Saturday has come round again. This week the news has been shocking, filled with such sadness and worry. As we look to the scenes in America and hope that change finally occurs after such tragedy, I find myself asking so many questions. My mind has been buzzing all week and I confess it’s hard to switch off at times.
With such instrumental events going on I come back to the same question, are flowers important? Does anyone care at the moment? But more than ever through the last few months I feel that nature is so important. It is the simple things that we take for granted that perhaps we need to be more grateful for and I believe that opening our eyes to what is around us will bring appreciation and change.
This week I am interviewing the wonderful Anna of Swallows and Damsons. I met Anna last year at Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill. Not only is she extremely talented but she is also a lovely lady. Anna is one of the most successful florists on Instagram and like so many other floral designers I love her images and I was delighted that she agreed to answer my 5 questions.
Alicia: Anna you have been a florist for many years. You have had huge success on Instagram. You are regularly featured in magazines, you take part in photo shoots, you do large scale weddings and in 2019 you released your beautiful book The Flower Fix. Can you describe your style in three words?
Anna: Wild, unexpected, whimsical .
Alicia: When I look at your work I feel like you are telling a story. It’s a combination of nature and art. What inspires your floral designs?
Anna: I love this description so much!
I always look to nature first.
The more I get to know and work with flowers the more I appreciate their irregular nature and have learned to embrace this rather than fight against it. It’s such a joy to work with their crazy bends, droopy heads, and kinks in creating something rather than fighting this and trying to generate something straight and formal.
The relationship that humans have won nature, the way we replicate colours, shapes and patterns in art, architecture, fashion and film. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Alicia: What is a typical week (if there is such a thing) in the life of a florist working at Swallows and Damsons?
Anna: Always coffee first. We either have a delivery of flowers or trip to the local market every morning. Conditioning and preparing the flowers in the shop and creating any orders for the day ahead. After that really everyday is different. Making arrangements for weddings or events, preparing for photo shoots, meeting with clients, chatting to customers. One of the great things about having a shop is the variation and the little surprise conversations and requests.
Alicia: Many aspiring florists lack confidence and I was wondering if you could share some advice on how to overcome this. With the success you have experienced on social media for example, do you ever get intimidated or get imposter syndrome and if you do, how do you overcome that?
Anna: Joining Instagram in the beginning definitely felt very free, experimental and new. I just wanted to create, to try things out, document and play. As Instagram and my account grew it was hard not to become fixated with the machine, an addiction you could say. Posting and receiving affirmation from some of your biggest inspirations was incredible but also unhelpful and obsessive. Alongside that the temptation for comparison also grew and the freedom i’d allowed myself now had walls and goals that were more preoccupied with what people liked, what I should be creating and what other people were creating. I was missing the beauty in the present moment because everything had become an opportunity for an insta shot. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband, children and team at the shop who quickly identify my BS. It’s a real journey and a constant practise of letting go of preconceived expectations and being stuck in my mind. Online breaks and disciplines help water the internal areas that have become fixed and cemented and I can then wildly return to the play and curiosity that I first loved about the platform.
Alicia: Your book, ‘The Flower Fix’ is such a beautiful collection of your work and gives the reader an insight into your creative process. How did you decide on the arrangements and colour palettes that you selected to include in the book?
Anna: I’d like to say they were very carefully planned and thought through but it really wasn’t the case. The seasons and availability were the main factor in deciding palette and flower choice. The environment where we would be working being the second. We shot over the course of a year and then collated all the shoots to present them in a colour order.
Alicia: We can’t ignore what is going on in the world right now. Here at Flourish Sussex we are encouraging people to get creative to act as a source of mindfulness. What are doing at the moment in isolation to keep your creative hands busy?
Anna: Creativity, nature, stillness, play, reading, digging. The closer to wild nature and its rhythms I can be the more space I feel internally. Finding a balance between planning for the coming months of business in a changed world and being completely present in the moment .
A big thank you to Anna. I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did. Join us next week where I will be asking my 5 questions to the legendary Rosebie Morton of The Real Flower Company.
Swallows and Damsons
Website: http://www.swallowsanddamsons.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swallowsanddamsons/