Field Notes #1: Silhouette Practice
Traditionally, field notes are raw observations recorded while immersed in real life. This series is my version as part of my floral design journal — documenting explorations in this practice as it unfolds. Experiments, small discoveries, frustrations, and quiet moments of clarity. Three days of practice. Three sets of notes. Written in the moment.
Field Notes #1: what transpired towards the direction of the prompt "Silhouette" after some tête-à-tête with AI (sorry but I really was at my wit's end at this point) on what I could anchor my focus on. Honestly, I simply went ahead with it, not wanting to stay too stuck on perfection overthinking and over-planning my personal learning curriculum, since during this time I've been raw-dogging alone out in the sea of infinite possibilities. So I really had to decide on one direction first, strive towards it, and then clarify the next few steps ahead - repeat and iterate. 🌊🫧🕵️
Index
🌱 Feb 26, 2026 — Tall and Narrow
Day 1/3 - Thursday, 4:23pm-6:49pm
Visual Supplement: Instagram - 8 March 2026
Materials
- Rose spray (yellow)
- Sweet verbena (purple, light pink, white)
- local Chinese celery
- English parsley
Suggested Prompt
“Silhouette - strengthen into shape awareness. Clear outline. Intentional negative space. One dominant gesture.”
- Tall and narrow
- Low and horizontal
- Asymmetrical and directional
Reflections
This session was a slow, sluggish one - I felt stuck at some points, and I was also trying to conserve as much of the materials for the next few days too. It does bring to mind that practice can’t be a monthly thing; it has to be more regular than my initial schedule of one monthly three-day session, because with this current plan, I find that I need the first day to ‘warm up’.
The shape was okay, it was tall but not quite narrow, and I feel it’s too bottom-heavy... Not that happy with it. I was running out of time for this practice session. Tomorrow’s a new day I can most definitely start earlier with!
↑ Index · Next Day → · Final Day ⇉
🌱 Feb 27, 2026 — Asymmetrical and Directional
Day 2/3 - Friday, 3:30pm-6pm
Visual Supplement: Instagram - 11 March 2026
Today became more about observing materials.
Sweet Verbena
The purple ones have a subtle sweet scent with a creamy undertone. It was such a pleasant surprise when I caught whiffs of it and realised it was from the purple sweet verbena, because it has a light and comforting effect on me. Curiously, the light pink & white ones just smell grassy.
Overall, the form of sweet verbena feels dainty to me but it is very sturdy due to the stems - I like it and would like to try using more of this in different heights and clusters!
English Parsley
Sharp spicy scent with grassy-herbal afternotes. When super fresh and in good condition, the leaves are crinkly and crisp = finer texture. The not-so-fresh ones are limp and soggy, and the leaves loose their tautness and smoothens out into a flatter surface.
Kitchen enthusiasts may already know this trick, but this was actually my first time doing it to store the remaining bunch for the next day: keeping the stems submerged in water overnight, in the fridge (most of the few limp and soggy ones recovered).
Potential for base cover and moss alternative. I kept it half-submerged in water overnight (Singapore’s room temperature) and it held pretty well - no rotting.
Chinese Celery
My most favourite material to work with for this week’s practice sessions.
I finally bought my own kenzan! Local Chinese celery makes it easier to work with the kenzan base mechanic as a beginner (so sharp...). It needs to be fresh and well hydrated or it won’t stand and hold long enough. With this, it’s easy to stick into the kenzan but it’s also easy for it to break.
Side note: oddly funny when I think about how from a food and nutrition context, I know celery has high water content. But when it came to using it in this context, I forgot all about that until I saw the change in form when keeping the celery stored in a vase of water throughout vs on the table as is outside of water, and the next day after being chilled in the fridge overnight.
I don’t really like the stems’ tone of green but since I’m currently focused on studying form and structure, colour doesn’t matter as much to me yet. The standard celery has lines along the stems, top to bottom, that offers more texture. This local Chinese celery does not.
I love the way the leaves contribute to the shape and space overall. They spread wide enough like a jagged-edge fan, so you don’t need a lot for a small piece. When lucky, I like the natural nodes of the leaves and the way they grew out.
I kept all of them naturally, no clipping of ‘strays’. This is something I find that I tend to also have a challenge with when it comes to making arrangements - I’m just so drawn to the natural form so much, I can get a little too precious when there’s a need to ‘prune’ and fine-tune the details... Something I’m still learning and working on :)
Rose Spray
Bought on Wednesday, today is Friday and I’m surprised the petals are starting to fall off and break down. The supermarket I get them from seems to restock on Wednesdays because that’s when the holders look fullest and freshest.
I like the layers of layers for its lines, and those lines create enough texture for a mini neuro bubble bath for the brain (term coined by neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki). In full bloom, there isn’t much of a need for ‘makeup’ unless you consider brushing it with some additional layer of colour (something I’ve seen online).
I am also surprised at myself for picking these in yellow, but I was simply drawn to it on the day of purchase.
↑ Index · ← Previous Day · Next Day →
🌸 Feb 28, 2026 — Low and Horizontal
Day 3/3 - Saturday, 2:50pm-6:50pm
Visual Supplement: Instagram - 16 March 2026
Quick notes on mechanics + flow state reflection...
Kenzan
I am noticing the mechanical constraints of the surface area available, as I decided to layer the outer pins with Micro Pea Tendrils for Low/Horizontal work. The size I got was 8cm and I started feeling the constraints of the small surface area in trying to secure the materials.
I’m also curious as to how people get used to the sharpness of the pin frogs. And how do they push down materials all the way through safely? I struggled with that for this piece, so the attachments weren’t as secure and it also led to the challenge of stacking the materials. How do people deal with the sharp pins without the use of another stick/tool?
I got pricked and scratched quite a fair bit. My skin is kind of thin, so maybe I should return to using the 3M gloves I bought for floristry? Sad thought, since the tactile feel-good I get when touching most of the materials by hand will be restricted. On the other hand, there are some materials that don't feel good handling without gloves, and I know there are also materials that contain high toxins even for humans, be it in its natural biology or human-imposed pesticide loads.
I also struggled with sticking the verbena in as the stems were really thin - sturdy but thin - so the main bulk of the frustration I encountered today was securing the materials in properly, when I decided to go with using up all the remaining celery.
It was good that I didn’t hold myself back with finishing up the celery because bit by bit, the composition started to form into the complete work that I am now happy with and it’s my current favourite.
Micro Pea Tendrils
Love the form of the tendrils; so unruly, so unconventional, yet very organic. It is a micro green produce, so I’ve yet to imagine further possibilities for now, but I would like to explore with this more in the future.
I instantly wanted to use it as is vertically when I bought it, but my hands naturally deviated to working with it horizontally. This added to the challenge of working with the kenzan. I couldn’t flush it all the way down so the outermost circumference made it harder to add other materials = smaller surface to work with.
Ginger Flower
This was a spur-of-the-moment purchase to experiment with. However, I took this out towards the end of today’s final practice session so I didn’t have much thoughts working through it - I was already in a specific flow state. Mind offline, body in full control. What I can remember on hindsight:
Taking it out of the fridge after two days of storage, I saw the flower head had broken off from the stem. At first I thought, “Oh no...” But it didn’t matter in the end.
The petals were stuck to each other because of condensation. I don’t know what I was expecting, but peeling them open felt more delicate than I thought it would though not necessarily so in reality.
It smelled really refreshing :)
P.S. This mixture of materials smell so amazingly healing by the end of the third (final) day: ginger flower, English parsley, Chinese celery, sweet verbena. Herbal, but energising.