Those of you who were at the Addison Centre last Tuesday evening may well have noticed a man with a video camera was also there.  He and his colleague were from local-news.tv  – a web based Bedfordshire news service.  They have made a short film about Bedford Floral Art Society which can be viewed below.  To see other events that they have covered just go to their website at www.local-news.tv

Please note that although in the video it says we meet on the first Tuesday of each month, there is no meeting in January.  February 3rd will be the next club night and will be the AGM for BFAS.  Our next floral art demonstration evening will be on March 3rd when we will be entertained by Jackie O’Hare presenting ‘The Mad March Hare’

On 2nd December we were delighted to have Jean Crane come along to the club to create some floral arrangements along the theme of ‘A Time to Rejoice’.  Despite the bitterly cold weather, a huge number of members and visitors attended and were entertained by Jean’s anecdotes of family life as well as some stunning flowers.  We also laid down a challenge to everyone present to help us raise some extra money towards this years chosen charity – The Road Victims Trust based in Kempston.  We raised £42 on the night which will be added to the money we have already raised throughout the year from sales on the Plant stall.  A few photo’s from the evening are below.

On 5th November, a group of 9 members made their way down to Broxbourne Civic Centre in Hertfordshire for the annual NAFAS Area lunch.  After coffee and browsing the various trade stalls, we entered the main hall for lunch.  However, the highlight of the day was the afternoon demonstration presented by Sandra Bailey and entitled “Warmth, richness and merriment”.

It was a really entertaining afternoon, with much laughter and some spectacular arrangements with colourful and exotic flowers.  Unfortunately no-one from the Bedford Club was lucky enough to win any of the flowers, although Pearl did come away with a tin of biscuits from a different raffle. 

The photos below do not really do justice to the flowers – but will just give you a small taste of what we saw – and maybe encourage more members to come along next year?  It really was a good day out.

On 4th November, Doug Howard came up from his home in Stotfold to create a selection of flower arrangements along the theme of “Mists and Sparkling Cobwebs”.  It was a good evening with a lot of members and visitors to the club present.  A few photos are below of the finished arrangements.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the evening with Tan Strong, but I have heard that it was a really excellent evening.  Linda R took a couple of photo’s of the designs Tan created and these are reproduced below.  If anyone else took a photo on the evening that might be suitable for our website, please let me know.  Linda Pugh 

The title didn’t really do it justice – it was an evening packed with mini-demonstrations and hands-on creative work.  Members were able to choose to watch 20 minute demonstrations of a hand tied gift wrapped bunch, an elegant corsage, some bow tying techniques, some lovely arrangements using just 3 or 5 flowers and some structure techniques all ably demonstrated by 5 of our own members whose skills made it a very informative and inspiring evening.  There was also a ‘have-a go’ table where those members who wanted to could create their own arrangement using flowers and foliage all provided by the Club.  All of the usual things were available too including tea and coffee, a raffle and book stall.  The evening sped by and feedback given on the night was very positive.

Below are some photo’s taken on the evening:

A group of Committee Members met early in the morning at the Addison Centre Car Park to set up our stall for the Fun Day.  It was chilly and the grass was damp but the weather forecasters had promised a fine and dry day.  The time flew by as we erected our gazebo, displayed our tombola prizes and put up posters and notices on the information boards.  Before we knew it the public had started to drift in and we were underway!  We had books and floristry sundry items for sale, a marble game involving an upturned plant pot and a spoon, flower arrangements (excellently made by Sandra and Jean), and the main attraction which was a locked box and a bag of keys, the idea being to pick 3 keys out of the bag and try to open the door.  Successful participants then chose a tombola ticket to determine their prize.  By lunchtime more people had turned out and the sun was shining.  The books and plant pot game were very popular and we were kept very busy counting marbles and talking to passers by.  All too soon it was 4pm and time for us to pack away.  We were all tired but pleased with the day and made over £70 profit for the club as well as raising awareness of our group and hopefully attracting one or two new people to come along on a Tuesday evening.  Below are a few photo’s from the day:

On July 1st we were entertained for the evening by Jeanette Bell who created 6 lovely arrangements whilst recounting annecdotes about her life.  It was a beautiful Summer evening and 6 lucky ladies whose names got drawn out in the raffle went home with a flower arrangement each, created by Jeanette.  The photo’s of the evening can be seen below. 

A pleasant and amusing manner she put over her love of flowers from the very early age of 3 and entering local competitions and suceeding as a youngster.

Her work with flowers had been infuenced by Gregor Lersch.  We all very much appreciated her easy and colourful approach to floral work – plus the use of flower seed heads and greenery she had picked from her garden.

Some students from a local college decided to become members and we are delighted to be able to inspire the younger generation.

Tuesday 6th May was a lovely sunny evening. Members of the Flower Society got together at the Addison Centre along with a good number of visitors who were making their first visit to the group to be entertained by Elizabeth Wait who created some lovely and unusual arrangements along the theme of ‘Let’s twist again’. The twisting came in the form of woven leaves made from Bear Grass, twisted hazel branches, sisal, phormia leaves and other creative ideas. The results of her efforts can be seen below.