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.
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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.
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| One of Moniek's works. |
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| Another design using alstromeria and bleached willow. |
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| 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.
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