Pirtti: I'm going to need a lot of flowers!
The Floral Society: Hold my beer.
FLOWER-FILLED STUDIO
For our latest collaboration, Sierra of The Floral Society asked me to dye some pieces using some expired flowers from her studio. It was going well—my organic cotton bandanas and linen placemats and napkins were sewn and mordanted. But as the project got underway, I quickly realized I was going to need a lot more flowers. When dyeing with fresh flowers, more is more. In past botanical bundle dye projects, I've even doubled the process to fill in sparse areas. I love the rich texture and patterning that is created when a bundle is overstuffed with plant material. It's why I can't always offer botanical bananas and table linens. They are a rare treat!
With that—wedding season came to my rescue.
The Floral Society’s sister company, Poppies and Posies, had a wedding approaching and said that afterward, they could send the leftover flowers my way. I pictured a few buckets of flowers—the extras that hadn't made it into the final arrangements. I eagerly agreed to take them.
What arrived at my doorstep was more than I could have dreamed—it wasn't the extras, but instead nearly every floral arrangement, big and small, from quite a sizable wedding. With the bride and groom's blessing, the breakdown crew kindly toted buckets and buckets of arrangements back to the studio. Giant white peonies, pale ranunculus, purple hellebores and frittalaria, black night scabiosa, and hundreds of garden roses. Sierra and I happily spent an afternoon breaking them apart, deciding where and how to use each bloom.
CIRCULARITY, IN PRACTICE
There are many ways to source natural dyes. They can be grown in a garden, foraged on a walk in the woods, collected from table scraps, or even purchased. This choice to use expired flowers is intentional—it’s an exercise in circularity.
Would-be waste is given another life. The need for newly sourced materials is reduced. When circularity is added to the mix, the process, for me, becomes that much richer. Like using a sentimental scrap of scarf to mend a jacket—when the materials have their own meaning, that energy is carried forward. These flowers were part of a beautiful celebration of love. That spirit continues in these pieces.
THE CAPSULE
Bandanas from wedding floral waste. Each organic cotton bandana is dyed with a single flower: hellebore, scabiosa, and rose.
Table linens dyed from wedding floral waste, plus a popular favorite, the Bokeh print. If you’re familiar with the last Pirtti x TFS collaboration, these placemats and napkins are a new twist on that Bokeh print process.
Bokeh Print No. 1 — Linen placemats bundle dyed with quebracho rojo and pomegranate, with Osage and iron napkins. Sold as a set of four.
Botanical Print No. 2 — Linen placemats bundle dyed with roses and scabiosa, with napkins dyed with cutch. Sold as a set of four.
Botanical Print No. 3 — Linen placemats bundle dyed with ranunculus and cochineal, with napkins dyed with quebracho rojo. Sold as a set of four.
PS. More on floral waste & circularity:
This time of year, it’s very likely that you'll have an arrangement or two pop up in your own life. Whether or not you want to embark on a dye project, there are ways to engage in circularity with flowers after an event. Bundle them and give them to guests to enjoy at home, donate them to a nursing home or hospital, or have them broken down by a professional service who will compost them (Garbage Goddess is one we like).
My collaboration with The Floral Society is now live on their site. Enjoy!
—Anne-Marie