Welcome to the first of many Table Talks: meeting some lovely inspirational people and talking all things creative & senses.
A few months ago, when I first started to think about Salty Studio, I happened to meet Katie and Terri, the two lovely girls behind Worm, a gorgeous floristry studio in East London. They gave me lots of motivational advice about starting my own company, as well as convincing me to move East over to London Fields for a fresh start, and have been so inspirational. But mostly, they always have a smile on their face, laughing and telling funny stories (even when they're not supposed to be funny) and are such a cheerful duo to hang out with!
Can you first tell us how Worm was created and what was the initial concept?
Worm started in 2016 when we were both at a bit of a loss at what to do with our careers after being fed up for quite a while in what we were doing. We knew that we wanted to make something that we could have control over once we started having families so we decided to start our own business. We started as a book and bunch delivery service. You could order a bunch of flowers and tell us a bit about the recipient and we would hand pick a beautiful book to be beautifully wrapped and delivered with it and before we knew it we had branched out to events and weddings.
What emotions do you feel the sense of smell could bring back? How do you link that with the flowers you choose?
The sense of smell is so important for us. When we tell people we are florists we are often told lovely tales of what people had in their wedding bouquets, even if it was 50 years ago most people don't forget. Because of this we always try to get some beautiful scents into our wedding bouquets, a scent that evokes that season. Lily of the Valley, or peonies or English garden roses or tuberose. We know that when we hand the bouquet over it's not just an aesthetic memory anymore, it will bring back memories through scent and that feels special.
Do you work around colour psychology when flower arranging? Using particular colours for particular events, to convey feelings like energy, love, passion, life that are often associated to specific colours?
I think we do this organically. The seasons also do this and our work tends to be very seasonal so it just happens naturally. There are definitely colours that feel completely wrong in some rooms for example. Purple is one of the colours we struggle with most I would say. It is meant to be relaxing and calm inducing but for some reason it never feels like that when it comes to flowers so we go with what feels natural.
You created a photoshoot with Miller Harris for their "forage" range of scents, can you tell us more about it and how you took inspiration from the perfumes?
Sure. Miller Harris sent us the scent that they wanted us to base the shoot on. The name of the scent was Lost in the city and it was from the forage collection and the smell to us was like the height of Summer. We decided we would take inspiration from the title and forage from the canals along east London and bring the outside into a flat complex where Katie lives to shoot it. We had total freedom which was really lovely.
Do you have a little recipe to share with us with edible flowers or plants?
Katie just got back from teaching in China and has made tea every single day with Chrysanthemums. She just pops a few dried heads in a cup of boiling water with some goji berries and apparently it's going to soothe all her ailments.
Thank you to Katie and Terri for answering these little questions for Crème zine and for all the life advice.
Follow the girls into their flower world over on Instagram @wormlondon