Flower Arranging

Here's another cool thing I did this month to celebrate a whole year 'til my next birthday. The gallery where I worked hosted a "How 2 Night" where guild artists and local businesses demonstrate their craft or show their wares. We've had clay artist Cindy Billingsley who is also a fantastic muralist but she demonstrated an elephant in clay. Michael Brown who is a wood furniture maker. He talked about how he makes his furniture, all by hand. I missed that one, it was on my birthday. He was paired with Foothills Brewery and they did a beer tasting. For the floral part, we had a demonstration by Lisa Schaner and her partner in petal crime from Imagine Flowers.

They wanted to show how you could use any shape container to display flowers from your yard. What they were saying makes sense but when they were in action, I just said to myself, "Yeah, of course. I can do that."  Not right away, I would need more lessons. They used some of the artwork in the gallery. We also had wine tasting from 6th & Vine restaurant.

 Here we have ideas for bud vases. These lovely glass pieces were done by Jak Brewer.

 Many people love Ikebana. I've always seen the holders but rarely have I seen anything in one.

Another Ikebana piece. The artist is Bill Hassal.

The lovely little orange balls are called Chinese Lanterns. Aren't they cute? Of course I've got tons of ideas for these babies.

Also in this arrangement were Pitcher Plants. I had no idea they could be dried.

They also showed what you could do with a fancy bowl. Like this one by John Geci. I love floating flowers.

This was the first one they did. One in a standard clay container. This one by the artists Mikkelson and Pope. They started with the greenery at the bottom and built their way up. They used decorative basil which smells awesome. You can eat it too. The flowers with color are Brown Sunflowers. They are so pretty. 

The little yellow bits are called Kangaroo Feet. I can't remember the names of other flowers in this grouping but the ladies assured us that we could use whatever was in our garden. If you have one. I'd love to see Lisa's garden. Sit there and paint while on the lookout for faeries.

This container is by Jim and Shirl Parmentier. It's a triangular vessel and the ladies at Imagine Flowers want to show what you could do with something that didn't have a normal shape.

I'd like to welcome G Goldman to the party. You can find her at www.garnetgoldman.blogspot.com