Ok Guys and Gals, now we have got the peaks out of the way and I can’t be bothered to do anything else, other than sit on my butt, I thought I’d start my promised tutorials and step thrus again. I have had so many messages from florists and students that either don’t do much of this stuff or are longing for a bit of tuition that is rarely covered in colleges or courses. I have done shed loads of these tributes over the years (I wish I had pics of them all) and have encountered tons of pitfalls and consequent solutions along the way. They are little use to me stuck in my head and it’s a real pleasure to share with those of you who are interested.

Many of you have said that you rarely get asked for these sorts of tributes and that your customers won’t pay the money they need to be to make them worth your while. I think some of you have the impression that I either shove these things down the customers throat or have some weird shop full of strange creatures and objects made out of flowers. Not the case at all! I have a small out of town shop and there is not a picture or a sample of anything strange or unusual made from flowers anywhere. My pictures are in the back of my sympathy guide and I never steer the customer to them unless that's their initial enquiry. All the local undertakers send their families to me if they’re after something strange as they know I am prepared to do the job. Some of these tributes are extremely time consuming and require a bit of thought and planning. They are difficult to quote for on the spot and sometimes I get it wrong! I love to do them .... I think that’s pretty obvious ..... and if it takes me 4 or 5 hours to do a job I wrongly quoted for, I take it on the chin! MY time is MY time and although I price it in I sometimes have to give a bit more than they paid for - no different than the 30 quid bridal circlet that ended up taking you 2 hours! The more I do the more it seems people want them and now I have the web site I get enquiries from all over the country. I have had people come a hundred miles to pick one up and I have even posted them when customers have begged me, not something I like to do but if they want to pay the 50 quid postage and take responsibility for the state of their arrival, I’ll flippin do it!

I will start with the dart board I mentioned in Treen’s Gallery Pics thread. I will probably have to do it in stages but I may as well make a mission of it.

Please , please ask questions if you have any...... if no one says anything I will get bored and not bother.......

Hope you enjoy it!

The Initial Enquiry
This is a bit of a mine field ...... it puts you on the spot and if the creative juicy aren’t flowing it can catch you unawares.

Rule 1) take a breath and chat to them... ask them about the significance of the enquiry to the deceased ...and most importantly try to visualise the finished article made out of flowers. I have my computer at the table and my best friend Mr Google is really helpful. I quite often search for a suitable image while I’ve got the customer in store..... it allows a bit of thinking time and helps with the visualisation.

Rule 2) Know your limitations ...... bold cartoon type images and objects are relatively easy ....... real life creatures are much harder, whether they are 3D or done as a picture. I never quote under £100 for anything I can’t do on a bog standard frame or a flat piece of board. The dart board was a simple shape but quite detailed so I quoted £125. Materials wise there is very little in it but it took me about 2/3 hours to do, which is about what I expected.

Rule 3) Be honest with your customer! I had an enquiry this week for a 3D elephant. My first reaction was that it wouldn’t actually be a very good subject - all the grey black colours... not nice. I did quote for it 3D ..... 500 quid! I know I could have done it and made a good job of it but my God what a lot of work! The frame would have to be reinforced with chicken wire and the sculpting would have taken best part of a day. I suggested that it would make a much more fitting floral tribute if I did a picture board ... that way I could bring in some background and not be stuck with something that was all grey and black!

Rule 4) Try, try, try never to restrict yourself by making promises when they order. Get their confidence and tell them to leave it to you to create something really unique for them. The only time I seem to have problems or don’t like the finished design is when I’m bogged down with restrictions. Unless there’s a good reason for it try not to let them have an input into the design.

Was it African or Indian elephant?.....
Very interesting thread please continue,in our area the price we quote for specialist tributes tends to put off all but the most serious tribute hunter,and like you pricewise, we find sometimes we get it wrong ,but hey ho,at least we are being challenged,and its good to stretch yerself.

Just any old elephant Don't think we'll be getting the job (thank God), turned out they were from miles away and I didn't much fancy posting an elephant. They said we were the only florist that would even quote them!

Creating the design
As a general rule the more complicated it is the bigger it needs to be. The Met badge I did really needed to be twice that size, I really struggled to make good of that tribute and when I was doing it had serious doubts that it was going to work (I had to do it that size to fit on the coffin top). If the image or object is simple then you are ok on a small scale.
The next thing you need to consider is proportion! Whatever you do should have a sense of true proportion. A real dart board is only 18’ but if I did it that size I would have struggled with the bulls eye and the double sections. I scaled it up to 24” so that the smallest sections were big enough to take a single flower head but I still kept the overall proportions of each section. You need to do this with anything you scale up or down. There’s some pics on my web site of cut out cars (I’ll post them here) By working to a scaled down, in proportion image you can create a particular make of car. It does help if you are handy with your computer but I used to do this by hand with a ruler and it works just the same, just takes a bit longer.

Once you’ve decided on the dimensions and proportion you can begin to work on the details. I use my computer a lot for selecting and scaling images. I can’t go into the process of scaling images etc. here but those of you who aren’t long out of school probably know more than I do and those that have kids of secondary school age will be able to get help from them.

Creating the Frame
You will need to etch your shape on to the hard side of the design board so you have a line to cut round. The dart board was cut from a design sheet, pin your template to the hard side to stop it shifting around and indent through to give yourself a guide line. I prefer to use the Foam Frames boards, they come in a brown box, the base is slightly more firm and they don’t bend or break like the oasis ones tend to do.

Don’t forget your image will be transposed (round the other way) when you turn the board over. Make sure you allow for this if your shape has a right way round. I use an electric jigsaw to cut out the shape, they’re a really handy tool to have about and are peanuts to buy. Always cut on the hard side of the board as the blade doesn’t go all the way through. Once you’ve sawed round your shape you can slice through the soft oasis part with a thin bladed knife.

Hey presto ........ you have the right shape.

Brilliant! Please, continue.

Seconded

more please!

Love it love it. Please keep going

Marking out the design

Turn your board over (soft side up), pin down the template so it doesn't shift around and etch the image/detail on to the board. I prefer to trace over the lines with a fine tipped pen, one of my girls uses a pin to stab through the paper to leave a mark on the soft foam. When you remove the paper you should have enough of a guide to draw the design neatly. With the dart board I coded each section so I didn’t have to think about which colour went where.