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Flowers have long served as vessels for communication. In moments of celebration, love and loss, we’ve found solace in brightly coloured blooms and their sculptural forms. Perhaps it’s for this reason that we’ve turned to them during the pandemic, drawing on their healing power to find new ways of connecting with our communities, our families and ourselves amid looming uncertainty.

Whether as acts of self-care or giving, we have woven love letters beneath delicate petals and stubborn stamens, fragile blooms offering gentle respite from the chaos of the outside world. We’ve tasked them with saying all the things we’re unable to; to let those we care about know we’re there for them, that we’re thinking of them, when we have neither the words nor the energy to do so any other way. In our bedrooms, our kitchens and our living rooms, thirsty stalks stand tall, lifelines breathing fresh life into jaded homes.

“Even in the darkest moments, people really do want to reach out and connect with their families and their friends,” says Rebecca Trevitt, the owner of Adelaide florist Ponder Posy. Whether through kaleidoscopic orchids or Sailor Moon-reminiscent bouquets, consider connecting through these six innovative floral artists from around Australia who bring a fresh approach to the traditional medium.

Laurel & Lace, ACT

As a child surrounded by ardent gardeners, Lauren Gordon had one big dream for when she grew up: to be a forest. “To this day, I’m still unsure if I just couldn’t pronounce ‘florist’ or if I wholeheartedly had high hopes of somehow becoming a large area of trees,” she says. Even though this aspiration may forever remain unattainable for the Canberra-based florist, her fascination with flowers and nature has helped her find the next best thing. “I get to spend my days surrounded by the beauty of growing things,” she says, “working with a forever changing medium, forever inspired by each unique branch or bloom.”

With a focus on weddings, events and corporate spaces, Gordon works across Canberra, the New South Wales Southern Highlands, the South Coast, Sydney and beyond. Featuring a style that she describes as “raw and organic, whimsical and romantic, textural and intriguing”, Gordon’s designs act as an extension of herself and her natural surroundings — a fanciful ode to the changing seasons. “Flowers and nature have always been a huge part of my life and, for me, always evoked feelings of connection, nostalgia,” she says. @laurelandlace

Acid.Flwrs, NSW

Born last year out of an experimental collaboration with a graffiti artist friend, Claire Mueller’s Sydney-based studio transforms phalaenopsis orchids into otherworldly forms. Appearing like ephemeral artworks, her hydro-dipped blooms are living sculptures, surreal and seemingly alien.

With a background in fashion design, Mueller is inspired by the everyday. “I feel like I always have a design eye out in the world,” she says. Taking ideas from interesting textures, surfaces and colour contrasts she encounters on her wanderings, Mueller finds pleasure in the hands-on element of her work and the “joy of being able to make, like, a little bit of magic with everyone”.

Mueller’s arrangements are unconventional in their appeal, and she characterises their strange charm as a kaleidoscopic window into a psychedelic new world. “At a time when there’s a lot going on in the world and a lot of heavy stuff that people have to process on a daily basis, it is really nice to have that element of escapism and something that is different and interesting and engaging and beautiful to look at,” she says. @acid.flwrs

Blossm Bby, Vic.

Melbourne-based floral artist India Robinson’s creations are easily identifiable, a mishmash of contrasting colours. Drawing inspiration from fashion, architecture, Sailor Moon, and her daydreams about travel, the self-described flower fairy’s arrangements are unbridled and uninhibited, subverting the rules of traditional floristry through a “pretty, wild mess of everything cute, fun, ethereal and dreamy mixed with a street sugary pop palette”.

Although some might feel restricted by a lack of formal floristry training, Robinson uses this to her advantage, creating emotionally reactive arrangements that defy conventional ideas of what should and shouldn’t go together. “I’ve never felt any limitations or expectations to match flowers or colours,” she says. “I still remember being told pink and red don’t go together as a child and always living by these unwritten rules. When I was able to let that go, the world opened up.”

Discovered during a period of great difficulty following the loss of her Dutch oma, Robinson’s love of florals serves her meditatively. “They will always connect me to her,” she says. “They have had an extremely healing power in allowing me to connect to the beauty of nature while allowing me to connect to and express myself deeply in a way I’d never had the confidence to do.” @blossmbby

 Honesty Flora, Vic.

