Completed An Expert Florist's Kit

[Shade]

10th of Fall, 522 A.V.

Shadekas had an armful of exotic flowers. He’d spent the morning carefully harvesting them from in and around Syka. He’d carried them through the Dovecote to his newfound friend Otto who was a florist in The Outpost. Otto had loaned him his notes on basic floristry in exchange for some fresh flowers, so Shade had Otto’s notebook tucked into his pack and a long mental list from the Florist’s journal on what he needed to pick up to supply Blooms and Bangles with the tools he’d need to perform his newfound art. Shade never pictured himself as a florist. After his long life as a Monk filled with the stress and strains of whatever came out of the Aperture in Nyka, he found the simple art of gathering, cutting, and displaying flowers to be relaxing, inspiring and in many ways therapeutic. It was a surprise to him as well how floral arrangements and the art of floristry were in and of itself fairly technical. And the tools he needed were definitely not going to be cheap.

Otto had agreed to join him for the outing, and after depositing his latest delivery of fresh cut flowers for the Florist, the two men set off together – mentor and apprentice. It was a situation Shade was familiar with and one he was more than comfortable sharing with Otto. The older man, having lived a long and colorful life, was good company. And Shade found himself opening up to the elder a lot more easily than he had to a lot of the other denizens of Syka. He was a virtual stranger to most of them, though not from the lack of trying. He just hadn’t seemed to be talented enough to make a connection or even have friendships that went deeper with more than casual nods and smiles exchanged in passing. Otto, however, was a man he could talk to.

“So today we are going to get tools, right?” Shade asked, eyebrows raised in curiosity.

Otto nodded. “Sure. And you’ll be surprised at how much you're going to spend on them, Shade. You need multiple sets for different things. The tools for a bouquet, for example, might be completely different than the tools you need for table arrangements. You're also going to have a core set of tools that floral designers need. You’ll need tools for flower processing or for cut flower preparation, and you’ll need studio tools too. And on top of that, you’ll need containers of all sorts for your arrangements. I’ll take you by the second-hand places that sell vases, little bowls, decorative art, and even old water pitchers and show you what to look for in those sorts of things. In that way, the cheaper the better. I can also show you how to fix up pretty badly worn containers and make them look new again. Sometimes all you need is a good jug of gold pigment or paint to make something that looks like trash become treasure.” The old man said. “Then, when all our shopping and learning is done, you are going to feed me lunch,” Otto added, grinning. He was missing several teeth, Shadekas noted, though that wasn’t uncommon in someone his age. Otto was in his early seventies… an almost unheard-of age for Mizahar. Shade happened to think it was because he designed flowers all his life, and lived wholesomely and not dangerously.

[Shade]

Shade wanted that to be him as well.

They wove through the Open Sky Bazaar and Otto – with the speed of a man two or three decades younger – made Shade hurry to keep pace. Finally, in a lone section out of the way, they came upon a flower market that to one side sold florist tools. Here, Otto produced a basket from the front of the booth – a booth that spanned multiple booths – and walked into the area seemingly delighted to be shopping with Shade. “The first thing we’ll work on is bouquet work. For making them, you’ll need clean snips or clippers. You’ll use them daily and frequently, in almost every instant of your work. Don’t skimp on the quality.” With that, Otto perused a section of clippers, trying several, before he put a nice solid set into the basket.

Shade raised an eyebrow. “Why those?” He asked.

Otto was quick to answer. “Big enough for your hands, steel blade, good workmanship, not fancy… they are workhorses without being pretty.” He added.

Shade nodded as Otto gestured to a display of gloves. “Pick yourself out a set of light gloves that fit well and look well sewn.” He instructed. Shade did ask Otto asked, picking through the gloves available, trying several pairs on, and placing one set in the basket Otto held.

“Good.”

“Next we need bouquet ties and wrap. Ribbon or twine work well. We’ll get several rolls of each, in a wide variety of colors though your jungle flowers are vivid, not pastel so stick with the saturated colors or utterly neutrals. Complimentary colors or contrasting colors also work well.” He indicated displays of ribbon and twine. Otto watched as Shade selected black, tan, and green twine, then added about a half dozen rolls of plain floral ribbon in bright colors to the basket.

“What about the wrap?” Shade asked, not knowing what that was.

“When you build a bouquet for someone and they take it home… you don’t just give them the flowers, boy. You show some class and wrap them up in bright paper or cloth. We have both here. Fine tissue paper or fine dyed linen works well. We’ll take a roll of each, both plain, because we want them to frame the flower and not outshine them.” Otto said, adding a bundle of linen and a bundle of tissue paper to the basket.

