A breath of fresh air is exactly how I would describe Sybil Sylvester. Scroll back several years ago in Atlanta when I first met Sybil at a dinner hosted by Margot Shaw, owner of Flower Magazine. The next day I was to be on a panel at ADAC and Sybil was to give a demonstration on floral design. I was very short on time and should have gone to see a couple antique dealers. Because I had spent time with Sybil the night before and was so charmed by her down to earth approach, her sincerity, and her downright determination to make sure that her audience left her presentation empowered and fearless with flowers, I just had to bear witness to whatever this little redheaded fireball had to share. Share she did.
Fresh is her approach to her arrangements and to her business. What will delight you in this book first and foremost is that that approach lacks rules. Sybil begs you to experiment and to play. She encourages you to personalize with containers foraged for or temporarily forgotten in the back of closet and with things not designed as containers at all, they just look like a good idea waiting to happen.
She believes that a walk in the woods can be like a treasure hunt producing curly branches, roots, pinecones, nuts and bark that looks like sculpture. Found objects can add measurably to your raw materials making your flower arranging possibilities infinite! Sybil would not want you to feel limited in any way, and FRESH is evidence of that.
We have all had those moments when the arrangement that looked great before we went to bed, well, it just had a bad night and nothing will revive it. So maybe you should start with Sybil’s FIRST RULE where she shares, once again, six easy steps to prep your flowers so they are just as happy in the morning as they were before bedtime. Think of FIRST RULE as insurance, solid advice from a pro, so go right to page 234 and listen up. Then to page 250 for your shopping list of supplies to make you look like a pro. THEN, fix a cup of tea, settle in to your favorite place to read FRESH and let Sybil tell you the rest.
Text from Charlotte Moss’ foreword in FRESH.
