The following is the first part of a three part journey of Karin’s Florist’s Director of Special Events and Creative Director, Bryan Swann EMC. We are proud of our entire extremely talented staff but we are especially proud of Bryan for earning such a distinguished certification. All of this effort is for you, our clients, to make sure we are creating works of art with flowers to help you celebrate the special moments in your life. Now, Bryan’s story on how he earned a European Masters Certification:

Last year, I decided to pursue more education in my floral career. I was intrigued by a program called EMC which stands for European Masters Certification. It is a three part course started by Hitomi Gilliam, AIFD and Tomas De Bruyne. I have been following Hitomi and Tomas for a few years and love their aesthetics. I chose this program to gain a different perspective on floral design, to hone my skills and to meet like-minded people in the world.

Part 1 – Foundation
Cycle 4 – North America, West Coast

On October of 2017, I started my journey in San Francisco at the City College of San Francisco for 5 days of Foundation Classes. The Foundation Classes entailed a morning with Tomas with lectures and demonstrations followed by an afternoon of hands on training.

We learned about the Elements and Principles of Design, Positioning and Numbering Growing Points, Basic study of Colors and Wedding Bouquets. By definition, a floral arrangement is “An attractive order in which botanical materials are combined.” Also it was reinforced that a floral designer needs to possess creativity, knowledge, technique and a sense of time.

Below are some examples of Tomas’s creations:

Below on the left is my design for the hand tied bouquet with a low binding point and on the right, the wired Wedding Bouquet:

For this specific design, all of the stems of the flowers are replaced with wires. This creates a very light bouquet and allows for control of flower placement.

The five days of training inspired me to continue on the path of new knowledge. One of my biggest takeaways was a different approach in botanical materials. The interest does not always lie in the flower. The stem, fruit, pod or leaf are just as interesting and will provide interest to an arrangement.

The next blog will be Part 2 – Self-Practicum