When Miley Cyrus said “I can buy myself flowers”, Mel and Amy – the power-duo behind Pretty Pricks – laughed… “Babes, I can make them”.
And this weekend, the botanical babes imparted their floristry skills in a spring wreath making workshop so that your home and heart will always be blooming with love and colour.
Held on Saturday, March 18 at the Sixtowns Distillery at World of Wedgwood, the two hour masterclass was the ideal Mother’s Day gift which paired a creative activity with educational skills, a finished product to take home and a cheeky gin, too.
It was my first time visiting the newly opened distillery and bar, which launched earlier this month on March 1. Of course, I’m familiar with their delightful spirits, having reviewed them previously and shared them in my gift guides.
The state of the art cocktail and gin bar from Bros Distillery is a really gorgeous space. As you step inside, a Pretty Pricks dried bloom installation hangs above the sophisticated bar, a recreation of a bottle kiln taking centre stage in the middle of the room. Along the back wall are a number of booths with overhead lighting, which is where Mel and Amy had laid out four wreaths to a table, mum and I sliding into one with another mother and daughter before one of the bartenders came over to take our drinks orders.
The workshop cost £35, which included the two hour masterclass and a gin and tonic – but the bar remained open throughout the event to keep our glasses topped up, too. I went for the classic London Dry – a secret blend of botanicals refined through generations of distilling. You can read more about it here.
The intimate masterclass saw 20-25 mums, daughters, aunties and friends sit down to learn how to design and craft a spring wicker wreath. Amy and Mel talked us through the various techniques, tips and tricks to creating a striking design using bundles of dried blooms and a collection of colourful fabrics before everyone headed over to the two tables stocked up with preserved flowers and foliage to pick out what they wanted to work with.
I headed straight for the teals, oranges and pinks, picking out a mixture of tall stems and stubby stalks for a full and layered look, also taking into account textures like fluffy bunny tails and crunchy barley. Meanwhile mum did the complete opposite, and was the only person to head for the ribbons first, choosing her palette this way, being much more scientific, using colour theory for the perfect balance of blooms.
Mum did end up picking out some similar colours to me, including pops of orange, real and pink, but also added in some purple sprigs that really made her wreath pop.
Mel and Amy showed us how to use reel wire to bundle up small bunches of blooms that could then be layered on top of one another, the next always covering the wires of the last as they worked their way around the wreath.
The duo both undertook floristry courses in 2017 to elevate their business after starting out selling cacti and succulents on market stalls, making their own plant pots with a cement mixer Amy got as a birthday present. Now, they work from a Wedgwood-based studio space, hosting workshops and collaborating with other independents like Bros Distillery and Slamwich Club to host their masterclasses, as well as creating installations for businesses, with their work hanging in the likes of Selfridges and Harrods, too. On top of this, they also dress venues and create wonderful wedding displays, racking up dozens of bridal orders each year, as well as seasonal blooms like Christmas wreaths, Mother’s Day bouquets and festival flower crowns.
During the masterclass, I spent my first hour arranging tiny dried flowers into mini bouquets, starting with long, leggy stems at the back and building forward, making sure each one was balanced and full before bundling it up and setting it aside. Once I had six or seven bunches, I was able to start designing the wreath, thinking about where to place each one, the Pretty Pricks babes always on hand to offer their advice and assistance. I’ve done a couple of flower workshops in the past and I love how cathartic it is, but this was my first time working with dried flowers, which made it extra lovely because it’s something you can keep for a long time.
My mum, on the other hand, has never done anything like this, much to Mel and Amy’s disbelief! She’s quite a competitive soul and does love a creative outlet, so she quietly squirrelled away her blooms and tweaked each one to perfection, building a bright and bold wreath that looked incredibly professional. She really does have a knack for this kind of thing, and should really find more time to experiment with it at home.
Looking around the room, the budding florists had made some serious showstoppers, and I loved how, despite all being given the exact same tools and materials to work with, each and every one looked completely different, speaking to each individual personality in the room.
Mum finished her wreath with four colourful ribbon pieces that she had agonised over, unsure whether to go for the teal or the turquoise, the peach or the plum – but I think she nailed the decision in the end, while I opted for pink and blue strands that will hang beautifully on the door.
With the two hours up, the guests were able to head home with their creation, or stick around for another drink, with 10 per cent off any bottle of Sixtowns gin in the in-store shop, too – or head into Josiah and Co to shop a number of other small indie businesses among Pretty Pricks’ dried bouquets.
Pretty Pricks floristry workshops are a place where you can have fun, get creative and express yourself through the creative process. Mel and Amy really encourage and champion individuality, and give you all the tools and skills you need to create something truly beautiful to take home and hang proudly in your home.
What’s more is that you can walk into their workshops as a complete beginner, and walk out with something to be really proud of – and probably an itch to start making and gifting everyone dried arrangements for the foreseeable future.
This Mother’s Day spring wreath workshop was such a lovely way to treat mum and I to a girly day out doing something we wouldn’t usually do, and we had the best time making and designing our creations while meeting new people.