Gatherings in Bloom with Andrea K. Grist, Kansas City area floral artist (Episode 219)
November 11th, 2015
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Andrea K. Grist of Andrea K. Grist Floral Art, a Kansas City, Missouri-area floral designer.
I have another great conversation to share with you this week, one that is both unique to this guest’s personal story while also thoroughly symbolic of so many who have embraced the Slow Flowers Movement.
Andrea K. Grist is a wedding and event florist and owner of Lee Summit, Missouri, based studio, Andrea K. Grist Floral Art, which serves the Kansas City metro area. Andrea and I met through a Facebook conversation, which is similar to many of our social media/floral connections.
Earlier this year, Andrea reached out and told me she had been listening to the Slow Flowers Podcast and that she also had been reading my books.
That was a flattering connection, of course, but what impressed me since then, over the course of the past six or eight months, is that Andrea shared with me links to one of her blog posts discussing her visits to Missouri flower farms and featuring her designs and styled photo shoots using locally grown and American grown flowers.
All-local Missouri flowers designed by Andrea K. Grist (c) Erin Hernandez-Reisner
Andrea just published “Gatherings in Bloom” as a self-published e-book, also available as a print-on-demand book.
Eventually we set up a phone date to talk further and I asked Andrea to share her story on this podcast.
Andrea has had a successful career for more than 20 years, but in recent years, she wanted to stretch herself as a designer and as a small business owner.
She started seeking out what was going on in her profession and landed on the Slow Flowers Movement.
Even though most florists in her area weren’t asking for local flowers, Andrea began to do so.
One vase, one bouquet at a time, her work is changing the conversation in her community and for her customers.
Andrea is also a member of the Chapel Designers, and she recently self-published Gatherings in Bloom-Table Art for All Occasions with images by Freeland Photography.
The book is filled with beautiful images of table decor, floral design, and hometown stories about her inspirations and floral passions.
Missouri-grown flowers by Andrea K. Grist.
A floral still-life with local flowers and succulents (c) Erin Hernandez-Reisner
Meet and follow Andrea K. Grist here:
Read Andrea’s Blog Here
Preview and order Gatherings in Bloom here
Before we sign off, I have an announcement to share.
There is an abundance of holiday floral design and wreathmaking workshops going on right now, but one scheduled for next week promises to be unlike any other workshop I’ve heard about.
On November 17th, New York-based Slow Flowers member Elena Seegers of Le Fleuriste will be teaching a fall centerpiece how-to with branches fruits and berries.
Here’s the fun twist: The workshop will be held at Fluent City and include French conversation and vocabulary.
As Elena explained it to me Fluent City is a cool language start up where you learn and converse in different languages through social gatherings and workshops.
Floral Design and French Conversations!
“Students will learn how to choose and use branches and berries for their table designs, taught in a mixture of French and English.” I don’t know about you, but I would simply love to be part of this evening, which is affordably priced. [note: in the Podcast introduction I inaccurately stated a workshop price of $65. The actual price is $80 per student]
Thanks to the Slow Flowers Tribe, this podcast has been downloaded more than 71,000 times. Whether you’ve just discovered this Podcast or whether you’re a longtime listener, don’t forget that we’ve archived all of the past episodes at Debraprinzing.com – more than two years of conversations with American flower farmers and floral designers – leading voices in the progressive, American-grown community.
Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.
The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.
March 23rd, 2016 at 7:55 am
[…] then there is Andrea Grist of Andrea K. Grist Floral Art, a past guest of this podcast. Based in the Kansas City Area, Andrea brought her wonderful presentation “Gatherings in […]