Shade, standing in front of an array of odd looking scissors, pointed at them. “Won’t we need some of these for the twine, wrap, and even the bouquets themselves?” He asked.

Otto nodded, glanced over the selection, and plucked a pair up and put them in the basket. “You are right. You’ll need them. They come in handy for cutting ribbons and paper.” He added. “And finally, that selection of containers and vases. We’ll skip that for now, and grab some at some second-hand booths later today before lunch. I use a lot of jars from canned goods and bottles from beer.” He added, giving Shade a grin.

Shade nodded with a laugh. “Good way to reuse containers used for other things. I can see now how I’ll have to change my mindset.” He added. “Sounds like anything can be a container.” He suggested.

[Shade]

Otto laughed and nodded. “True enough. I’ve even used wine barrels and small beer kegs. Just cut them in half.” He suggested and then they were off again.

“Now, if you are building flower arrangements for tables – whether its centerpieces, or just for your own home – you’ll still have to have certain tools on hand. “Some of them are the same you need for bouquets, but that just means you buy really good quality in terms of multiple use items.” Otto suggested, and ran down his own internal master list touching the things in the basket they already had gathered. “Clippers, containers – again we’ll get some later – gloves, flower frogs…. Before you ask, these are some of the most essential tools for flower arrangements and you’ll have to know how to use them. I’ll give you a lesson in them later after lunch.” Otto added, but walked over to a section of the booth that had flower frogs on display. Shade looked closely and realized the little things were creatures of lead, pottery, glass, and bronze that were designed to live in the water at the bottom of a bowl or vase and keep the trickiest flower arrangements firmly in place. Some looked like pincushions. Others looked like wire maws filled with sharp teeth to impale the thick ends of flower stems on. He smiled as Otto added a wide variety of them into the basket.

Then, surprisingly, Otto added a water can. “You’ll find these handy when you need to fill or top off containers after you’ve done your arrangements.” He simply explained, causing Shade to nod.

“Thank you for doing this. I would have been clueless and lost wandering through this sort of selection.” Shade told the older man, and Otto nodded.

“Been a while since I’ve had any sort of apprentice or someone like you to Mentor. It feels good to share what I know at my age.” He added.

“Now… you’ll need core tools. That of course includes your clippers, gloves, and frogs. You’ll need the twin and ribbons as well. But added to that is Floral Clay… which is like waterproof florist mud that won’t dissolve in water but will keep flower frogs and chicken wire secure on the bottom of your containers.” He said, plucking up a couple of bricks of the clay off the counter in the booth and putting them in Shade’s basket.

Shade, meanwhile, nodding absently, had wandered further around one of the corners of the booth to spin several round stands that seemed to have rotating platforms on them. He looked puzzled at the items, causing Otto to laugh. “That’s called a lazy susan. You’ll need a variety of them in multiple sizes because you can rotate your work easily with just a quick spin and see how your floral work is doing at any vantage.” Otto explained, adding a trio of the platforms to the basket in a graduating set of sizes. Shade nodded, understanding. He was picking up so much from this older man, and all for the price of some cut flowers from Syka.

[Shade]

Turning back towards where the flower frogs were displayed, Otto picked up something next to them. The smaller ones looked like tiny cages or fluffed pillows that one could press flowers into, working much like the flower frogs did. But the larger ones baffled Shade as to how they were used. “Flower Cages and Pillows. You’ll need them in various shapes and sizes. You set them on top of whatever container you are using to build a bouquet in and wrap it with twine to hold them down. Then you use the grid on the cage to guide and support your placement of flowers.” Otto explained when Shade made a questionable raise of his eyebrow, not certain what the far larger varieties did.

With that, Otto moved on explaining to Shade that he’d eventually have to get enough ribbon and twine to have something called a Ribbon Library and that the same went for containers so he had a Container Library. It was all about ramping up his floristry game a bit. By having a variety of container shapes and styles – the same with ribbon and twine – that allows more creativity to flow and adds variety to one’s arrangements.
“That’s about all you’ll need for the bouquets. Now… lets think about keeping flowers fresh. You’ll need a bit of willow bark extract to add to the water to keep most cut flowers fresh. Larger flowers you can dunk in boiling water and it opens up the stems and keeps them fresh longer. I think the boiling water technique will work for most of your large tropicals you bring me. I’m going to assume you have a kettle at home for a way to boil water and a container to dunk the stems in.” Otto explained.

Shade nodded, and reached out to fiddle with a mister bottle that hung from a peg near some other bottles that looked like they were sealed neatly and could be pumped for pressure and sprayed across plants. “Spray bottles?” He asked.

