Bali Masterclass — 26–28 May 2023
Lacy Bird touring masterclass in Bali, Indonesia — 26–28 May 2023. Event page: programme, photos and materials from this edition.
26–28 May 2023 — Bali, Indonesia — flowers in the tropics — humidity, exotics, and open-air studios.
For three days at the end of May 2023, the classroom was a lawn. Lacy Bird brought its touring masterclass to the Bali coast and set up in the open air, a stretch of clipped grass running down to dark volcanic sand and the Indian Ocean beyond. A Balinese penjor arched overhead, its long bamboo pole and woven palm decoration bowing towards the water, and when the sun grew too high the group retreated under a run of tented arches to sit at long wooden tables, water glasses sweating in the humidity, and watch the demonstrations.
The work here leaned into the tropics rather than fighting them. Coral and pink garden roses did the heavy lifting, threaded through with the glossy green spathes of anthurium, sprays of oncidium, and both white and butter-yellow phalaenopsis trailing from the arrangements. Green viburnum and pale hydrangea softened the edges. The palette ran warm and clear: coral against lime, blush against cream, the occasional white anthurium standing up like a flag.
The centrepiece was the installation itself. On black metal frames staked into the grass, the class built great cascading blocks of colour, sorted almost by spectrum, from crimson and magenta through blue delphinium and allium to a hot fall of orange ranunculus. Set against the sea and the penjor, it read like a garden that had wandered onto the beach.
It closed the way these editions tend to, with the whole cohort gathered on the lawn, hats and sunglasses on, sprawled in the grass beneath their flowers and the wide Balinese sky.
The location
Bali, Indonesia — an open-air beachside studio.
The three days
Every touring edition runs the same Lacy Bird programme, rebuilt around the local market's flowers:
- Day one — colour theory and the house palette, the composition system, the boxed arrangement and the round commercial bouquet.
- Day two — the spreading bouquet, wrapping and presentation, and a professional photoshoot of every participant's finished work.
- Day three — large-scale event decor and installation, the business of floristry, and certificates.
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