Islamabad : For its program for May, the Floral Art Society of Pakistan (FASP) Islamabad Rawalpindi chapter organized a workshop for its members titled ‘Composition,’ which was conducted by doyen of the club, Farhana Azim. She was assisted by Chairperson Events, Sarwat Aslam. It was well attended by members - both seasoned and novices - who wished to learn from Farhana’s expertise.
The programme began with ‘tilawat’ from the Holy Quran and a brief report by General Secretary, Nasreen Mazhar about last month’s event which was a fundraiser for the Pakistan Kidney Patients Association. The good news was that instead of one dialysis machine, the FAS has donated three - a sum of Rs75 thousand was falling short and the members generously donated to make up the amount on the spot!
Farhana began by explaining the importance of ‘proportion’ and ‘balance,’ the two main principles while creating a design, elaborating the need to keep the design or form in proportion to the space around it. Emphasising that all the elements of the design; the container; the props; the flowers or accessories should be in scale and proportion to each other - without which the total effect of the arrangement would be lost.
“Balance in flower arranging takes two forms,” she said “Visual and physical balance. They both need to be incorporated to bring stability to the whole arrangement - the colour shape and texture of flowers and plant material affect the balance. The placing of each nearer to the centre visually reduces the weight of material, while placing it away from the epic centre visually increases the weight. Thus by developing the eye to be aware and rightly choose and place the material correctly, one can create a perfectly balanced design.” To explain, she gave a practical demonstration on a chart.
After this members got busy creating their own designs which were later critiqued by Farhana - some of them looked quite good but the eagle eye - and hands - of the expert made them look even better by removing the offending material or adding one or more where needed! There were questions and answers as members were keen to learn the right technique to become expert at the art of flower arrangement.
As is customary, ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung for those members whose date of birth falls in May, complemented by a beautiful card and the gift of a plant. It was a good learning experience before taking a one month break for the summer.
