Steep Thinking vol.2: New Dew Playlist
Lost in Time and Space – Lord Huron
Under Control – Rostam
00000 Million - Ella Vos
Voices Carry Through the Mist – Charles Watson
Mopsy's Interlude – Big Wild
Forest Green – Big Red Machine
Friday I’m In Love - Recorded at Spotify Studios NYC – Phoebe Bridgers
Dark Side of the Gym – The National
In a River (Acoustic) – Rostam
For One Moment – Lee Hazlewood
peace – Taylor Swift
July Rain – Ten Fé
Open Window – Jaeden Camstra
Hymnostic – Big Red Machine
The Real Thing – Tom Misch
Northern Sky – Nick Drake
Valparaiso – Limousine
You've Got Your Way of Leaving – Charles Watson
RABi – Bon Iver
What A Wonderful World – Jon Batiste
We always hope for the perfect winter, and for an olive tree in Coastal California’s warm-summer Mediterranean climate, that’s going to feel a bit cool and precipitous. Now is when we welcome the rain, which naturally nurtures the soil and makes it soft enough to plant new trees and complimentary crops... think lavender, rosemary and enough lemons to keep a stand juicing for days. Softer earth also allows us to cut trails around the orchard… with around 350 trees to check in on, it’s nice to have a direct line.
A good dry spell means it’s time to break out the pruning shears and make the rounds! The trees welcome it; a nice trim opens their branches up to dance in the breeze and bask in the sun. Happy olive trees mean a healthier flowering, a fuller harvest and more olive oil to fuel picnic spreads during warmer times.
But what to do with all of these antioxidant-rich olive leaves? Well friend, that’s your cue to put a kettle on.
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Olive foliage… beloved for its antioxidants, but also its atmosphere. Invite this symbol of peace and prosperity to the living room with a 3-step guide by floral studio Rawfinery and its creative director Lizbeth Molina. We’ll let her take it from here!
Color Story: California Coastline
In floral design, we say it often - we want things to dance about, and olive branches are natural glitter. When wind moves through the trees, the leaves shake and shimmer in the sunlight from silver to deep green. To complement, I chose orange tulips to mimic the California Poppy, with a hint of pink tulips to mimic bougainvillea found all throughout southern California.
Flowers: Dried Berzillia, Orange Tulip, Olive Foliage, Pink Tulip
Materials: Floral Shears, ceramic vase, floral pin frog
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This will act as our “line flower/foliage", pay attention to the lines they create within the arrangement. This will dictate the growth and architecture of the arrangement.
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Base flowers are usually large and expansive florals/foliage that frame the rest of the flowers. I like to place base flowers as close to the vase as possible without getting too lost in the line foliage.
Be sure to echo the curvatures found in the olive branches and pay attention to the lengths of your flowers. In nature, flowers don’t all grow at the same height, so place at varying height to mimic true natural growth.
Rawfinery Florals is led by Head Floral Artist and Designer, Lizbeth Molina, who is inspired by the connection she feels with nature, its cycle and harmony. Her desire is to provide her clients with an experience that helps them feel connected to the natural environment of their choice. Lizbeth is a multidisciplinary floral artist with years of experience in high profile events, editorial publications and specialty brands.
Read our profile on Lizbeth here!
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Floral designer Lizbeth Molina is extending an olive branch into the new year.
The secret to spiriting a landscape into an arrangement, Lizbeth says, is to begin at ground level and build up through its atmosphere. Consider ceramic, stone and metallic vases to be elemental starting points, not just glass afterthoughts. Of course, the hurdle for her Los Angeles floral studio Rawfinery – and designers everywhere – was that 2020 began something closer to rock bottom.
Lizbeth recalls a California events conference early in the year when phones lit up in unison with news of the lockdown. The keynote speaker vacated the stage in tears, the room emptied, and an entire industry seemingly cleared its calendar overnight. Flowers died in shipping containers or arrived overpriced and stained with ash from California wildfires. Armageddon seemed in bloom. For Lizbeth and others, Mother’s Day would be the test: could floral design find a place with a suddenly stay-at-home customer base?
As it happens, drawing inspiration from phases of transition is core to Lizbeth’s studio practice. Rawfinery’s innovative, trademarked method of ‘LifeCycle Design’ pairs dried florals with fresh flowers that age well, creating an arrangement that reinvents itself to the rhythms of nature.
As she pivoted away from grand venues, Mother’s Day brought just enough hope to continue through a summer of uncertainty and breakeven bottom lines – but also affirmational silver linings. Never would she have anticipated a wedding season headlined by intimate backyard ceremonies where brides and grooms appeared more joyfully present. Free to dance barefoot in a garden, in the company of innermost circles, “we had the wedding we didn't know we were supposed to have," they’d tell her.
Inspiration from transition? Peace during a pandemic? Reflecting on a year that stripped her industry to the stem, Lizbeth was reminded of her own love: she just wants to play with flowers. Time recovered from large-scale undertakings was spent on new creative outlets and ways to invent demand, and right now, she knows Rawfinery’s clients are getting her best work. She charges into 2021 with a renewed sense for all the ways that flowers can help others survive and thrive.
“Flowers remind us of our place in the world and the inherent harmony found in nature. In receiving them, we feel light in our spirit and in harmony with nature’s rhythms.”
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This Spotify session is for bumpin’ around your favorite artist enclave, throwin’ some paint around the house, or mashin’ up some homemade pesto (we know a good olive oil). Keep that cup of Ascent spinning in the background and the vibes at record highs.