Hit this link to see oodles of dahlia pictures! www.flickr.com/photos/dahliaonline/
)
)
)
)
Please go to "Everyday Flowers" page to view some examples of our work! Call today to order for delivery today of future orders. 864.232.0112
If you want something different. . . . When you first step into dahlia, you'll notice that it's not so much a store, but a place where ideas, trends and works-of-art are created. Kristi, the owner of dahlia, invites you to take a moment to step inside this refreshingly original store. Kristi's inspiration for dahlia came from her education and travels.
Sculpture, Painting and Flowers. . . . Kristi spent her college years immersed in art. She had the opportuntiy to travel Europe and take in all of the museums steeped in history, as well as attend art classes. Her artistic background combined with her love of flowers and travelling gives all of dahlia's creations a special quality, which no one can duplicate.
Floral Artisans. . . . dahlia's staff consists of true "artisans". You'll consider dahlia your place to go for anything from an adorably simple bouquet for yourself, to a permanent botanical arrangement for your home or office, to an event that has to be the talk to the town!
Kristi, the president, is a member of the American Institute of Floral Design. Here's a link: www.aifd.org/businesscard.php?id=1901
Kristi's Last Blog -
AIFD 2006 SYMPOSIUM
Washington D.C.
THE TEST
On sending in my application to take the Accreditation Test, I did not know anyone who’d been through the process. The manager of my local wholesaler- Mike Wheeler of Carlstedt’s, Inc. – pointed me in the right direction. He gave me 5 AIFD members’ names, and even called one person for me, Kebbie Hollingsworth. The test seemed so far away, I was all about the excitement of the event, and the possibilities if I passed. At this point, I exuded confidence. My husband, Jamie, suggested that I contact the most recently inducted AIFD members, and get some feedback from them as to how they passed.
The response I received was overwhelming! Every day (or hour) I’d check my email with great anticipation and print out the next bit of info someone so kindly sent me. I treated these pieces of paper like gold! I read, and reread, all of the tidbits of information, which began to make the test seem real and understandable to me. Jamie was totally amazed at the response I received (He’d had a similar experience in a different field, and didn’t get anywhere near the help).
Then, I received a call from Kebbie! This was exciting, because she really seemed to know what she was talking about (and she was working on the new John Henry Book w/ a nationally known designer- J. Schwanke). Her advice was: keep the lines simple – less is more, 2, mechanics are of utmost importance, and 3, don’t try to do the wildest design – the evaluators have seen it all, and aren’t looking to be “wowed” as much as being able to see that I understand the principles of design, and can apply them to the given situation, with a flair of originality. i.e. (a hospital arrangement can’t be bigger than a hospital tray, use a grapevine wreath flat instead of on an easel) Kebbie, also, mentioned the time factor many times, She stressed completing your easiest piece, first, then put it away, and never look back! Kebbie said a whole lot more, too much to put into this note. She said she would give Joyce Mason-Monheim my number- she’s directly on the board of AIFD membership.
Just as she promised, Joyce called me and gave me more great advice: color combinations aren’t too much of a concern(you’re given one palette), but DO use the focal color in your focal area, 2, don’t have more than 2 lines , and 3, learn 5 design techniques and how to apply them to each subject matter, but at the test, only do one design technique per piece. I was thrilled with this call from Joyce, as that every month I look for her featured design in “Flowers &” magazine.
At this point, I knew I had some work to do, but at least I know what to work on. Jamie gave me the challenge to design one arrangement a day in the allotted 40 minutes time, which had to include clean up. This time limit was so hard to follow! I kept trying to justify extra time, like, “I can add 5 minutes because I had to answer someone’s question” and I even convinced myself that clean up was AFTER the 40 minutes! Each day, Jamie would ask how it went, and he kept pointing out that time was quite an issue for me.
Now, the confidence I originally felt was turning into heavy doubt. I was really unsure of my designs and myself. But then, just at the right time, Kebbie called to see what Joyce had to say, and how I was doing! I was so happy to talk to her and laugh about the test, and go over with her any questions. This test was so important to me, that even though I had 4 weddings the next day, and up to my eyeballs in work, I couldn’t care less- I was all about the AIFD test. I tried to keep my excitement to myself as much as possible, as to not tire Jamie out with it, but I sure tried to slip it into the conversation whenever possible! All he could say was, while shaking his head, “I sure hope you pass or at least feel good about it, I’m scared to think how you’ll handle it if you don’t….). So Kebbie’s calls not only helped with my confidence and answered my questions, they, also, made the whole experience more fun! Kebbie, also, arranged for me to see her testing portfolio and test scores. Her work was so serene and meticulous, this was very intimidating. But then I would look at other AIFD designs and saw more wild designs, which put my mind , just a little, at ease.
