FIVE MINUTES INTERVIEW WITH Irene Christianti

How did you start into natural-dyed world and what is your background?

Ever since I was a kid, I love to create things with my hands. I was a florist a few years back (before that I used to be a computer engineer but let's keep that story for another time ) and it is my love for flowers and plants that introduced me to the wonderful world of natural dyeing. It truly fascinates me that the flowers and plants that I see with my eyes as they are, is able to give us yet another beautiful and tangible gift, which is their colours, something that I’ve never thought of before. With each experiment that I do, witnessing every single colour that emerges from the dyebath has never ceased to put my heart in awe and wonder.

Image by Eirene Artisan

Could you tell us your experience in creating your  first ribbon?

When I first started my natural dye and silk ribbon journey in 2015, I did my very first experiment with what I had on hands. At that time I had some leftover flowers from a bouquet order, so I thought I just tried to "cook" them and see what colours they produced. I experimented with acacia leaves, rose leaves, blue delphinium petals, and red charm peony petals and with my limited knowledge I let them boiled which resulted in all shades of brown. Haha! As I learn more about natural dyeing afterwards, it is more advisable to extract the colour slowly over low heat as some colours will go brown if they are overheated. But even if I obtained only browns at that time, I was hooked instantly and ever since I have been hungry to explore more.

What is the materials you used to create natural-dyed ribbon ? Do you have any favourite materials to work with?

It is amazing what mother nature has in store for us to colour our world. I use roots, barks, leaves, flower petals (such as marigold), avocado pit and skin, pomegranate skin, indigo, walnut husk, and my favourite keeps changing with time but for now it is avocado pits. I can’t wait to experiment more with it!

Image by Eirene Artisan

Which creative process do you enjoy the most?

The process that I enjoy the most is when I am concocting the recipe for new colours; such as recently I've been dreaming to make some grey green colour for my Christmas shop update. I browsed through my logbook to see what materials produce green and grey. I then decided to try pomegranate skin and oak galls and experimented with mixing them in various percentages. It's always exciting to see what colour emerges from each experiments, and it never fails to amaze me. The results are all beautiful that sometimes I would have a hard time deciding which one to make into my ribbon collection.

Image by Eirene Artisan

What is the challenge in creating natural-dyed ribbon?

One challenge in creating naturally dyed ribbon would be in embracing the slow process of extracting and hand-dyeing the colours onto the fabric, especially in this fast pace world. But in turn the whole process of natural dyeing and handcrafting ribbons have taught me about life in general, about slow living and the virtue of patience. Good things take time. Growing up takes time. Cultivating plants takes time. I love this wisdom by Lao Tzu "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished".


Another challenge with natural dyeing for me would be what-you-see-is-not always-what-you-get. We cannot judge what the final colour will be on the fabric by the colour of the dyebath. We can only know the actual colours after hours of dyeing, soaking, rinsing and waiting for the whole fabric to dry, and the shade will vary depending on the plant's growing condition, time of harvest, water quality, pH level, dyeing temperature and soaking time among many other variables. It is best to approach natural dyeing with an open heart, the outcome is always a surprise, often a very pleasant one, another time may be the opposite mainly because as a maker and artist I have a certain aesthetic that I would like to achieve in my work. But instead of seeing this as something negative, I am learning each day to embrace such beauty of natural dyeing. This experience in turn teaches me about letting go, not everything in life always goes according to our plan, and sometimes it could lead to something better. Even though I would have to postpone launching the colour for another month or so, in the end it has always been a blessing in disguise. When this happens normally I will overdye the fabric to modify the colour, it requires more time to complete that particular batch of fabric but the final result more often than not is much more mesmerising than what I initially had in mind! It is truly a wonderful gift mother nature has for us 

MY EXPERIENCE : LONDON FLOWER SCHOOL

One month after the wedding, I visited London for studymoon trip. If you are wondering why I call it studymoon, it is because my husband came along with me to London for honeymoon yet I spent most of the days there taking floral classes. So yes, I left my husband and his laptop in the hotel to do classes.

In LFS, I took The Foundation course. It was 10 of us in the class, such a fun and memorable experience to get to know friends from across the world with the same passion.

From this course I got to know another fellow Indonesian florist, Monica of Bibury Flowers. We were not in the same class though, since she was doing career course (I envy her :( )

Within a week, the students get to learn many arrangements from hand-tied, vase arrangements, centerpieces, Ikebana and large scale installation.

What I like about LFS is that you get to learn both classic and contemporary style, so you don’t have to learn and stuck with specific style only. This really helps their students to discover and figure out what personal style they prefer to do.

My funny-looking dome shape arrangement

As I am more into anything unstructured and natural-looking arrangement, I struggled a lot in creating dome shape arrangements.

I just don’t know how to create the perfect dome. I remember that I was the last student to finish this arrangement. I took the longest time to create yet it is still looking somewhat funny. You can see how it looks like on the next picture.

Meanwhile, vase arrangement class is my favourite. Ammi, grasses, peppers, asclepias, by looking at the ingredients I just know that I would enjoy arranging this one.

Image credits Marcelo Deguchi

Before I started this course, I wonder why there should be one day class dedicated just for Ikebana.  I remember we were only given pink chrysanthemums, agapanthus, and grasses.

I was like, “what should I do with these?”.

After further explanation about Ikebana by our tutor, Wagner, this class is such an eye-opener for me. With certain rules and limited ingredients, you need to be creative and thoughtful at placing your blooms. It is amazing to learn that with minimum ingredients you can create an impactful arrangement

On the last day, we worked on a large, well, more like ENORMOUS floral installation, the Flower Tornado. This installation was made with no floral foam, 100% chicken wire.

It was such an amazing experience to work on such huge installation with another 16 students.

FIVE MINUTES INTERVIEW WITH WAGNER KREUSCH

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW DID YOUR JOURNEY INTO THE FLORISTRY WORLD STARt?

My background is in graphic design. I have been interested in art for many years and originally wanted to become an architect. Architecture is very challenging though and can be very dry, so I decided to take a graphic design degree instead. I did this in Brazil where I am from and worked there as a graphic designer for 5 years before coming to the UK.

I didn’t actually work properly with flowers until I came to London, although my mum is a florist and had a flower business in the Brazil. The world of flowers seemed far too crazy for me when I was young, but now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

do you have signature style?

This is a difficult question for me, because I don’t have a signature style personally - I like all styles of floristry. This made it very easy to create the school though, because we teach all styles within the school. This is very different from workshops where the florist running the workshop has a particular style and people attend it because of this.

Also, at LFS we try to vary floristry styles as much as possible. There are styles I am more connected with, but I am very open to being creative, so I try not to limit myself. I am however, more drawn to the message that is conveyed through the arrangement than the arrangement itself. I believe this comes from my background in Ikebana which I have been studying for 5 years.

What do you think of the use of floral foam?

There has been, quite rightly, a lot of discussion around the use of floral foam in the floristry industry. Since its invention in the US in the 1950’s it has become the primary mechanics for most floral arrangements, especially in weddings and events where time is short and profits are small. I personally believe though that the industry will move away from floral foam in the future. Not only, because of the evidence that will emerge related to its lack of biodegradability, but also more generally, because it restricts the natural nature of floral arrangements, and also limits creativity.

how do you see in the future of floristry?

I believe that the future of floristry lies in self-expression. A true artist in any field is never concerned about what others think about what they have created.  They have created, and that is what is important.

Florists; artists; creatives in general need to express themselves through their art without the restriction of trends. This should be and hopefully will be the future of floristry.