When Melbourne creative Tegan Ruta speaks about flowers, her love for them is palpable. Openness and honesty underpin her entire ethos, from her approach to flora, to the sustainable way in which she operates her business. “We want to preserve the earth that’s growing our flowers as much as possible,” she says.

Named after the flowering plant Lunaria, commonly known as “Honesty”, Ruta’s floristry studio draws on her childhood experiences and memories of visiting local exhibitions with her mother. “I grew up going to Heide Museum” of Modern Art. “I’ve got very clear memories of going there when I was little and seeing the art and having picnics in the garden,” she says. “Art really does inform the way I approach flowers and colour palettes.”

Ruta has a background in graphic design and curates arrangements that offer beauty through thoughtfully selected colours and emotional connection. Whether it’s for a delivery, a wedding or a corporate event, Ruta uses flowers as a medium for celebration and as vessels for the unspoken. “What’s so beautiful is that flowers have a different meaning to everyone,” she says. “Someone will be like, ‘Daffodils remind me of this time’ or ‘Peonies remind me of this person’, or ‘I remember growing this when I was little.’ I think that’s quite amazing.” @honesty_flora

FreakHaus, WA

Eden Ranelli’s signature floral style is an extension of herself — as unique as it is unconventional. Ranelli applies a mixed-medium approach to her installations and it’s not unusual to find neon lights, milk crates and even disco balls featured alongside gothic anthuriums and sculptural nepenthes. Ranelli has a love of Japanese culture and she named her Perth-based business in honour of Hokusai’s iconic ukiyo-e woodblock print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. “I was reading how they described that wave and they described it as a ‘freak wave’,” she says. “For some reason the ‘freak’ stood out because they were saying this wave was obviously beautiful but also destructive. That’s kind of like my art — beautiful but a little bit reckless and weird.”

Considering Ranelli works with flowers, it’s strange that her creative process seems to avoid them. “I ask clients to send me five images that resonate with them and I tell them, ‘Don’t send me flower photos, give me a picture of a band you like, a house you walk by in the street, even a picture of your dog,’” she says. Ranelli’s unconventionality may deter some, but authenticity is at the core of her practice. “I’m trying to do things that are a little bit different because that’s who I am,” she says. “I’m not for everyone. I, my work and what I create is for those people who also see the weirdness in the installs or this artwork and the difference in them.” @freakhaus_

Ponder Posy, SA

Owner Rebecca Trevitt’s philosophy is to find beauty in the forlorn and overlooked: “gentle chaos, crooked stems and broken leaves that let the sun shine through”. Using flowers as a conduit between people, the Adelaide-based creative puts sustainability at the forefront of her practice, working solely with local growers and seasonal blooms to reshape expectations surrounding floristry. “I think we’re a bit spoiled in terms of being able to access everything that we want at all times,” she says. “I don’t feel connected to that.” Instead, Trevitt feels we should enjoy the flowers that grow locally.

With a creative process based on “trusting the seasons”, Trevitt takes pride in challenging her customers, questioning why they feel they need certain flowers, before working with them to find seasonal or dried alternatives. “I think over the years I’ve gotten braver at challenging some of those norms around floristry,” she says. “I get more confident the more regular clients that return. You get a clearer voice about why you want to stick to your principles about sustainability.” @ponder_posy

Afternoon tea is a luxury of time and location, and as Henry James once famously stated, “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” 

The sequestering of time aside, these five artisans from Australia and overseas create handmade ceramics that will elevate any afternoon tea with their warm feel and aesthetic.

Confetti Vessel by Home By Harlequin

This tactile, lightweight stone vessel handmade by Sydney-based designer and maker Lauren Eaton is made using a terrazzo technique, where chips of marble, quartz and other stone are poured into the binder to create the speckled appearance.

1616 / arita japan

Made in a traditional technique from a dense clay of crushed stone, 1616 / arita japan’s pieces are aesthetically fit for a special occasion but constructed for everyday use. They are manufactured out of an original pottery workshop in Arita, the town in which Korean porcelain masters arrived in 1616, introducing the craft to the Japanese for the first time.

