This weather is unbelievable. I can not remember a hotter spring. I love the sunshine. I love waking up to blue sky, everything seems that bit easier, which is definitely something that I am cherishing at the moment.
This week I am delighted to share my interview with Emma Cox. Emma hasn’t been a florist for that long, but she has achieved so much in such a short space of time, so I am sure many aspiring florists will find her journey very inspirational. So sit back, relax and enjoy my 5 questions with this delightful lady.
Alicia :‘Emma thank you for taking part in our 5 questions. I love your journey into floristry. Can you give our reader a bit of background into Emma Cox Floristry?
Emma: So Emma Cox Floristry was always something I'd imagine while I was actually a secondary school teacher. I taught Design & Technology for 5 years in Yorkshire and although I loved teaching I always knew it wasn't something I could see myself doing forever. My husband is a tattoo artist and has been self employed for a long time and it was actually being in a relationship with him, watching him work, run his studio and being able to be so creative, not just tattooing but painting, drawing, sculpting that made me think that's what I need to do in my life too. But I knew I didn't want to go down the college/apprenticeship route and couldn't see another way to do it yet.
So I set up trading in vintage and antique furniture, focusing on French antiques as my father in law had a house in France at the time so trips out there were frequent and spent with family. I'd buy urns and pots and would dabble with arranging flowers in them.
In selling my antiques at fairs I met a few florists. I actually met Lucy Hunter (Lucy the flower hunter) at a fair in Ardingly and as I already followed her on Instagram I pleaded with her to show me how to do flowers 'properly' she suggested I contact Sarah Statham as she is also in Yorkshire. I did. I went along to her studio and just fell more in love with flowers than I could have imagined. It was as though everything Sarah said about how flowers moved, colour, texture and movement in arrangements made so much sense, all I wanted to do was create my own art with flowers as my medium and it's all I wanted to do every day from then on. Sarah was so encouraging and that encouragement made me practice every spare moment I had. She has now become a friend and actually bought some of the flowers I used in my own wedding as a gift, a long with the many other kind things she's done for me. I'm so grateful to her and can't say enough how genuinely kind and lovely she is as a person.
I'd learnt how to be self employed from selling antiques with my sister in law and her lovely mum, how to start my days at 3am and work 18 hours, how to dress and style pieces. I started doing both floristry and antiques but soon the bookings coming in for weddings meant I could only do one or the other full time and flowers will win every time.
Alicia: Tell us about your current career plan, your goals and business.
Emma: My goals and plans for my business are not strategic, I'm not the most business minded and have always tried to go at the pace of my business. Never run before you can walk, I tell myself as I know I can become impatient and want to do it all now. I don't have a time line of where I'd like my business to be in so many years. I'd obviously like my business to grow, to be able to employ like minded flower lovers to help share the work load would be great. To develop my own flower growing is something I'd love to do as I love using British grown flowers. I'd also love to travel and learn from some amazing florists out there. I think the most important thing for me to do is continually learn from others that give me so much inspiration and learning is something I want to do for the rest if my career.
Alicia: For me your work reminds me of stepping back in time. A combination of glamour and romance. Where does your inspiration for your work come from?
Emma: I get inspiration from almost anywhere. A lot comes from my love of antiques and the French style of design from the 18th and 19th century. Our home, especially our living room, has been described as a mini museum and an old botanical apothecary in the dining room as my husband and I love the unusual. We love the signs of age on pieces and patina. I absolutely love being outside in nature, as far away from evidence of people or modern life. I love old architecture, sometimes I'll see a bit of crumbling old wall, a grand archway, an old wooden door and all I can picture is flowers arranged on or around it. In my head I'll plan the shapes I'd love to create in that space to look as though it has grown right there, a contrast of new life growing on something that's been there hundreds of years. I love art and films but sometimes just the lighting in a scene of film will inspire an idea. And obviously flowers themselves and other florists are very inspiring. I love to see how other use tone and texture.