I read from one AIFD member that they did practice sessions. So, with Mike from Carlstedt’s help, I did a practice test. Of course, that day, everything went wrong at the store, so I didn’t get out of there until 2 hours later than I planned. I almost called it off, many times that day, but the fact that Mike had already pulled some things for me made me keep my word. Thank goodness for that! That session was a real eye-opener. I made bins for each testing category, and Mike pulled out a subject matter for each piece: casket spray, flower girl basket, picnic arrangement, and halo. My mind drew a blank, yet, time had started, so I just started with something. I was a nervous wreck, and hated all of my designs(and the mechanics). Mike, who’s a very accomplished designer, as well, and has seen a lot of award-winning work, gave me some VERY valuable hints and applications. Now my self doubt was turning into depression. I thought I was better than this! What was I thinking???!!!! Then Mike said, remember what that one member wrote you, “having confidence in yourself is number one in succeeding”? Thanks, Mike, and AIFD member!
The next days’ 40-minute designs seemed to go surprisingly smooth. I was totally amazed at the professionalism and confidence I felt. I could see actual results, that I had grown so much through the process I had thus far put myself through. And then, Kebbie called, AGAIN! Now I’m thinking, what did Mike tell this lady for her to give so much attention to me? This concerned me as to what was I going to have to live up to, yet, bottom line, I didn’t care because I was just so grateful to ask her more questions I had and dilemmas I had run in to.
With only a week away, all I could do was practice and wait……..
Thanks to Jamie, the timing of my arrival and preparation for the test worked beautifully. I was going to leave the morning of, Jamie said to get there the night before, and stay at the hotel where the test was. Boy, was he right! After the 9-hour drive and confusion with directions, I was in tears by the time I stepped into my hotel room. I needed that night to calm down. I replayed a message Kebbie had left me that day – “Good luck. Take a deep breath, stay focused, everything will be fine, don’t be nervous……. It’s only flowers. Good luck! I’m sure I’ll see you when I arrive on Monday.” The morning of the test was miserable. I tried to study using the hundreds of pages of designs I lugged with me, but what? I realized that if I didn’t know it now, there’s nothing I could do. So I hung out in my hotel room, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The orientation meeting was the beginning. I was a sponge! Rules were laid down, we met the evaluators, and we spent an hour with our product. The room itself was bare bones, concrete floor, low ceiling, wall to wall with 5 foot tables, with about 4 feet of working room behind each table. Of course, people were asking questions you couldn’t hear, and there was a definite air of panic that filled the room. However, we all felt relief when the actual description of the test arrangements were given : casket spray (sounds good!), best man’s boutonniere(even better news!), hand-tied bridesmaids’ bouquet (I know I can pull that off!!!) and flowers for a teenager in the hospital (Hey, I do that all the time!!!), and of course, designer’s choice. With all of the speculation to what the subjects would be, just knowing, even if it was a 10 foot alter arrangement would have been OK, just to know what it was, was relief after months of agonizing over the categories! I had heard that some people would have coaches. This was major input time, trying to get a grip on it all.
When I got to my table, I remember the advice to not look around. This was VERY hard to do. You 100% feel like it’s a competition, even though it isn’t. Two tables down was someone I knew from my area of the US, who I had heard was taking the test for the second time. She was very focused, earlier at registration, and she didn’t glance at me this time, either. I had so many questions to ask her, yet, her quite presence beside me didn’t help with my stress level, either. I wonder what happened to her the first time to put her in that state, and if I’ll act like that on my second time to take the test? NOT a good sign.
There was so much STUFF on the table, I wasn’t sure how to organize it all. I kept Jamie’s advice at the forefront– “keep your surroundings clean, even after each arrangement”, so I tried to organize with that in mind. The fact that I brought an orange towel from home, and our test flowers were oranges and purples was, to me, a piece of luck to hold onto! We then had 2 hours to work on sketches and our ideas. This was a luxury I hadn’t given myself on the daily pretests. I found myself adding and changing small details to the sketches, even though the beginning ideas stayed the same. I was told I would have too much product to work with, yet, I thought our flowers were pretty limited, so I had to shuffle and count the flowers in each sketch to make sure I wouldn’t come up short.
Test time! While waiting in the hall, someone was handing out quarter-sized ceramic angels. How sweet! I felt, at that moment, the significance of this being a once in a lifetime experience. While heading to my table, I saw some tables with excellent preparation work done (I saw things I should’ve done). The room was extremely hot and humid. (Thanks to my pretest at Carlstedt’s, this temperature was nothing!” When they said “Begin!” I was very jittery, fumbling around. I heard popping sounds all around me. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what that sound was, but I didn’t look up, I kept messing with my boutonniere design feeling like I had sausages for fingers. The announcer mumbled something, and a guy behind me sung in a strained, but trying to be nice, whimsical tone “we can’t hear yooooooouuuu.” The announcer stated something about clean up being after the four hours. This I was glad to hear, at the time.
