Project: Made by Hand - Gemma Harvey
I first met Gemma a couple of years ago whilst working as the one-man-marketing-manager at my last agency. Bonding over our love of food and great wine, we kept in touch after I left the agency to pursue a career as a photographer.
As a Senior Biz Dev Manager at an experiential agency, and all-around superstar, Gemma originally trained as a florist - with her passion for it blooming over the years. Under the name, Flheure - she works with individuals and brands to create a great selection of bespoke bouquets, flower crowns, wreaths and more; all to order.
On a sunny Sunday morning at the iconic East London spot, the Columbia Road Flower market - I met up with Gemma to capture her traversing the busy market to source flowers and foliage for a collection of flower crowns that had been ordered. After a quick walk up and down - darting through the crowds, Gem had filled her boots and we left to go to my place as a base for her to make the crowns.
Starting by unwrapping her haul, she conditioned the stems for use; this is done by trimming off any thorns on the stems; removing any additional leaves on the bottom 2/3 of the stems and making angled cuts to allow fresh water to enter the bottoms of the stems. From here - every available pot in my house was used as a holding place to keep the stems hydrated. Having sorted them into bunches, they were taken into the garden and trimmed down further to reduce weight and the size that they took up.
Gem used a wrapped piece of wire as the base of the crown, for additional micro arrangements to be added. To make each arrangement, she creatively selected different combinations of stems and bound them together by using single-sided floristry tape. When using the tape, it becomes more adhesive the more you stretch it out - which makes it perfect for wrapping stems and plying it to anything else. Each time a wrap was completed, it’s affixed front-facing to the wire of the crown - helping Gemma decide which colours, textures and tones to use next. After around 20 minutes, it’s complete, looks great, and ready to wear!
Although I'm not typically interested in floristry - I really enjoyed seeing her creative process, and the early start at the market when she selected her flowers and foliage before coming back to make them into something more than how they started. I’d have to say this is the BIG thing that I love about cooking; the process and the open possibility. More importantly - the sharing.
A massive thanks goes out to Gemma for showing me her creative process, and do go check her out at @flheure.