Otto nodded. “Get yourself a good sized one. Misting flowers and spritzing to keep dust off décor is important.” Otto explained as Shade picked one from the displays and held it up for Otto’s inspection. At the older man’s nod, he put it in the basket, then took the now overflowing basket from the old man.

“Let me carry that.” He offered as Otto smiled.

“The other thing you might need, depending upon how Syka is, could be a stockpile of bracelet cuffs, headbands, and pins for things like corsages and boutonnieres. There were premade packages of such things displayed, and Otto grabbed a couple of packs to place in Shade’s now full basket.

Shade set the thing down and looked Otto over. “You mentioned flower processing? What does that mean?” He asked, cocking a hip against one of the counters and studying Otto trying to understand what that concept might be. “IS that the same as flower arranging?” He asked.

[Shade]

Otto shook his head. “We call it flower processing in the field, but its really just cut flower preparation. Cut flowers take a lot of care. There’s a whole host of time and effort put into preparing and caring for delicate perishable cut flowers before they reach your customers and your customer’s events. I will teach you what I know about the processes later, but for now we are still talking tools. Some of the same apply, of course, like clippers, gloves, spray bottles, and the like. You’ll need clean buckets for the flowers, because most arrangements will have to be done on sight if you are transporting them a long way. Which reminds me. When you cut and gather the flowers in and around Syka, take a bucket with clean cold water with you and as soon as you cut them, put them in the bucket. Don’t carry them in bundles like you did today. They will last far longer in the buckets. So while here isn’t the best place to pick up buckets, grab a few to suit your needs. You’ll know the sizes and depths by which flowers you work with routinely.” Otto explained.

Shade moved on in the large booth and they came upon some odd tools. He looked at them curiously, but Otto was obviously delighted.

“Now we’re talking. You’ll need a thorn stripper. It’s like a pair of pilers with a blade that slices off thorns neatly… you just clamp them around the stem and drag them down from bloom to base. Neat as a pin. And these are flower stem cutters… or bunch cutters. You always want to give a bouquet fresh angled cuts to keep them looking great. You’ll be doing this regularly so have a sharp efficient tool ready to save time and keep your hand pain to a minimum.” He advised, tossing both tools into the basket by tucking them into open spaces down the sides.

Shade looked thoughtful. “We have to be about done shopping…” He said, worried he’d be broke after this trip.

Otto smiled. “This shouldn’t be more than 50 gm. It’s basically a Florist’s Kit.” Then he looked thoughtfully at the items in Shade’s basket. “Really, with everything in there, the only thing left to talk about is the fact you need a decently large worktable to arrange flowers on. Good worktables are hard to find, but they don’t need to be fancy. They just need to have surface area. As sink helps tremendously too… especially if you have a hand pump at it to always get fresh cold water. And the other thing you’ll need to be doing is getting something to sterilize your equipment with. You can use a low grade alcohol to do this with. Keep a container of really strong cheap moonshine on your counter and dip your tools into it between projects. Vinegar to keep your glassware waterdroplet stain free and shiny. Other than that, you should be more than good to go.” Otto said, then grinned.

“Lets go get lunch and I’ll teach you how to use frogs. Then we can hit my workshop and I’ll show you a few basic techniques to do some basic bouquets and then you’ll owe me another bundle of tropical flowers.” Otto added, grinning. “It drives my competors crazy that I am getting them from you at zero cost… while they are paying premium from traders.” He added, waiting for Shade to check out.

The basket was unpacked at the counter, the tally was added, and its contents were stowed in Shade’s backpack of holding carefully. Otto had been right. It was exactly 50 GM for the whole of the Florist’s Kit. And while Shade thought the money excessive, the information Otto provided him with was invaluable. He was glad to see the old man off to lunch and the talk they were going to have there.

Words: 2780

[Shade]

GRADING

Shade –

Floristry +5, Bartering +1, Socialization +5, Interrogation +4

Floristry: The Individual Tools Needed To Be a Florist of Three Types, Interrogation: Why Some Tools Work And Some Don’t (Size, Shape, Fit), Floristry: The Importance Of Gloves, Floristry – Wrapped and Bound Arrangements Show Class, Floristry: Anything Can Be A Container (Tubs, Jars, Pitchers, Old Pots, Etc), Otto: Quickly Becoming A Mentor, Floristry Kit: The Contents Of A Floristry Kit And What Those Contents Are Used For, Floristry: How To Keep Flowers Fresh, Floristry: Keep Fresh Cut Flowers In Buckets Of Cold Water

Acquisition: A Florists Toolkit (-50 GM)