Islamabad : Now that virtual interaction has become the medium by which various groups and organization keep up their activities so that their members remain in touch with each other, more people are getting the hang of how to interact using this method. This results in better participation in these meetings. The June programme of the Floral Art Society (FAS) was a competition titled ‘Bewitched’ and included a teaching demonstration by Salma Ansari, a well known figure in the floral world from Karachi - a gifted artist who indulges in various floral art forms and crafts.
Members were given an interesting topic a couple of weeks earlier, to come up with designs depicting the topic. This activity was created to generate interest and amongst members who have been in ‘lockdown’ for many weeks and were happy to be concentrating on something other than their daily lockdown routine. There were twenty five participants who were divided into two groups according to their expertise - namely ‘Novice’ and ‘Experienced’- titles which are self explanatory.
The participants were given a deadline to complete their exhibits and post multiple pictures - taken from different angles - of their arrangements to the secretary Pindi Islamabad chapter who then interacted with the judge for selecting the best entries. The participants showed keen interest in the competition and came up with some very interesting designs. Salma Ansari went into minutest details of each arrangement and gave her critique about each entry in depth, something which should help all participants to improve their designs in future.
The results were as follows. In the ‘novices’ group - 1st was Suzan Jamshed; 2nd Parvaney Maqsood; 3rd Shakeela Khaleel and Commendable Samina Azhar. In the ‘experienced’ group Asma Ansari stood 1st; Farhana Azim, 2nd; Zeenat Salim 3rd; Huma Ehsan, Very Highly Commendable; Naheeda Raza, Highly Commendable; Ghazala Abdullah and Arshee Javed, Commendable.
Salma’s critique was followed by a demonstration - one where she revisited one of the techniques know to many members of ‘web designing’ with wires. She showed how one technique can be used in developing different designs and came up with seven interesting variations centered round the competition.
According to the feedback received, she has ‘bewitched’ her audience – which is a tribute to her talent and a befitting conclusion to the competition!