Weddings are personal, very often emotional events. They are the kind of occasion where if you know the bride and groom well you want to give them something truly special. An item that not only shows that you care for them, but also shows that you understand something more about them personally.
I quite often have clients bring (or tell) me the flowers that they had in their wedding bouquet and I will press them into the porcelain clay to make a lighting piece or tile panel, in the colours that they want.
One of the most difficult wedding floral lamps that I made was for a group of friends who had got together after the wedding to collaborate on commissioning a lamp for the couple. The bride was one of their best friends so they wanted to commission a porcelain light for the couple based on the floral theme of the wedding - which was Orchids.
The stems of the Orchid are thick but the flowers, in contrast, are soft and subtle in texture. The combination of getting the two pressed evenly into the clay was quite challenging.
I had to press the petals hard enough that you could see the subtlety of their form impressed in the clay surface, but I didn’t want to press the stems so hard that they would tear the clay completely. It took several attempts to get it right and quite a few trips to the florist!
It was worth it in the end because the bride and groom were deeply touched with their personalised wedding lamp from their friends. They appreciated the group effort that their friends had gone to to celebrate their special day and the personalized element of the gift.