shows these days.  I have no formal background in flowers, except for finding them useful when articulating things that are hard to say, or just trying to get out of the doghouse.

Each bouquet to me is many things, it's a color puzzle, an architectural and engineering challenge, and most importantly it should express the ideals and focus of the booth.

Usually our arrangements are robust explosions of color and texture using classical flowers like lilies, calla lilies and gladiolas to anchor the bouquets.  This show was different and offered a new challenge for me. The theme was more organic, simpler, lean and less classical.

Eli, Sarah and I all headed down to the wholesale flower district in New York. I purchased the most interesting and different flowers I could find, trying to stay away from the flowers like roses, lilies, and gladiolas. I bought mostly long stemmed flowers with delicate petals, or decorative greenery that was unique and quirky. One of my favorites lately are these little brown fern fiddle heads, which are like little alien spirals on long stalks. I picked out a lot of crocosmia to tie the different bouquets together.

Each arrangement starts first as an engineering problem in my mind.  Trying to make a bunch of flowers stand up in a vase seems like it would be easy, but often flowers adhere to gravity first, and my desire a distant second.  I put rocks in the bottom of each vase to anchor the flower stems. In the taller arrangements, I start with some curly willow to fill the arrangement, and to add height and body.  I add flowers carefully, assessing each addition like a painter, sometimes adding quickly, sometimes taking flowers out if it starts to be too busy.  

Each stem is placed both to set up the flower in a particular location, but also to create stability in the entire arrangement. The arrangement is finished with flowers and greenery that add body or offer a focal point if it appears to lack a unified feeling.

When the arrangement is close to being done, I stand back and look over it.  I'm not looking for something in particular, I am trying to listen to the 'rhythm' of the bouquet so to say.  Each bouquet needs to be balanced, and have it's own special spirit. 

Comments

[Odette]

So beautiful!
I was happy to see Papaya has a blog (I've saved the link on bloglovin so I don't miss any posts.)

Are you interested in hearing about Papaya sightings on the internet? I just came across your Vintage Bird print (one of my favorites!) on a fun vintage fashion blog:
http://freelancersfashion.blogspot.com/2009/05/mighty-future-houswives.html
(3rd photo, under the mirror)

[Marta]

Gorgeous!