The Wunderkammer, both florists and decorators from the bottom of their hearts. Driven by their passion for nature they create an exquisite world full of natural artifacts and unique settings. Find out more about The Wunderkammer and what inspires them, in our exclusive interview.
An Interview with Florian & Ueli
Photo by: You describe yourself as florist gallery owners, what do you mean by that?
"I think that flowers and plants for me are art from nature. It would be difficult to say that you could make something with a flower or plant to make it more beautiful, I think it’s beautiful in itself, it’s a piece of art. So I think more if you’re a gallery owner, you try to present the art as good as you can to make it nicer.
But the view is the piece of art itself, and I think that’s what we try with a nice vase, a nice pot, a nice setting, a combination to create an ambience to make flower or plant even better. But we never try to change it or manipulate it or to put our force into the project to make it our own. We are fascinated by nature, every kind of nature. If it’s a seashell or a plant or a flower. For sure there’s a fascination in that."
What’s your approach when you start creating, does it start with the room or the colors?
"I guess it starts with the costumer. I think the customer has a wish or a certain idea what they would love to see. And trying then to work together with the customer to respect their idea, but also to put our own trademark, our own ideas into it I think that’s the balance. And then after that you have the costumer, like you’re saying, the room is important. The colors of the room, is it a classical building or a modern building, is it a dinner party. So that you really try to create the space for the part of nature on that party that makes that part “wow”. Gives space for our creation and highlights or helps to really get to the point of the party."
Photos by: Your approach thus also depends on the client. How much does the client still decide? Or is it a matter of trust lead by your experience?
Well, we also like to respect the wishes of the client. And then it’s the challenge to bend it that way that we can do what we like and the client is happy afterward. If you do something that well the client doesn’t like, color or something like that, it doesn’t work anyways.
Photo by: How do you start the design process, do you make a sketch up front or do you just start creating?
"I guess it’s all about mood boards, I mean the people want to see a little bit of the atmosphere and the style you want to do. So we look for colors and flowers we would like to use and in the end it’s a sketch, but we are both not really artists with the pens, so it’s always a bit rough. But I think all projects we do, it’s like one-offs. It’s not that we have a book and people can say “oh I like this and I like that”. There’s no picture, so people have to have the trust in us that after our explanation, a rough drawing, they say: “Ok, we go for it”.
Because you can’t make it one time, take a picture and say that’s what we’re going to do and then do it again. See some ideas you develop are nice and you want to stay on that idea because you like it for some reason. But there are always differences, there are all the different flowers and there all these different colors. And I also think the flowers dictate a little bit in what you can do. In a certain season, one particular flower is nicer and a next time it’s not so nice."
Do you have a preference for the kind of materials, flowers, and products that you work with?
"As long as it’s natural and well, special for sure. Not like the usual standard things. It just has to not be that supermarket flower. I mean it’s a shame to say, because every flower is a flower, but some flowers are so manipulated and grown in mass production, that the flower misses a little bit of that soul. We really like a flower that has a personality, a character. And it can be weed from the road or a nice grass, or it can be a very expensive or fantastic Orchid. As long as it has this natural feel to it and not like a, it could also be a plastic flower."
Photos by: Kim Krijnen and Roy Beuskers
How would you describe a typical The Wunderkammer signature, what really sets you apart from the rest?
"I think especially the variety of flowers, Florian has a wonderful knowledge of variety of flowers and also the connections to get them for special events. Which also makes it more special then well, just the regular things. (Florian) I would say that Ueli has a very good sense also on techniques and we can sometimes do things that look like they’re floating or we can create big trees. And I would always be a little afraid that if I would do that by myself, that maybe at the end of the party it would like collapse and you would have like a big disaster.
And if Ueli does it, I know for sure the technique will be good. We like to blow up things, we like to make huge baskets or we like to make big trees. We made a tree once with more than a thousand Peonies standing on a table. And those things are fun. It can really surprise people, make people wonder. And I think also it makes people look twice. I mean sometimes flower arrangements are in common places, there just are some flowers, and people just pass by them, because the flowers are always there. We love it if people stop and really see the flower and say “oh look at those flowers”. I think then we did a good job."
Photo by: RVDAYou mention you like to 'blow up things'. Is that what the client expects from you in the end, big work?
"Definitely I’d say after the experience we got, also you can show some examples of what we have done, people get interested that we can do big things. And that evolves into us making bigger things. But I think also like small things, it’s not that everything has to be big. I mean if you do decoration and you can use snowdrops, which are very tiny flowers, but you can make a whole table full of snowdrops, I mean I would die for that table. So it doesn’t have to be big, but it has to be surprising I guess, and show a certain beauty of a flower people may not notice in other arrangements."
