By Rachel Evans Heath
Sheri Jentsch of Sheri J Floral Design
This is Sheri or Sheri J Floral Design in New Braunfels, Texas. And she is a woman who knows tools.
Her favorite tool is the electric drill. “It’s my favorite because that is the tool I started with. It is sentimental for me, and I use it all the time.”
She’s referring to the first project she incorporated the use of power tools in with her floral design. It was 1999 and she’d been commissioned to create a 50th wedding anniversary piece that celebrated Y2K while also reflecting the customer’s electrical co-op and internet career.
The arrangement was to be freestanding and sit in front of the podium, but because the podium was attached to an elevated stage she needed a piece that was 7 feet tall in order to reach the top of the podium from the floor.
What she designed was a 7-foot-tall structure made of birch branch, screwed together with a power drill to make it self-standing. Cutting sheet metal into long strips, she wound it around all the birch throughout before using a heavy gauge silver wire purchased at a feed store to secure it and compliment the sheet metal. Lastly, she made self-contained flower-foam balls and incorporated the flowers.
Sheri’s Y2k floral structures
In addition to the 7-foot-tall structure, she made enough miniature versions to place on the buffet tables.
After that she knew she wanted to continue advancing her own designs with the help of power tools. So she started taking some classes.
“I first learned how to weld at a local community college in my area. Community Colleges are a great resource. I would recommend to anyone who is interested in becoming familiar with power tools to contact a community college in their area to discover any courses being offered in construction. Or welding if you’re interested in that.”
From there, she says, you grow comfortable from constantly using those tools and incorporating them into your creations and projects.
But being a woman and working with tools has its hurdles.
“It took me hours to even get help from the men at the hardware store” she says. “It took time after time for them to take me seriously there. [It was when] I didn’t go away that they finally had to see me.”
By 2011 her comfort with tools gave her the foundation she needed to elevate her creativity and enable her designs to be something more than what the average florist might produce. And the city of New Braunfels had noticed.
When the New Braunfels’ Civic and Convention Center went through a 16 million dollar renovation, they were asking local artists to create pieces in various mediums to hang throughout the newly renovated building. They approached Sheri and asked her to create a piece.
So she created this: a 350 pound, 9 foot by 11 foot wall hanging structure made of native elements collected in New Braunfels. Those native elements included: River Rock, Limestone, Pecans, Cedar Wood Slices, Pecan Wood Slices, Driftwood, Burr Oak Pods, Mountain Laurel Tree Pods, Wisteria Pods, Lichen Branches and Acorns.
“I started the project by having 9-foot tall cedar trees milled into 2.5 inch thick pieces. After that I cut panels in the shape of a wave out of half inch plywood. Those panels were placed on top of the milled cedar to reflect the 2 rivers that run through New Braunfels. On each of the flow panels I created patterns with the native elements I collected throughout New Braunfels. The final step was to weld a frame for all the structures to mount and hang on a Limestone wall.”
The tools she used to create this wall hanging included:
Mig Welder, Jigsaw, Electric Drill, Skill Saw, Clamps, Adhesive, 1/4 inch steel pipe, 1/2 inch metal plates, and a scissor lift to get it installed.
“I had moments of elation and moments of crying following the installation of my Wall Sculpture at the Civic Center. There are no words to describe how I felt when the plaque with my name and the name of my art went on the wall next to my Sculpture. I still get emotional thinking about it.”
When I asked her if she had anything she wanted to say to other women regarding power tools she sent me this:
“I want to tell other women not to limit themselves on what they can create and accomplish by being too fearful of using power tools. Yes these tools are intimidating, powerful and deserve respect. But they can also be very empowering. If you become used to working with power tools, your options become limitless.”
A special thanks to Sheri for sharing the beautiful images.
Find Sheri J Floral Design online
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