Alicia: What has been the biggest challenge of your career so far and how have you overcome it?
Emma There are little challenges every day in floristry, from flowers not doing what you want or thought they'd do, you know when they just won't sit right, to working out mechanical issues to designs you've never done before, structurally, which are all things you have to figure out on your own, how to fit everything in my van and that mad panic that it won't all fit. But I enjoy these and I feel they make me work harder. Fortunately I've not faced anything too dramatic other than the day before a very large wedding I quite badly cut my left hand. I knew it needed stitches and that I would not be able to use it from them on. I did not have time to go to the hospital so my husband came home and bandaged me up the best he could and my sister came over to help load my van. I only had some button holes to complete and a bridesmaid bouquet. Luckily, the way in which my husband hand wrapped my hand meant it was fixed in a perfect position for holding a bouquet. The wedding itself was tricky to set up as I couldn't lift anything what that hand as the cut would open again but thankfully my sister had helped with a few weddings by then and she did all the heavy lifting.
Alicia: How do you overcome fear when starting out on your own?
Emma: I'm not sure how to overcome fear starting out on your own as on some level its still there, I just try and use the fear to keep me going. I use it to push me to practice as often as I can. The fear of bookings no longer coming in will encourage me to do something with flowers that I either haven't done before or something that I want to get better at and share on social media or my website. I'd never let the fear of failure stop me, because then you're never going to know if you'll succeed if you never try. I also say yes to things I've never done, then I have to learn how to do it. I think I work better under pressure and especially if I've said I'll do something. Use the fear of it all going wrong or going away to make something you've always wanted to create.
Alicia: What do you love most about your current role and why?
Emma The thing's I love the most about being a wedding florist has to be the flowers and the couples. Meeting couples, hearing their love stories, making connections and being apart of their family history is so amazing to me. I think about looking at my own family photos from weddings in the family before I was born and the flowers in the bouquet, that wedding and celebration is a part of family history. The flowers reflect the mood and atmosphere of that one day. You can tell which season it is in pictures from the flowers and get am idea of the atmosphere. I think the seasons are a perfect fit for my character too. I've sometimes wondered if I'd be able to maintain my enthusiasm and love for flowers if only one season existed and the flowers never changed and I'm not sure I would. I think bridal bouquets are one of my favourite things to create, even though they for me hold the most importance. They're the baby I guard with my life and cause me the most stress, they're strangely the piece that I'm at my most calm when I'm making it.
Alicia: We can't ignore the current situation that we are finding ourselves in. What are you doing currently in isolation that helps you to relax and to stay creative?
Emma The current situation of Covid 19 has been made me take things one day at a time. As a florist you're booked into two years in the future, your life is normally planned so far in advance. Postponing weddings, styled shoots and fairs has been upsetting but every person I've worked with has been so positive, which is very inspiring. Being at home, especially with my husband who is also a creative, has meant we've had time to explore ideas we've had but never had time to do. We both love sculpting and pottery and we've recently both tried print making using lino cutting.
To stay positive every day is unrealistic, there are times we can feel down at the uncertainty and I think it's important to let yourself feel that way, talk about how you feel to someone that's with you or on the phone. What has really helped me is that luckily last year I started a cut flower patch, so I've had flowers to create with and that patch to tend to. Lots of walks. Taking notice as spring evolves, all the beautiful birds carrying on with their busy days. Also reading, My husband and I have a huge love for books, old and new and to be honest we have that many I know I'll never ever read them all but we've made a start at last. Oh and of course TV in the evening. We've actually started game of thrones again and I can't believe how much I've forgotten already. There's been episodes that I can't recall ever seeing.
A massive thank you to Emma for taking some time out to answer my questions. Join us next week where I will be sharing my interview with leading lady in British floristry Anna of Swallows and Damsons.
Emma Cox Floristry
Website: https://emmacoxfloristry.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmacoxbrocante/?hl=en