I have been a huge fan of the vintage style of the Flower Appreciation Societie’s casual approach to flowers for some time now, not least because they are big fans of ceramic swans (I have an ever growing collection), and was excited to be invited to the launch of their very first book, An A – Z Of All Things Floral.
The launch party was held in one of my favourite local spots, The Dalston Curve Garden, which they managed to make even more special, with the addition of their beautiful floral head dresses, vintage vases and flower inspired food and drinks
I caught up with Ellie Jauncey (one half of the TFAS) to ask her a few questions about the book .
Tell us a bit about how the Flower Appreciation Society came about?Anna and I met 5 years ago working behind the bar in our local pub in hackney. At that moment in our lives Neither of us knew anyone else our own age who were interested in flowers so when we discovered that anna had just done a floristry course and I was working at home with my Mum (also a florist) helping her with her weddings we instantly got on and had lots in common. We chatted lots about flowers and Soon after that the seeds for the flower appreciation society were sewn.
Do you think your backgrounds in illustration and textiles give you a different approach to being florists?
I think so yes. Thanks to Anna’s illustration background we have been able to build our own brand. She designs all of our packaging, our website and illustrated our book. My background in textiles has given me a really strong sense of colour, design and shape which I constantly draw on with the flowers.
What kind of people love your style?
People who like letting the flowers speak for themselves and appreciate wild, natural arrangements.
As soon as we started TFAS we began collecting old vases and vessels. We were pretty disillusioned by the new vases which are on the market and also we both love scouring junk shops/charity shops and car boot sales so it gave us the perfect excuse to get rummaging!We have a large collection of 1950’s ceramics swans. Last time I counted we had 53. Our new obsession is Great Gatsby inspired vases. Last week we bought a peach ceramic fan shaped vase and a striped gold and clear glass vase.
Are there any flowers that you would never use?
We don’t really like using tropical flowers or very heavily scented flowers like lilies.
Why a book and what next?
It was always a dream to do a book, especially for anna but we definitely didn’t think it was actually going to happen! We were approached by a publisher and we jumped at the chance. They were amazing to work with as they gave us so much creative freedom. We came up with the concept, photographed, wrote and illustrated it ourselves.
Next we are doing a project with Molton Brown where anna is illustrating some packaging for some of their products which is very exciting. We would like to do more products, soaps, perfume, fabric and a flowery book for children.
You can buy the book here and if you are in Dalston I highly recommend you visit the Curve Garden.
great post and beautiful photos – will be looking at the book.
Lovely. Off to check out the book, now. I’m halfway through Sue Shepherd’s biography of Constance Spry – which is a fantastic read. She was very big on unusual and amazing containers and receptacles for use in flower displays as well.
Beautiful, will look out that book. Love the petals in the drinks – I had a Monkey Gin whilst in Prague last week with dark red rose petals and a cinnamon stick in, it looked so much more glam!