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You could make circlets/headresses etc. They take very few flowers.

Look around outside for standing arrangement fillers. Pussy willow is all over the place growing (nice in a pedestal), hyacinths are out and about too.

Surely your college would allow you to get your own flowers with the money. It's your project afterall and if it all goes t**ts up, you have no one to blame but yourselves. Would they mind?

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Pipping hyacinths is a great idea. You could use silver wire to thread throught them with pearl beads between each pip. It doesn't cost much but looks good.

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Rainbow

Quote of the day : To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent that is to triumph over old age.
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I am at a loss to know what this is supposed to teach you?

Does anyone do free standing arrangements and bridesmaid flowers with a 20 quid budget - especially all in lilac?

Do you have to budget for props as well?

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Thanks for all your responses. Treen, the props are at college they have a garage full of stuff which is useful. The tutor told me it would teach how to be able to work with a limited amount of materials and to be to show our skills

Jake, the circlet idea is a good one but unfortunately the dolly thing we have to work with has not head, it's more of a dressmakers mannequin.

The overall colour is lilac, we have to do a dress with fabric, cello, handmade paper and abaca, so I can use a contrasting colour for a flower, but I still don't know what.

if looking for a contrasting colour and something interesting you could use mimosa as maybe a belt or sash if you wire it all together or something. it will lift the colour and give an interesting focal point half way down the manequin (sp)

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Never say never.

Well, unless your sure.

Is mimosa expensive?

So ....... let's get this straight?
You have a headless "dolly" which you have to dress in cello/ fabric etc in lilac?
You have access to some other props?
You are only allowed to spend 20 quid on whole wraps of flower material, which doesn't have to be lilac?

Can you bring in some foliage outside of your budget?

Not being awkward...... I have a few ideas for you but need to know if there are other restrictions.

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On that note could you not thread the hyacinth florets onto bear/flexigrass or even bullion wire if you have it to make trails of lilac running through the foliage? Could even alternate with crystal (clear or lilac) beads alternately with the florets, if you thread onto flexigrass you can make loops - perhaps an "outside the box" brainstorming session called for? I think the lilac car/spray car might be a bit expensive. Does it have to be ALL lilac or can it be mainly lilac with bits of other colour? If it can you may be able to do a deal with one of the other groups to give them some of your flowers for some of their flowers. Like I said, outside the box may be the only way to go on that budget!

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If we had been meant to eat all our greens all our teeth would have been in the front

Treen, yes that is about the essence of it, we may have another tenner if another student turns up on Tues but am not holding my breath. Foliage has to come out of our budget as well and also any crystals feathers pearls etc. All the principles of design have to be adhered to and demonstrated. So although our main theme is lilac a contrasting colour is acceptable as long as it doesn't overtake the lilac theme. We decided to do bridesmaid as a theme as lilac didn't really lend itself to anything else we could think of with only an hour to spare. We have designed the dress for the headless dolly which I am happy with but its just the bloody flowers. If there was 4 of us (which other groups have) we would each have to make and design, a bq, a wall hanger, a floorstanding arrangement and a body adornment, but have a budget of £40 to go with it which could be done. We decided to go with the bq and arrangement. I was really looking forward to this assignment but it's really getting me down now, feel like telling them to shove it up their arse.

Ok now we’re getting somewhere. First thing first...... accept that you are not going to create a Selfridges window display full of beautiful blooms and varieties with the budget you have. Rely, as much as you can, to get some impact with the FREE props you have access to. You have no choice but to focus on a “cheap” variety and my advice would be make a big point of it! These assignments are about testing and stretching your floristry skills and sticking to the brief you have been given ..... are they not? I don’t know your tutors but if they are true to themselves it shouldn’t matter a stuff if your varieties are arum lilies or jolly old carnations. Personally I’d be more impressed by someone's creativity using a bog standard than I would by any impression made purely by the variety they had used. You have some flexibility with the colour so use it and accessorise to bring in the lilac theme. It depends what overall impression you are looking to achieve. If the assignment has been set to create something that could genuinely be seen as a window display you need to go bold - clustered carnations should get you as much credibility as clustered roses! If you want to go a bit more funky cymbids are fairly cheap at the moment and it’s amazing how many heads you can get of a decent stem.

I’m not much of a fan of these types of assessments/assignments. I know it’s supposed to stretch your creativity but frankly you would never be faced with something as ridiculous as this. If you ask me the time and money would be better spent if the whole class pooled their resources and you were all given something more inspirational to work with. I've seen so many students stress themselves silly over stuff like this and frankly I just don't get it! JMO

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