Floral Art: New techniques, engaging workshop

Islamabad : The Floral Art Society (FASP) Magnolia Chapter Rawalpindi/Islamabad held their first general body meeting of the year 2022-23 under the aegis of the new executive committee.

The meeting was held at Serena Hotel and was fairly well attended - rain was the dampener – and the program was a teaching demonstration and workshop on the 'Techniques on using of Spathe,’ (a large sheathing bract enclosing the flower cluster of certain plants) conducted by two experts Farhat Zaman and Asma Ansari.

Farhat - a multi-talented artist whose passion for nature is depicted in her work came first and gave a demonstration titled 'Pragmatic Palm.' She demonstrated how to condition, clean and shape spathes as well as ways to use them artistically in floral arrangements.

Asma, who has won several national and international prizes conducted a workshop titled 'Revisit Old Techniques in New Ways,' emphasizing the use of spathes as containers to hold floral arrangements, a new trend in floral art called ‘Free Standing Exhibits.’

Her workshop also focused on using wires and wool to make a stand for the spathe to rest on.

Members participated enthusiastically in the workshop, lauding it as an interesting learning session, while a fund raising initiative for flood victims was discussed, in which members showed a keen interest as it would be a collective effort. After this a token of thanks was presented to both demonstrators and gifts were given to ‘birthday girls’ – a lovely tradition that is carried out each month.

The new committee: president: Nageen Malik; VP: Parvana Maqsood; secretary: Furkhanda Khurseed; treasurer: Yasmin Salman; events and programs: Hina Kamran; magazine and publications: Sarwat Aslam; media and publicity: Àmna Abbas; committee members: Nuzhat Saeed and Tahira Saleem.