More photos from Fleuramour

This was perhaps my favourite exhibit. The designer is Felix Geiling-Rasmus, a young German who was trained by Gregor Lersch, one of Europe's most highly respected florists. The design consisted of rings of varios sizes, gold in colour, with test tubes holding white Eucharis lilies (?).and black berries.

The chapel windows were a very soft pastel colour, and the sunlight glinted on the glass containers. I wish I could tell you what the music was that was playing - it was moody and modern, and totally added to the experience.

These were all calla lilies in a design by Stef Adriaenssens. What is hard to see here, is that every element is so intricate: the table was covered in little squares of tropical leaves, carefully interwoven. The table was about 3 metres long and 1 metre wide. The stick-like structure holding in the lilies, and those overhead concealing the lighting, are a hollow stemmed plant...perhaps something like a sunflower stem. There were hundreds of them, callas and stems !

In Australia, I have only ever seen crimson coloured gloriosa lilies, but as you can see, they also come in orange and yellow. The vertical structures were spindle-shapes covered - or made with - jute in a lime green and pea green. I read that white ones will soon be available in Europe.

There was also the opportunity to watch the artists at work.
In one tent, you could see a group of florists making wedding bouquets... like you've never seen before ! This man was wiring about a hundred individual vanda orchid flowers so that they would hang from a 'bracelet' worn on the wrist.












And finally, there were several displays of potted plants, like these phalenopsis orchids. The display was a well-balanced display of colour (pinks, greys and mauves), texture (look at those dried parsley-flower-like stems, towering over the pretty orchids),  and movement, from the curved table top, round pots, and the parsley plants .

You can see more photos on this Facebook page. They're not my photos but they show the range of the wonderful exhibits and their talented creators.

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This weekend, there is a winter happening....wish I could be there...maybe not the winter bit...

(I apologise for the less-than-perfect layout. I just can't seem to get it right. I DID try !)

Fleuramour at Alden Biesen, Belgium

It seems like ages ago that I visited Fleuramour floral festival in Belgium.

I had watched the video of a previous festival several times and was astounded by the nature of the displays that were featured. I was equally impressed by the presence of so many florists whose work I have long admired: designers such as Geert Pattyn, Ivan Poelman, Jan Deridder, Moniek Vanden Berghe and Stef Andriaenssens who together form the Fleur Creatif team.

When I discovered that (a) the festival was going to be on when I was in Europe, and (b) that Moniek Vanden Berghe was to be giving a workshop, I knew that I had to go.

It was a bit of a trek to get there, as we were to be in Alsace, in France the days prior, but 4 trains and a shuttle bus later, I arrived at the castle of Alden Biesen in Belgium.

One of Moniek's works.

Another design using alstromeria and bleached willow.

My completed design. 

The theme was 'Making Waves' and we used, as a base, a grey, concrete-like vase. We then shaped wire and covered them with strips of flax, positioning them in the vase so that they reinforced its shapely curves.

The floral material comprised white roses, anthuriums, snowberries, green trick, little apples, and aspidistra leaves.


 The only sad part was that it was quite heavy, and there was no way that I was going to carry it on a shuttle bus and 4 trains back to Strasbourg ! ( I gave it to 2 Portuguese women who were going home the next day).

In this next photo, you can some other participants in the workshop working on the wavy wire pieces, and also see the container before it was filled.

Was it worth it ? Oh yes !! I'll post more photos of other exhibits shortly. There are a few on the Calypso Flowers Facebook page, if you can't wait.