Brissman Paul - Handpicked: simple, sustainable, and seasonal flower arrangements

For Stella

Editor: Laura Dozier

Designer: Najeebah Al-Ghadban

Production Manager: Denise LaCongo

Cover design: Najeebah Al-Ghadban

Front cover: See for instructions on how to make this arrangement that combines ranunculus, dahlias, snapdragons, carnations, jasmine, tea roses, and mixed foliage.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016941969

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2389-6
eISBN: 978-1-68335-006-4

Copyright 2017 Ingrid Carozzi, Eva Nyqvist, Paul Brissman, and Massolit Frlag
English translation copyright 2017 Abrams

Published originally in Swedish as Brooklyn Flowers by Massolit Frlag, Stockholm, Sweden

Published in 2017 by Abrams, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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I have yet to meet a person who doesnt like flowers. Everyone loves to be surprised by a bouquet, and who hasnt picked up some flowers on the way home from work? Nothing transforms your home like freshly cut flowers; they bring a sense of joy and beauty as only children and music can.

Books can also transform the home, giving a room new life and purpose. I love books and I was overjoyed when I was asked to bring this book from Sweden, where it was first published, to the United States, where I have made my home for the past fifteen years.

The world of floral design is in the midst of a transformation, and much of this can be traced back to Brooklyn, where I live and work. Here we tend to focus more on the natural and loose styles that Ive come to love, with less emphasis on traditional rules, leaving room for us to create something innovative and exciting. So I am thrilled at the opportunity to share these new ideas on flower arrangements in Handpickedincluding how I recycle and reuse objects not traditionally used for displaying flowers. I hope this book will inspire you, and that you find my ideas and guidance usefulthat, over the years, this book will get stained and dog-eared, like my cookbooks, and that you will make notes in the margins.

I have only been a florist for a few years. It was a confluence of luck, timing, and my background that led me to this field. I was born in Canada to a Swedish mother and an Italian father and spent most of my childhood moving around. My parents werent artists, but they certainly appreciated art, and both had an eye for design. Sometimes we would have a garden, sometimes a porch or a terrace, but wherever we set down our temporary roots, my mother made sure there were potted plants and flowers. My father was an avid amateur photographer, capturing our lives with his Hasselblad camera. I love taking pictures, too, most often of my beautiful daughter, Stella, and my flowers. Photographs document moments that would otherwise fade away, creating memories for us to cherish forever. I was so pleased to see that Paul, the photographer for this book, works with the same type of camera as my dad!

Before getting my art degree from Parsons School of Design, I worked as an event planner for the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York. When my former boss called me up in 2012, it had been a few years since Id left, so I was surprised when she asked if I would work on an event for them. It was a symposium called From Farm to Fork, a black-tie affair where growers, chefs, and food purveyors are invited to share their philosophies and ideas on food and sustainability over a great meal. She wanted me to come up with a design concept for the event, focusing on flower arrangements.

I love a challenge, and sometimes you just have to trust the people who put their trust in you. I had no previous experience with flowers, but as a designer, I knew concept development. My thoughts went immediately to what brought all these people together: fresh produce and sustainability!

). The From Farm to Fork event was a huge hit, and has become a yearly event for the Chamber. And it certainly was a big deal for me, too.

The event industry can be unnecessarily wasteful. During my time as an event planner, I witnessed over and over how a whole party venue was cleared out. Everything, from untouched food platters to beautiful flower arrangements in their vases, was stuffed into garbage bags and tossed into a dumpster. I figured there had to be a better way.

At the end of that first event, I collected all my flowers and brought them with me back to Brooklyn. The next day I stuck a few arrangements in my bicycle basket and started to deliver them to local business owners in my area. They were so happy to receive these gifts, and the next time they or someone they knew needed flowers for an event, they called me, because they had seen my work. I never had to advertise or do any traditional marketingmy flowers spoke for me! And that is how my business started: door to door, gift by gift.

The people I know on this side of the Brooklyn Bridge are especially keen on recycling things, reclaiming old building materials, and repurposing stuff that otherwise would have ended up at the dump. This has raised awareness of sustainability as a worthy cause, for sure, but it has also laid groundwork for the ever-evolving cool and eclectic style that is the essence of the Brooklyn brand. When the Brooklyn Flea opened in Williamsburg in 2008, it was evident just how great the yearning for everything old, or secondhand, had become. More and more people were looking for items with soul and character. At that time, I was working as a designer for Recycled Brooklyn, a company that builds furniture from salvaged wood and metal. I had a small space there that I really liked, but as my business took off, and theirs grew, too, it was time to move on. And that is how I came to set up shop in the space that is now called Tin Can Studios.

When I started to build my business, I hesitated at first to take on weddings. They seemed unnecessarily stressful. But Im so glad I decided to go in this direction, since in addition to branded and corporate events, weddings are now one of our main focuses. Not much is more satisfying than being able to contribute to the beauty of a wedding, to share such a happy day. In Brooklyn, we also have some of the most amazing wedding venues, from wineries and rooftops to tiny backyards, old stables, and raw spaces, such as the Wythe Hotel and Pioneer Works (see ). This environment has informed my aesthetic and the overall approach to flower arranging that youll see in the pages to follow.