FLOWERS Nature, emotions, beauty, creativity, harmony! Flowers and I are one, I can t imagine life without flowers. I grew up amongst flowers and nature and always knew that they would be my future. It started very early in my childhood making small bouquets from the broken and leftover flowers from my father s nursery and my mother s flower shop, I spent a lot of my time during that period in there and enjoyed it greatly. Logic; So it was, later on, a logical choice for me to study flower design. During that period I needed some experience from experienced florists so I went to Ton Lemmens. He opened my eyes to what was possible with flowers, showed me a completely new world and trained me to think in an open and free way. Complete; I had always known that when you want to get somewhere you should know as much as possible, so I went to another great flower designer, Joseph Verreycke, and worked there for two years. I learnt lots of classical designs and old techniques, a great foundation and still today I use a lot of these ideas they taught me. 1 Dreams; I followed my inner feeling and dreams and after my second place in 1999 in the Euro Cup I got the chance to go abroad giving flower demonstrations and teaching, I loved and still love it: it gives me the chance to travel over the world and share my ideas and my views on flower design with many people, I see and meet amazing people everywhere with the same interest and that makes life rich and wonderful - thanks for that. Next step; When I reached third place in the World Cup 2002 I started to work together in Life 3 with Per Benjamin from Sweden and Tomas de Bruyne from Belgium. We expanded our demonstrations and teaching but we also developed new angles related to flower design. I started to design and building stands for ( flower) fairs, decorating show rooms, designing products and doing crazy projects and decorations, sometimes it seems there are no limits; it is wonderful to see how you grow over the years.
Curriculum Vitae Born on 14 September 1967 Education; Rijks Middelbare Tuinbouwschool Nijmegen (Nederland) Participated in numerous national and international competitions Winner of more than 10 medals. 1998 Dutch Champion 1999 Second place Europe cup 2001 Winner Wim Hazelaar trofee 2002 Third place World Cup 2004 Second place stand Hortifair 2004 2 1997 Started Flower shop Zeeland (The Netherlands) 1998 Started to Give Demonstrations and Teaching in many European countries, USA, Far East and New Zealand 1998 Started with product development. Has, ever since, worked for companies from Europe and the USA 2000 Exhibition: Mobach potten bakkers Utrecht 2000 Show Demonstration iflo Germany 2000 Teaching and professional Demonstrations, Taiwan 2001 Decorate New Years concert, Mariinski Theatre Moscow 2002 Member of Life 3 2003 Demonstrations all around the world 2004 Assistant to the German participant in the World Cup in Melbourne (Australia). Starting designing and building booths for the flower industry. 2005 Demonstrations Europe, Asia and USA
2006 Exhibiting at Philadelphia flower show with Life 3. Demonstrations and teaching Europe, Asia and USA. 2007 Several demonstrations and workshops with life 3 in Europe, Asia and USA. 2008 Several demonstrations and workshops in Europe, Asia and USA 2009 Major demo with life 3 at the San Remo flower festival Publications 2003-2009 De Pook (floral magazine) 2005-2006 De Telegraaf (monthly) Published in more than 60 magazines/newspapers all over the world 3 Book publications 2003 Emotions by Life3 - Stichting Kunstboek Publischers 2005 Wedding Emotions by Life3 - Stichting Kunstboek Publischers 2005 Annual 05-06 06-07 07-08 - Stichting Kunstboek Publishers 2007 X-mass Emotions by Life3 - Stichting Kunstboek, Publischers, 2007 2010 Passionate Emotions by Life3 Stichting Kunsboek Publischers Life3 Series: Creativity with Flowers - Stichting Kunstboek Publishers o Bouquets (2006) o Interior (2006) o Christmas (2007) o Sympathy (2007 o Arrangements (2008)
o Wedding flowers (2009) o Table arrangements (2009) WHO ARE LIFE3 : World Champion floral designers! Emotions, creativity, craftsmanship and communication. Life3 is an international partnership consisting of Per, Max and Tomas. Per started working with flowers at an early age, almost by accident, and now has his own consulting company in Stockholm. Max, born and bred amongst the flowers in the Netherlands, owns the family flower shop in Zeeland. Tomas is a floral designer who brightens up events and happenings worldwide. He has a consulting company in Belgium and an internationally established value. They have all worked in various field of the flowers industry, ranging from nurseries, wholesalers and retail shops, and each of them is devoted to both commercial and artistic designs focusing on the emotional side of flowers. Per, Max and Tomas value the importance of training and give demonstrations and classes all around the world as well as in their home countries. 4 Per, Max and Tomas have taken part in many competitions and have won several medals both nationally and internationally. At the 2002 World Cup in the Netherlands they wire first, third and fifth (respectively Per, Max and Tomas). In the aftermath of the competition, they ended up talking and commenting on each other s works. Once they got talking, they started playing with the idea of working together in the future. It soon became clear that they shared the same idea and visions. Only half year later Life3 was born.
Life3 stands for emotions, creativity, craftsmanship and communication. This partnership, the first of its kind between three florists, aims to add new value to the flower industry. It wants to take floral design up to new levels and wishes to bring it to a wider audience. Life3 offers demonstrations, workshops, decorations, shows, seminars and books both educational and purely inspirational and education for small and big groups. They offer trend information, product design and development, everything within the world of flowers and beyond. 5