Once I was adequately happy with the boutonniere, I moved on to the hand-tied bouquet. I felt a focal point in hand-tieds is usually missing, (thanks to a “critiquing” by Carole Carriaggiano years ago, on a contest bouquet), so I used an orange (fruit) for the center. While working on the mechanics of securing the orange, I said to myself – “Uh,Oh, I’m breaking the rule of do only what you know, I’ve never put an orange in a bouquet! Will it turn out?” Thankfully, it worked in good time, and I was somewhat pleased with it.
Moving on to the casket saddle, I realized the “popping” sound I heard earlier was everyone securing the oasis in the saddle. Now me: “POP”! “POP”! I didn’t do all of the techniques I had down on my sketches, but I felt the piece was solid. I loved my use of the sewing technique which created a wonderful line and movement in the piece. Then the teenager’s piece, this was fun! I covered an oasis orb I had sculpted completely with purple carnations, and sheltered it with a palm leaf- it was soooo sweet! I bound bamboo tall and had orange gerbers cascading down the static line, with a branch of plumosus softly going up the bamboo, emphasizing the static line of the bamboo. I echoed the binding with the same wire swirling out the base of the arrangement.
I felt great on staying within my time limit. I was ready for my last piece. This confidence allowed me to glance up and look around – BIG MISTAKE! All I saw was swirling branches, whimsical gerbers, fascinating armatures, etc.!!!!! My confidence shot way down – I quickly jerked my head down and began working with a frown on my face. I was slicing the oranges to put inside the vase, which I thought was really clever earlier in the day when I was sketching, but my glancing around made me realize I was one of many doing the same thing. OUCH! I continued with my plan, but had to make some minor adjustments because of a piece of dirt in the water that bugged me professionally. This was by far my least favorite design. The lines were boring, maybe too simple and plain. I was, also, nervous about the bells of Ireland lasting in the colored oasis until the next day for judging.
I did go back (against Jamie’s better judgment) and added a few touches to the casket piece, bouquet and teenage arrangement. This worked out OK, but I obviously still didn’t have a handle during the test on how to budget my time. It was at this point that I realized I hadn’t taken a drink of water, or even moved 3 feet in 4 hours.
I put my table cloth on my table, and to my dismay one of my display cards got a smudge on it from my not paying attention. We now had to take our buckets back to the clean up area. This was difficult to do , and scary with all of our arrangements dangling off the tables, and people brushing beside them. I about had a fit a couple of times when my line flowers were visibly bending as people tried to squeeze by, but luckily, they were still secure in the oasis. I , somehow, got moss on the corner of the table behind me, and about died! I spent as much time as I could cleaning it up, wondering if this touching someone else’s table counted as disqualification.
The announcer yelled, “Time! Don’t touch your tables anymore!” I was shocked – I thought clean up was announced as after the 4 hours. Come to find out, the “clean up” she was talking about was taking the buckets to the back of the room. I was glad that I stuck to my original time plan, and that I was done with my table. That was OK, until an AIFD helper hurriedly approached me concerned that my # card wasn’t on the table. She said that I couldn’t touch my table, but if I gave her my #, she could do it. Bewildered, I pulled out this wrinkled # from my back pocket, not realizing that it went on the table. I still don’t know how I missed that bit of information. It apparently could have been a really big deal, because someone next to me, also came rushing up to me, to ask about my number. Oops, again. Everyone else seemed OK with all of this, so either I was in my own little world, or they understood all of this from past experience or information I missed.
On walking out of the room, I was on an adrenaline high! I did glance around the room and was totally in awe of the works of art I saw, and I was amazed at the chances people took with obscure line, possible wrong balance, obscure focal points, etc. I was in shock at the designs that were produced in that amount of time. When you’ve spent days and years being the most creative and fastest designer around you, day in and day out, the experience of being surrounded by faster, more creative designers is humbling. It’s like going from being a giant living on an ant hill for years, to being a fairy living in the Redwood Forest. It’s, also, nice to know that I have a lot more to learn – that’s the “beauty” of floral design, learning never ends!
Thanks to Jamie, again, I celebrated this momentous occasion by ordering room service and a movie!!!! How fun, how surreal, how proud I was to have went through that experience. I definitely felt like I was one of a few at that moment. I silently thanked all of the nice people that gave me such sound advice, and helped me get to this point.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you, to everyone who took the time to give me the best advice!
Sincerely,
Kristi
){kind=link}