Floral designer and flower shop owner Rose
Lee has always loved flowers and can make silk flowers
by hand
Name: Rose
Lee
Title: Floral designer and owner of Flowers by Rose in Richmond
Hill, and owner of Berkeley
Flowers & Gifts in Bluffton
Age: 53
Salary range for a floral designer: $7.50-$25/hour
How
she got the job: "I always loved the flowers since
I was very little," said Rose
Lee, owner of Flowers by Rose in Richmond
Hill. "My father was a great landscaper and I always
loved the flowers. I started in it when I was very young.
Even when I was in high school, I was taking a class on
making silk flowers."
Lee opened
Flowers by Rose in Richmond
Hill about four and a half years ago, and opened Berkeley
Flowers & Gifts in Bluffton about
a year and a half ago. "I've always been working with flowers," she
said. "I've never left flowers, and I never will."
Educational background: "I took a lot of private lessons
on Oriental designing in Korea," she said. Lee returns
to Korea every two or three years to take private lessons
with a designer there. "Any chance I have, I've been
taking a lot of classes," Lee said. "I've
been to a lot of Teleflora designing
schools."
Skills needed: "You need to have an artist's mind and
an artist's eye," she said. "You have to be able to coordinate
the colors and the color contrast and the height and the
dimensions." In addition to the artistic side of the business, Lee said
it's a must to love what you're doing and to love people.
"As you're making flowers, your spirit will go into that
floral design," she said. "Even as I do the funeral work,
I always pray as I'm making the flower designs, praying
for the families."
Previous work experience: Lee started
taking classes on floral design in high school, so almost
every job she has had has been in the floral field. In
1980, she worked for a florist in Atlanta for
about a year and a half.
"Then, after that, I always had my own shop," she
said. She operated a shop called Mighty
Flowers for about three years in Atlanta,
before she moved.
First job: "The first job I ever had was as a flower designer," she
said, laughing. When Lee was
21 years old, she was making silk flowers and selling them
to a market in Korea.
"I can make any silk flower by hand," she said. "At
the beginning of the silk flower, they used to make every
flower by hand. So you cut out every pattern, petals, and
you put it together, and that's how you made a silk flower
at the beginning."
Perks of the job: "The high point of
the work is a personal level of accomplishment by providing
individual needs for the customer's unique occasions," Lee said. "As
a florist or a floral designer, you will interact with
clients regarding their memorable circumstances, either
good or bad."
Disadvantages of the job: Unless you plan
to operate your own business in the future, Lee said,
first-class floral designers are often less in demand because
of the popularity of larger floral wire services such as Teleflora,
FTP and 1-800-flowers.com.
"Apparently it becomes a trend that nowadays designers
are required to duplicate the items on the national florist's
organization's workshop," she explained. She said long
hours and busy holidays can also be a disadvantage at times.
Advice: Lee said
a basic foundation is a must to become a first-class floral
designer. "Getting floral-related education is essential,
and specifically re-engaging periodically in updating seminars
or organizational programs in order to stay on top of the
job market," she said.
Favorite flower: "Rose, as my name is Rose," she said,
laughing. She said her favorite color of rose is pink. "I
always loved the pink," she said. "It makes me happy as
I see that color."
Favorite flower arrangement: Lee said
she likes Oriental designing. "It's uniquely special high
styles," she explained. "American flowers are mostly
full-looking; you just put flowers together and make it
full. But Oriental design has lines and negative spaces
and is very artistic. I like it very much." |
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