Episode 590: Foraged Design with artist and educator Françoise Weeks

December 28th, 2022

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Photography, courtesy of Francoise Weeks (c) Theresa Bear

Today, I’m delighted to welcome artist, educator, friend, and Slow Flowers member, Françoise Weeks back to the Slow Flowers Podcast.

Françoise was born in Belgium, and she has infused her work with a quintessential European reverence for flowers and nature. Combined with creativity and mechanical ingenuity, she has crystalized her singular style of Textural Woodlands and Botanical Haute Couture pieces, garnering a global following of students.

Françoise’s studio is located in Portland, Oregon. Her innovation and love of teaching have brought her to classrooms around the globe and here at home. Her dynamic work has been published in Fusion Flowers, Modern Wedding Flowers, Huffington Post, Flutter and many other publications.

Françoise’s generosity of knowledge and perspective in use of floral materials, structure and mechanics, in addition to the business of being a florist, unite to create rigorous and exciting learning opportunities for her students to explore all that nature has to offer.

I invited Françoise to join me in the virtual studio to talk about her newest online course, Foraged Design, which recently launched. The curriculum covers decor for the home, events, and everything in between. The inventive project includes eggplant, pear and artichoke arrangements, a vase arrangement, four botanical napkin rings, a wine bottle with a floral ribbon, and a framed woodland-inspired wallscape.

Artichoke arrangement by Francoise Weeks — **Eggplant, Pear, and Artichoke Arrangements:** Showcasing the natural beauty of produce from the market, Françoise has created three designs to turn the edible into the incredible. You’ll find an eggplant blossoming with pieris, poppies, and tillandsia; an artichoke utilizing cornflowers, oregano, and acorns; and a pear harvesting blackberries, nicandra, and love-in-a-puff.

Francoise Weeks' vase arrangement with a twist — **Vase Arrangement with a Twist:** Learn the mechanics to cover an ordinary container by attaching paperbark maple to create an eye-catching arrangement that uses a variety of botanicals and textures such as hellebore, evergreen, and trumpet vine. You’ll also gain insight into flower deconstruction to find new ways of using materials.

Framed woodland landscape by Francoise Weeks — **Framed Woodland-Scape:** Create a stunning foam-free woodland landscape within a frame of your choosing. Use a variety of textures and botanicals to create visual interest in a piece that you can display on your dinner table or even hang in your living room.

Foraged Design Free Lesson

There will be an end-of-year sale for Françoise’s Foraged Design course but you need to be subscribed to gain access, so SUBSCRIBE today — If you’re following Françoise on IG, you’ll also catch more details @francoiseweeks – find the links in her profile menu.

And an update about Françoise’s forthcoming book, The Wonder of Woodlands, out in Spring 2024. She shares: “it will show people how they can gather nature’s treasures to create their own artful arrangements. The book is divided into chapters, each showcasing a common building block in her arrangements and suggesting a simple project. Since bark, logs and branches form the background of her designs, she begins there. That’s followed by chapters on moss, mushrooms, acorns, seedpods, lichens and ferns. My primary goal is to teach readers to see the artistry contained in any natural landscape. Like me, I want them to see with a new pair of eyes.”

Last Chance for $100-Off Slow Flowers Summit Registration (Expires 12/31/22)

Slow Flowers Summit 2023 speakers — Top row, from left: Julio Freitas, Amy Balsters and Lennie Larkin
Middle row, from left: Gina Lett-Shrewsberry, Dee Hall, Tracy Yang and Valerie Chrisostomo
Bottom row, from left: Becky Feasby, Amber Tamm, Sarah Reyes and Debra Prinzing

There’s still one week left to take advantage of the Early Bird Ticket pricing for our 2023 Slow Flowers Summit — the $100 off promotion expires at midnight Pacific Time on December 31st. Register now to take advantage of the lowest ticket prices available for our 6th annual Summit, June 26-27, 2023 at the Bellevue Botanical Garden outside Seattle.

We have invited more floral experts than ever before to join our Slow Flowers Summit 2023 speaker lineup! Our Summit theme is “Community and Collaboration,” emphasizing our interdependence and the amazing outcomes when flower farmers and floral designers come together for a better and more sustainable marketplace. You will gain inspiration for developing a deeper relationship with flowers in your own growing and design practice!

We hope to see you there!

Click here to grab your $100-off Registration

Thank You to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

Thank you to Details Flowers Software, a platform specifically designed to help florists and designers do more and earn more. With an elegant and easy-to-use system–Details is here to improve profitability, productivity, and organization for floral businesses of all shapes and sizes. Grow your bottom line through professional proposals and confident pricing with Details’ all-in-one platform. All friends of the Slow Flowers Podcast will receive a 7-day free trial of Details Flowers Software. Learn more at detailsflowers.com.

Thank you to CalFlowers, the leading floral trade association in California, providing valuable transportation and other benefits to flower growers and the entire floral supply chain in California and 48 other states. The Association is a leader in bringing fresh cut flowers to the U.S. market and in promoting the benefits of flowers to new generations of American consumers. Learn more at cafgs.org.

Thank you to Store It Cold, creators of the revolutionary CoolBot, a popular solution for flower farmers, studio florists and farmer-florists. Save $1000s when you build your own walk-in cooler with the CoolBot and an air conditioner. Don’t have time to build your own? They also have turnkey units available. Learn more at storeitcold.com.

Thanks so much for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too.

If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, learn more and check out all our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com

Debra in the Slow Flowers Cutting Garden — Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time.

Music credits:

Don Germaine; Flattered; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue

Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In The Field
audionautix.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2022 at 5:03 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Book reviews, Creativity, floral design, Gardening, General, Plants, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.