Hasami Porcelain

A mixture of porcelain and clay, Hasami Porcelain pieces have a soft, comfortable texture with a slightly matte, organic finish. Hasami Porcelain is designed by Takuhiro Shinomoto of Tortoise in Venice, California, but made in the historic Japanese town of Hasami where the porcelain craft dates back some 400 years.  MrKitly.com.au

Debbie Pryor

Inspired by landscapes and topographical views, Adelaide-based ceramicist and artist Debbie Pryor uses hand-building techniques to make unique clay pieces. The Abstract Plates come in a range of earthy colour combinations and are made in extremely limited numbers.

LRNCE

This Marrakesh-based ceramic and textile brand was founded by Belgian sun-chaser Laurence Leenaert. Leenaert’s playful, bright and abstract LRNCE designs translate into unique objects, handmade by local artisans she’s worked with since the brand’s inception in 2013.

Reading is to the mind, so said 17^th century English essayist, poet and playwright Joseph Addison, what exercise is to the body. It’s a common refrain about the importance of reading for human brain function repeated in essence by everyone from Lisa Simpson to Tyrion Lannister. But in our frenetically-paced, digital world, reading just seems hard, and it only gets harder the less you do it. We’re living in a culture of skim reading, or worse, headline reading, at a time when the world is facing problems that require our collective minds to be at their sharpest, their most critical and their most open.

“Beyond its effects on brain functioning, reading can also increase our capacity to manage problems we encounter,” says Dr James Collett, psychologist and RMIT lecturer. “When we read, we are challenged to think from different perspectives and to assimilate new information, which means we must consider it in the context of information that we already know and do our best to resolve conflicts and contradictions.”

In a divided world increasingly dominated by misinformation, disinformation, and “alternative facts”, reading offers knowledge, know-how and, most importantly, the capacity to understand. These six, new release non-fictions reads, which span from the analytical and thoroughly researched to the intimate and the personal, are a place to start.

With the Falling of the Dust, by Stan Grant

Journalist Stan Grant wields years of experience in observing and chronicling life across the globe to bring us this important, courageous book that deals with a world on the precipice of crisis. With the Falling of the Dust explores what is driving our world to catastrophe – from threats to democracy, the rise of authoritarianism and resurgent white supremacy, to the global pandemic and looming economic failure. It’s a book that fears the worst but hopes – and searches – for the best. (Harper Collins)

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind, by Koa Beck

For white women, the electoral data from the most recent US election is damning, and the message from African-American and Indigenous women, activists, artists, writers and educators around the globe is clear: white women need to do more work to achieve an equitable society. Koa Beck’s debut book, it follows, couldn’t come at a more crucial moment. The former Vogue.com.au executive editor and Jezebel editor-in-chief traces the history of feminism and dissects pop-culture, sending out a strong call to action for white feminists to dismantle their own supremacy. (Simon & Schuster)

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates

This book is an urgent, authoritative, accessible roadmap for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Gates draws on a decade spent studying the causes and effects of climate change, as well as the knowledge of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance. (Penguin)

My Year of Living Vulnerably, by Rick Morton  

Part self-help book, part treatise on love and forgiveness, this book from acclaimed journalist and author Rick Morton shares lessons learned during a twelve-month journey to ‘rediscover love’ after being diagnosed with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Laced with Morton’s trademark attention to nuance, compassion and unashamed honesty, My Year of Living Vulnerably is a fresh and timely reminder of the importance of love to our lives. (Harper Collins).

Aftershocks,by Nadia Owusu

This deeply intimate memoir examines the fault lines of trauma through the life experiences and cultural history of author Nadia Owusu, who grapples with the ripple effect – both personal and generational – of loss, grief and family secrets. It’s a brave piece of writing that inspires vulnerability at a time when finding capacity to tell our own stories might be more transformative than ever. (Simon & Schuster)

Let Me Tell You What I Mean, by Joan Didion 

This collection brings together, for the first time, twelve pieces from the iconic and influential Joan Didion, originally published between 1968 and 2000. Topics span the news, politics, personal anecdotes and Didion’s own self-doubt, bringing clarity and colour to our current world in the way only exacting and prescient writing like hers can. (Harper Collins)