Charlotte Bartholomé: A spring full of pastel colours
Time to get to know our [email protected] floral artists a little better! Charlotte Bartholomé has been part of the Fleur Créatif team for over 10 years. She always knows how to surprise us with romantic and hip flower arrangements! For the springtime special, Charlotte has made some gorgeous creations with pastel coloured flowers. ‘Those are perfect for this season’, she tells us.
Who is Charlotte Bartholomé?
? She is a professional floral designer and has had her very own flower shop for five years (‘Charlotte Bartholomé Créatrice florale’ in Meslin-l’Evêque, Belgium).
? In addition to her training to become a floral designer, she also received a Green Academy master’s degree in Ghent. This course was organised by An Theunynck (editor-in-chief Fleur Créatif).
? She has been working on the inspiring Fleur [email protected] editions since 2012. After almost 10 years, she is still just as enthusiastic!
? She participated with Sören Van Laer in the European Championship of Euroskills in 2012 and took home the gold medal.
? She loves all the flowers, but in spring she prefers to work with the romantic Ranunculus. A simple, but very beautiful flower with beautiful varieties and colours!
Follow Charlotte on Instagram and Facebook.
‘Flowers bring happiness’
FLEUR: Hello Charlotte, thanks for giving us a minute of your time. The floral arrangements you bring to [email protected] special springtime are – as usual – again of a high level. We would like to know a little bit more about your work process! Flowers and floral art, what do they mean to you?
CHARLOTTE: ‘For me, floral art is a way to let my creativity run wild. You can go in all directions with flowers: you can work with different structures or a mixture of colours… I think that’s fantastic. As a florist, you put your feelings and emotion into your arrangements. They tell a story and allow you to express yourself.
The nice thing about being a florist is that you get to make people happy. Flowers bring happiness, joy and support. They are perfect for any occasion.’
FLEUR: How would you describe your personal style? What characterises your floral arrangements?
CHARLOTTE: ‘My work is usually romantic and very feminine, I think. I like to make floral arrangements where the colours are in harmony. These can be soft colours or bright ones, but it must be a beautiful whole and the different colours must match each other well. I don’t like great contrasts in a floral arrangement.’
FLEUR: In the latest edition of Fleur Cré[email protected], you work with some enchanting pastel colours. They’re very trendy right now. Do you consciously follow the trends or do you tend to do your own thing?
CHARLOTTE: ‘I am a huge fan of soft pastel colours! I think they are perfect for spring. I know they are also very trendy at the moment. We do try to follow them a bit, but it actually mainly depends on what the customer likes. I do try to put something of myself in my floral arrangements, and give a personal touch to the creation. Moreover, I also like flowers in bright colours very much…. For me, it really depends on the season.’
FLEUR: Where do you get your inspiration for your floral creations? Are there other florists that inspire you or that you admire?
CHARLOTTE: ‘There are a lot of good florists in Belgium. I truly love the work of my colleagues from the [email protected] team: Geert Pattyn, Chantal Post, Thomas De Bruyn, Moniek Vanden Berghe, Sören Van Laer,… I’m also very inspired by the world around me. Every week I go to the auction where I get to see beautiful flowers and floral arranging materials. When I see something, I have a pretty good idea what I want to start experimenting with right away.
Often I also get new ideas just by surfing on Facebook and Instagram. For instance, I’m following a young baker on social media. Not just anyone, but someone who makes floral cakes. That’s very inspiring to me. So I’m not just inspired by pictures of beautiful flowers.’
FLEUR: Our favourite from the [email protected] spring special is the spring creation with lots of floral circles. How did you come up with that idea?
CHARLOTTE: ‘I had a wooden bowl in the store. The colour of the bottom of that tray wasn’t that pretty anymore, and so I wanted to touch it up a bit. I pasted some paper with a cheerful print along the inside of the tray. Afterwards, I wanted the shapes and colours of the tray and paper to be reflected in the floral arrangement. Hence the choice of circles (from rattan) and spring flowers in pink, white and yellow hues.’
‘My favourite from the springtime special is the table decoration with clematis, Ranunculus and a lot of other pink flowers. I really like this one, and it was also really challenging to make. The hard part is that it is a pretty long piece. The structure of the flowers and the oasis floral foam must stand firm on the base, and it has to be straight.
FLEUR: Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
CHARLOTTE: ‘The Fleur Creatif Magazine is a real source of inspiration, also for my customers. The magazine is always in my store. This way, the customers can browse it and be inspired in case they want a more special floral arrangement. A customer asked me quite recently to make that very table decoration for her. That was fun for them and for me!’
FLEUR: Thank you very much for the lovely interview, Charlotte!
Looking for creative ideas for spring and summer?
[email protected] florist Charlotte Bartholomé gives you lots of flower ideas in the new Fleur Cré[email protected] Special Springtime. Order yours here.
