West Queen Studio
My Story
I’m a full time mom of four. I understand chaos, car pool lines, soccer practices, and, well, flowers. Dicots, monocots, grow lights, seedling flats, blooms, to arrangements; a passion that has literally bloomed.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina with a BA, an enthusiastic flower hobbyist, I attended the North Carolina State Agriculture Institute. I’ve taken numerous master flower-arranging classes in London and Paris with the late, great Jane Packard and Catherine Mueller.
Once kids came into the picture, the farm, where I grew my own fresh cut flowers, was leased for deer corn. I befriended a salesman at the local flower wholesaler. He handled all my queries and enhanced my knowledge of blooms and arranging. How to work with what is available can be discouraging. Who hasn’t bought flowers from the market and then wondered, when they got home, what in the heck am I supposed to do with this! The time I spent just being creative and experimental with seasonal blooms was invaluable.
Never a neat person and an absolute housekeeping disaster when I’m in the throes of creativity, my husband, my champion, was determined, for his sanity and the children’s safety, for me to have a place of my own.
It happened. In December 2011, my husband surprised me with an amazing flower arranging and creative studio. What was originally an antique hardware store in upstate New York is now a glorious retreat for creativity. With surfaces that are impervious to my haphazard ways and design details that would impress both Martha Stewart and Bob Villa, West Queen Studios is a place to design, teach, share, entertain, and refuel.
