Ashton Hayes & Tarvin Flower Club September Meeting Report

We had an excellent audience and had to find extra chairs for our first meeting of the new season.

Our demonstrations do not consist merely of flowers. Debbie Davies, our fantastic demonstrator , had the title" Floral Fashion" which made me expect designs reflecting styles of arranging from various periods --- but no it was that and much ,much more. Debbie has an artistic background , she has been a dancer and make-up artist and is very keen on design in general and fashion in particular.

Design 1 was flared trousers! Two arrangements in bright orange at the top and base of a pair of flared denims. We heard about the history of this type of trouser.

Debbie based her 2nd Design on William Morris. She had made her own container with papier mache and painted it with a gold and bronze design. Trying to reduce the floral foam used she did a hand-tied design using contorted hazel twigs with cream carnations and large green catkins with a collar of dried and preserved leaves placed into a handmade ornamental ring.The whole design blended well with a screen of Morris fabric. Again she gave us information of his life and talents.

Hats were the theme for design 3 and wow what a hat was produced. There was no green foliage – instead Debbie used sprayed aspidistra and palm leaves with orange and pink flowers. It was displayed on a model head with a matching necklace.

Design 4 was based on a Lulu Guiness bag. It contained red roses in a Hogarth curve shape with red felt lips added. Debbie had done a 6 hour body painting of a model for this lady of fashion whose motto is "Dare to be Different"

Design 5. Floral design fashions gave us a short history from Roman to Victorian/ Edwardian ideas and into the 20th century. Her choice of arrangement was a vertical parallel with much foliage, pink twigs and purple liatris. She stood this on a stand with hanging decorated rings.

For the final design we had a real fashion statement illustrating Christian Dior's "New Look" of 1947. She used a double stand and on the higher side made a full skirt of ferns, Mauve lisianthus , pink roses,small chrysanthemums and mini anthuriums. She then produced a handmade handbag with flowers in it for the lower stand before adding a bodice and a pair of shoes. All these additions were made using plant material.

The room looked very colourful with diverse designs. What a talented lady who I'm sure will be visiting us again in the future.

Our October meeting will be on the 9th when Alison Cooper will demonstrate "When Passions Collide" A date for your diary is 13th November when we will have our ever popular Christmas meeting.

Ed: Click on photographs to enlarge.