Seulki Kim

Flower designer

High speed floristry

Seulki started as a flower blogger in 2012
Her flower designs have to keep up with trends
Recently she has taken up gardening, too

Seoul-based Seulki Kim has been a popular flower designer for a decade, creating stylish arrangements for brand events, fine dinings and magazines, running a flower shop and teaching floristry classes. What made all of this happen was her ability to transform her bad luck into good fortune. First, she turned to flowers because in her late twenties she was stressed at work and needed a hobby to relax. After learning the basics, she couldn’t find an advanced course so she went on practising by herself and developed her own style. Then, she applied for a job in various flower studios, but nobody ever replied. So, in 2012 Seulki launched her own studio, 1304. "At the beginning it was just a blog", she explains. But fortune rewards the bold. And the talented, too.

Interview

How would you define your style?: I would say naturalistic, as I want my works to be as close to nature as possible, and contemporary, because I get inspiration from what I see around me. But my style doesn’t fit exactly in any category. I like the simplicity of Japanese ikebana as well as Western styles, with big, colourful and fancy arrangements.
Is your training still in progress?: Recently, I have been taking a gardening course at a garden centre on the outskirts of Seoul, as I’m very interested in growing my own flowers as well as arranging them. I’m fascinated by what a gardener has to do every month according to seasonal changes.
Can you describe your creative process?: My inspiration always come from everyday life: sometimes I have “aha moments” while driving in my car. Then I prepare the ingredients: raw materials like arrowroot vines, barks and mosses are my favourite. After a first simulation, I go through many revisions before I am satisfied with the result.
Is it difficult to work with flowers when you live in a big city?: It is challenging. Seoul is one of the most fashion-conscious and fast cities in the world, where trends change very quickly. Flower design is no exception: my customers are stylish people and I have to keep up. I’ll never stop studying and making efforts to create new things.

Seulki Kim is a master artisan: she began her career in 2012 and she started teaching in 2014