Tall Centerpieces - CCSF Midterm Designs

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These tall arrangements were the mid-term assignment in Jenny Tabarracci's "Floral Design for Events" class. We were all required to use the same riser prop, and to select a celebrity birthday for our theme. It was really amazing to see how differently everyone used the prop. Beautiful work from the whole class.

Kim's design

My design was a predominantly green one that sort of looks like a palm tree. I was inspired by local tech celebrity Larry Ellison (I worked a Oracle for a short time eons ago). Lately he's been in the news because he is the moving force behind bringing the 2013 America's Cup race to San Francisco. He has long been interested in Japanese design, and even modeled his Woodside estate after feudal Japanese architecture.  I was also inspired by a small Buddha statue I keep near my desk. I decided to incorporate the statue into the base on the design. Since Buddha found enlightenment while sitting under a tree, I made a "tree" with large leaves, orchids, thistles, small Japanese toys, and other materials.

We also had an informative guest lecture by Robert Kitayama, President & CEO of Kitayama Brothers, Inc, one of the largest growers of fresh flowers in California.  His description of the evolution of their family business between its beginning in 1948 and now sounded like a mini-history of the ever-changing floral business.  It was very interesting to hear his perspective on industry trends, which was quite different from the experiences of the designers that have come to demo for us. Thanks to Robert and Jenny for working that out.