FAS holds workshop on how to preserve plant material

Islamabad

For its final meeting of the ‘season’, the Floral Art Society (FAS) organised a workshop with two experts giving tips on how to preserve plant material and how to use it to best advantage to create something different. It was a very well attended meeting with a special guest — the wife of the ambassador of Japan, Madam Kurai.

Welcoming members and guests, FAS Secretary General Sarwat Aslam announced the subjects of the workshop, ‘Conditioning of plant material’ and ‘attaching and folding’ the first conducted by Farhat Zaman and the second by Aisha Khalid. They were assisted by Huma Ehsan, a senior floral artist.

Farhat began by saying the process of conditioning flowers and leaves makes a difference of literally adding more life to cut plant material — some varieties of plants ‘stand up’ better than others and experience quickly teaches you which ones these are but all will respond with a fresh crisp appearance and longer life to correct ‘conditioning.’ These procedures include cutting; cleaning; boiling; singeing and water filling. There were many tips to clarify that different plant materials require different kinds of treatment and a practical demonstration was given on different plants.

Aisha demonstrated how to create different shapes with different leaves so that arrangements looked out of the ordinary. While she showed at least six kinds of folding to create a shape other than the original, she also said floral artists should let their imagination flow to create something unique. She had brought along six arrangements to show how she had used the foliage she had created.

After this FAS president Waqar Boolani announced the summer break; the next fundraiser which will be in September for the Pink Ribbon Campaign and requested members to submit their articles for the annual magazine before Eid. She also introduced Madam Kurai and hoped she would be persuaded to give a demonstration on Ikebana in future.

The FAS has a tradition of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to ‘girls’ who have their birthdays in the month of the meeting along with presenting them a bouquet and a beautiful hand painted card by Farhat Zaman, who is a ‘closet’ artist, keeping her talent private though friends have been trying to persuade her to ‘go public!’ This month there were four lucky recipients of the bouquets and cards and the morning ended on a light note with good wishes galore and refreshments to enjoy.

Expressing her opinion on how she found the demonstration, Madam Kurai said it was ‘interesting’ and she had learned a lot but shied away from committing herself to the Ikebana demonstration. “I am not very good at it.” she said with a smile — but that is surely her shy side speaking!