#bloral

Considering that his creations involve an ephemeral balance of beauty, spirituality and ingenuity, should one think of Ost as an artist? “I get lots of e-mails and letters from people saying that my work makes them emotional,” he says. “They’re nice, but I’m also afraid of reading them because I always want to keep my feet on the ground, like a child who is playing. The title on my card is bloembinder. It’s an old Flemish word that’s hard to translate. It refers to what you do to bind flowers together, but it’s not like ‘florist’ in English or ‘fleuriste’ in French. It’s much more beautiful than that.”