Hello floral friends and admirers of flowers.
This is Visually Creative’s first blog and I am excited to share with you our journey and experiences as our business grows and celebrates all of life’s occasions.
Here is a background story of who we are and what we do. We, being Sam and I (Ally). Husband and wife, friends since high school. We go way back, and are definitely mates, which is why we connect so well creatively. Sam has a printer’s background, so he’s eye for colour is amazing. He is technically minded and also very hands on with building anything custom for the business. Creative match made in heaven. He also runs a side business, which he custom makes signs. Very handy guy.
My grandparents on my mother’s side were both gardeners. When they migrated from Hungary inthe 60’s, they didn’t speak English, so it was difficult to find a job. They worked multiple odd jobs to earn a living and tended to people’s gardens for a living was one of them. They worked very hard all their lives, even up to their 80’s. They’re knowledge of plants was astounding, and I wish they were still alive today to see their granddaughter enjoy plants as much as they did.
From a child I loved craft. Making anything and everything with my mother. She taught me to sew, paint, draw, garden and appreciate so many things. I see a lot of myself in her, down to the collection of old beautiful things.
From the age of 12 years I started collecting coloured vessels. I was obsessed… the obsession
continues 25 years later. During high school, where Sam and I met, I studied art, ceramics, design & technology and ancient history.
For work experience during school I decided to work at a florist shop. Like every naïve young girl, I wanted to play with flowers. As expected all I did was scrub buckets with bleach. I remember dry reaching so much because of the smell of the rotten flower residue in the buckets. To this day I still cannot get that smell, sound and memory out of my head.
I enjoyed my subjects in high school, but I didn’t realise how much I loved art until I left school and studied Fine Arts. My teachers in college were wonderful, they talked about art in such detail. They talked in-depth about colour, texture and gave me a new love for art history. They harnessed every student’s creative ability. Like every good art teacher should.
My favourite was definitely sculpture. Using almost anything as a medium to create art.
After studying Fine Arts, I worked various retail jobs and continued my study in Visual
Merchandising. I enjoyed this course as it touched on many of the things I had previously studied, so it became so much more relatable.
Once I finished studying, I practised my visual merchandising skills with various brands such as Grace Bros (yes that long ago), Witchery, Osh Kosh, Freedom and Seiko.
It wasn’t till I was working at Freedom, I realised I wanted to pursue floral design. When a friend of the family asked me to make her centrepieces and style her wedding with some décor she had bought which was around 2007.
VC started with wedding centrepieces, and eventually built up to a full floral portfolio. Which
includes personal flowers, ceremony & reception flowers, for the home florals as well as corporate flowers.
We also have an extensive range of table top rentals, such as vases, votives, candle holders and styling props. It is an ever growing range. I can’t wait to show you all the trinkets and pretty pieces I’ve collected along the way.