Did you know that around 70% of our oxygen comes from the Ocean? The Ocean provides us with most of the oxygen that we breathe. The Ocean is a distant friend for many of us, it plays such a big role in our lives, yet we know so little about them.
In conjunction with Ocean’s Day which takes place on 8 June every year, our team in Scentales thought of doing a design that pays tribute to our dearest friend, the Ocean.
Inspiration and Ideation
If the Ocean could sing, what tunes will it sing in? If the Ocean could dream, what colors will it dream in? Sitting at the balcony, I closed my eyes and I listen closely to the Ocean song in my heart. I paint the colors of the ocean on my canvas. The sound of the ocean calms my heart and the colors of the sun setting at the sea horizon brush my stress and tiredness away. As I completed the painting, I grew closer to you, my mysterious Ocean friend. The Ocean lives on in my painting and in my heart.
Ocean Blue Washed Over Our Social Media
A wave of sea blue recently took over our Instagram profile. We think the ocean blue is such a soothing color. It gives the tired and stressful mind a much needed calming flower therapy, isn’t it?
The Design and Arrangement
The name of our Ocean Day special design is ‘Ocean Song’.
The colors we use for Ocean Song come from the imagery of the sun setting at the horizon of the sea. The Ocean blue color mixing with the sunset color of pink and lilac forms the color palette of this design. We also use flowers that have an ash and greyish tone to capture the colors and mood of the mysterious mist and fog in the Ocean.
The main flower of this design is king protea, which was named after the sea god, Proteus, the son of Poseidon. Proteus has the power to know all things past, present and future. He was a defiant god. To shun himself from those who seek his insights, he would change his form and the things around him at his will. The protea flower was named after him for this reason, as protea itself takes on many varieties of shapes, colors, sizes and textures.
We use 3 types of blue tones in this design, sky blue, ocean blue and cobalt blue to give a theatrical and dynamic effect to the design. There are not many flowers that come in natural blue, but those that do for example, delphinium and oxypetalum come in beautiful blue gradient. delphinium has a gradient of white and cobalt blue color, which looks like the gradient of the ocean we see from the beach. Oxypetalum has a gradient of ocean blue and cobalt blue color that helps to blend the lilac and blue tones of this design together. For a dynamic palette of blue tones, we also use some colored flowers, such as anthurium, ruscus and carnation for sky blue and caspia for ocean blue.
The pink and lilac color from the pink rose and lilac rose are the colors of the sky when the sun is setting. As June also happened to be the season where peonies bloom, we have the luxury to also include white peony to the arrangement. Peony gives a soft velvety texture to the arrangement. The white color from peony also provides a calming effect to the design. The peony and dried lavender has a soothing and calming scent which elevates the sensory experience of the design that is pleasant to all our senses.
For the bouquet design of Ocean Song, we choose an ash blue mixed with transparent wrapper that looks just like the ocean in the evening.
The soothing tones of the Ocean Song are also perfect for a table setting. For the table arrangement, we choose pink and grey vase, lilac bowl and plate to match the color theme of the design.
The ingredients to a perfect weekend are fresh flowers and a good book! I can immerse and get lost in this beautiful space where my senses and mind intertwined. It is a sweet escapade from the hectic city days.
We hope that through the beautiful language of flowers, we are able to get closer to the Ocean and appreciate its beauty a little bit more.
Written by: Kyle Tan
Hand bouquet & Co-written by: Clory Tan
Table Arrangement & Photography by: Sharon Lam