We were treated to a wonderful evening of contemporary designs from Dulcie this month. Her passion for flowers and plant material was obvious throughout her commentary and we were also given lots of practical advice and tips e.g. how to manipulate calla lillies, making fish tails together with a smaller leaf from one black Thai cordyline, using coloured floral foam as part of a design rather than covering it with foliage.
Dulcie started the evening reading us a passage from How to do the Flowers by Constance Spry – this was written in 1952 but the comments are as relevant and pertinent to contemporary designs today as they were to the arrangements of more than sixty years ago.
The title of the presentation was ‘Simplicity’ and a common theme throughout the evening was the small number of flowers used in each arrangement but always positioned and grouped to give maximum effect.
Each of the six designs were very different but equally striking. We have included three photographs and two of them show only one component of larger arrangements. (we don’t want to spoil the impact and enjoyment for other flower clubs!)
The first picture shows the use of coloured floral foam together with fasciated willow, blue gentian, fatsia leaves and Anastasia chrysanths. Aluminium wire was used to create an enclosed space. Next we have a complete design; a vertical spathe with two placements using Virginia creeper linked by rubus triclor. The only flowers Dulcie used were mango calla lillies to create shape and flow. The colours in the final design were spectacular ( the picture below shows the middle component).
The stage looked stunning at the end of the demonstration and a comment from a member ‘ the Open Evening will have to be good to beat this one’ really sums up the pleasure and inspiration you gave us all Dulcie – thank you.
