Looking through the eyes of a judge

Islamabad : Sticking to their schedule of regular meetings despite the restrictions of meeting in person, the Floral Art Society Magnolia chapter (Rawalpindi and Islamabad) organized another virtual program titled, “Looking through the eyes of a judge,” the theme being the criteria of a good arrangement and the technicalities that make an exhibit great or otherwise. Members who have put in a lot of effort must certainly wonder from time to time, ‘Why is that particular arrangement better than mine?’ It’s human nature! Now those who attended the meeting will be able to look objectively at their arrangements and find the flaws – if any – and judge for themselves!

Anyway, five accomplished members of the Magnolia chapter - who have acted as judges in various shows - gave their expert advice so those who attended the meeting learned about the strengths and flaws in an arrangement and were enlightened on the why’s and wherefores of an exhibit. They also highlighted the different elements of design to make their advice clear and easily understood.

The meeting began with the usual preliminaries and the first expert, Ayesha Zahid talked about balance in any design, demonstrating her talk with a variety of material and the different exhibits she had prepared.

Asma Ansari talked about the proportion between plant material in a design. To simplify this point she said that if you use one big flower, in order to keep your design in proportion, you should use three little flowers to balance the whole and so on.

Ghazala Abdullah emphasized the importance of the contrast in texture and form which enhances a design, showing different materials to make things clear – like rough and smooth; long and short etc.

Wiqar Boolani talked about depth in a design and how to achieve it. She demonstrated this with a striking arrangement she had created.

Last but not least, Farhana Azim talked about rhythm and harmony in a design, with step by step instructions on how these elements come together to achieve the principle harmony in a design.

Altogether, it was a good lesson as these instructions/tips could be easily understood, even by those members who are novices. Now, hopefully, they will be able to understand easily why one arrangement is deemed better than another – or maybe not!