Still being relatively new to the glorious world that is flowers I have been spending a lot of time searching for people within the industry, people how inspire me and how’s designs speak to me as I try to find out who I am as a flower designer. I have discovered many amazingly gifted individuals out there, but the piece of wisdom that I want to share with you today comes reform an American gentleman called Preston Bailey. Preston, who has been in the industry for 30 years creates stunningly glamorous extravagant events that really push the boundaries of what it means to work with flowers. Preston encourages us to:
‘Think outside of the vase’
At first this seems like a perfectly run of the mill piece of advice, surely simply making a clever exchange of the normal word ‘box’ with the word ‘vase’, and of course on some level that’s exactly what it is. However if you look a bit deeper I believe there is another way to look at this phrase. Yes ‘think outside of the vase’, be individual, put your own mark on things, be different and find your own voice through the medium of flowers, but also think out side of the vase…
As florists we love our containers, they truly can make or break an arrangement, they are beautiful and can inspire us to create, however sometimes they can restrict us because we don’t think not to use them. At times our containers contain us, so think outside of the vase. 
(Thank you to, Preston Bailey, Scarlet and Violets, Zita Elze, and Pintrest for these photos)
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