Business Opportunities Weblog

May 23, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

Seattle Times:

Lori Hall, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mom, invented the EZ Bouquet, a sweet little sphere that makes flower arranging, well, EZ. And she showed it to the free world earlier this month on Oprah’s Search for the Next Big Idea, a virtual parade of clever new products.

“This started as a little project … but had lasting power, unlike many of my other ideas,” Hall wrote in an e-mail recently. “It would go on the back burner, and something would come up that would spur me on. I feel it was meant to be.”

While Hall’s invention wasn’t chosen by Oprah’s audience for automatic QVC attention, the home-shopping network is considering selling the EZ Bouquet anyway, Hall said.

In a nutshell (or nut-sphere, perhaps), the EZ Bouquet is a round plastic ball with a built-in grid that fits floral stems. You can pop the sphere into a vase, use just half the sphere or make pomander balls with no vase at all.

The simplicity comes in its design — three large holes for your three largest stems, which are inserted first, and then a bunch more for the rest of the bunch.

Hall said she came up with the idea for a universal flower-arranging product about three years ago while sticking silk flowers in frustrating old foam. After a few calls, she connected with Jessica Dramer, an industrial designer from Redmond, and the two really connected.

Within three days, QVC was calling, asking for more information. About two agonizing weeks later, I got the call to pack my bags.”

The EZ Bouquet isn’t quite available yet (keep checking the Web site, ezbouquet.com, but Hall says they’re hoping to sell a set of 4- and 6-inch spheres for $20-$30, hopefully by early July.

At least, that’s the Idea.

Photo by Ken Lambert.

In Inventions | 1 Comment
Tags: Startup, Women