Tell us about your involvement in the RockStar Florists competition as a judge?
I’ve always felt like it is important to be involved and support our amazing flower community and The Rockstar Florist Comp sounded like the perfect opportunity to encourage and promote some of the new comers to the industry.
How would you describe your approach to floristry in food form and why?
Market fresh, seasonal grazing menu
What are your best memories as a florist?
Up a ladder on Park Lane in London, suspending fresh christmas decorations from the awning of the Dorchester hotel at 3AM
Tell us a little about your daily routine in the studio etc….
Market mornings we are up at 3am and heading to the wholesale flower market to pick up our orders from growers and stumble across those seasonal surprises from our wholesalers. Then back to the studio to unload vans check in with my team and start making and organising the events we have on for the day or weekend. Then the day begins making, installing, prepping and delivering.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
We are very luck to share a studio with a vibrant community of young contemporary artists who are our constant inspiration as well as the obvious – Nature herself.
Which song do you wish you wrote?
Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations
What’s your scene?
Hmmm I dont know if we have a scene – Maybe there is a flower scene?
About Mel Stapleton
Mel Stapelton from Celia Fox thrives on hard work and is totally dedicated to her artistry expressed in her floral arrangements. Cecilia Fox is a bespoke floral studio based in Melbourne, and guided by the fleeting beauty of the ever changing seasons, their floral work comes from an intense respect for nature and its wild abundance. Industry superstar Mel from Cecilia Fox has joined the judging panel for Tesselaar’s RockStar Florists competition, Australia’s premier online floristry contest running now until the end of October.
At the heart of Cecilia Fox is a love of flowers. Under the guidance of Director Melanie Stapleton, her team of creative individuals compose arrangements of the utmost quality and poignancy. Appreciation of form, texture and tone are matched with a vigorous desire to share the many ways of experiencing the botanical world and Mel shapes her floristry masterpieces with this ethos guiding her.
The name Cecilia Fox is a dual homage that pays tribute to both of Melanie’s grandmothers – Cecilia belonging to her paternal grandmother, and Fox being her maternal grandmother’s surname. Encouraged by her mother to pursue an apprenticeship at her local florist, Melanie left school at 16 and has never looked back. Her love for flowers spans over 20 years, and has seen her leave her native New Zealand to work in London and Europe. It was here that Melanie sharpened her skills, working with some of UK’s top florists. All along the way gathering ideas and inspiration, so when she settled in Melbourne in 2004 the seed of Cecilia Fox was firmly planted. Many years of hard work and much support from her partner Jamie, today Cecilia Fox is a thriving family business. Mel will join two other expert leaders in the flower industry field to judge the 2016 Tesselaar RockStar Florists competition running until the end of October.
Joining Mel will be Julia-Rose and Holly Hipwell from Flower Drum/Badass Club, all adding the essential showbiz razzle dazzle to the competition. The three industry superstars are bona-fide Australian RockStar Florists themselves who will help select the finalists plus the ultimate winners. They will also then offer their valuable time and expertise to train up the lucky winners.
In the rock and roll terms, Mel would be the Kylie Minogue of the floral world. In the same way Kylie worked very hard from a young age and always stuck to her guns to carve a niche for herself in the music business, so Mel has approached the floral industry; using her unique style and mastery of the craft to create some timeless classics along the road to making a name for herself as a floral artist to be reckoned with.
The art of floristry has come a very long way from the posies of yesteryear featuring a few daggy Happy Birthday/Get Well Soon helium balloons, an ugly teddy bear and some Baby’s Breath stuck in for good measure. Enter the floral designers of today who, like Holly, Melaine and Julia-Rose, are a brash, predominately young, hip generation of fashion-forward creatives, who painstakingly produce highly sophisticated creations of floral art, made with blood, sweat and tears over countless hours, all in an ode to the divinity of flowers and a quest for artistry in all things floral beauty. With their devotion to their art, and their savvy use of social media, top florists can earn themselves hundreds of thousands of followers, enabling some of these high achievers in the floral world fame and fortune akin to that reserved for rock stars.
Melbourne based national flower wholesalers Tesselaar Flowers are embracing this renaissance in the floristry arena (where florists are becoming The Kardashians of the social media world), and are shining a light on these florist rock stars via their annual floristry competition, which aims to harness the respect and accolades Australia’s talented florists deserve.
To achieve this aim, the Tesselaar’s ‘RockStar Florists’ Competition, which is held over the entirety of October, presents the perfect platform for established and aspiring florists alike to showcase their amazing skills and battle it out for some much coveted prizes. The final winners are judged by an amazing team of luminary and famous judges from the floristry world in their own right.
RockStar Florists opens for entries on the 1st October and closes at midnight on October 31st, 2016. Entry is free and open to all Australian floral creators/future florist RockStars.
For more info or to enter go to www.RockStarFlorists.com
First 2016 entries gallery now live on the RockStar Florists website!