The evening was full of fun and laughter as Mrs Bacior shared with us the things that bring happiness to her life, many of which are related to flowers, gardening, the seasons, holidays and her family. Most of these topics were interspersed with hilarious tales involving her long suffering husband and getting to grips with her own anxiety when taking exams and tests. Each of Mrs Bacior’s favoured activities was beautifully depicted in flowers with lovely colour combinations and designs, which also provided inspiration for members.

With several of our members or their families suffering ill-health in recent weeks, the evening was like a tonic that lifted our spirits and was a wonderful distraction for a couple of hours.

Happiness Is

Happiness Is"

Happiness Is

Happiness Is"

‘Autumn Mists’ with Timothy Kirkham

For our October meeting we welcomed Timothy Kirkham to our club to present his demonstration entitled ‘Autumn Mists’.

The mechanics that Timothy used for his designs were wonderfully rustic ranging from a basket made from chicken wire and moss and a pumpkin to a beautiful piece of weathered bark.

All of them worked perfectly with the lovely autumn colours of flowers and foliage that made up his designs.

Timothy incorporated the traditional autumn festivals of Halloween and Bonfire Night as well as the spiders’ webs picked out on misty mornings and the silvery etchings of frost in the autumn hedgerows.

We enjoyed the evening immensely and hope that Timothy will be back in the not too distant future to share more lovely designs with us.

Timothy Kirkham working on a design

A Rustic basket

Frost

Halloween

‘A Night at the Theatre’ with Claire Bond

For our August meeting Claire Bond took us to the theatre for the evening which was a thrilling experience.

Claire was a florist for fifteen years and this is very evident from the speed at which she works. She has now moved on to demonstrating and is planning to begin teaching at workshops in September.

We started with Joseph and Claire interpreted this show with a modern hand-tied design supported by a frame made from shocking pink wire with flowers of equally bright colours including orange and lime green gladioli, orange gerberas, bright pink carnations and bright pink roses with palm and hosta leaves.

Our second show was Annie which Claire depicted with sun flowers tied in a bunch and presented in a mirrored box covered on top with large ivy leaves. Yellow roses and Solidago were added around the base and the design was finished with bow made from jute and gold ribbon.

We then moved on to The Sound of Music and, in particular, My Favourite Things or, more precisely, Claire’s favourite things. This was a striking design in blue and yellow presented in a galvanised metal container. The bright blue of Lysianthus contrasted with yellow roses and pale blue hydrangeas around the base worked perfectly.

Claire’s next design was a stunning interpretation of Chicago in oranges and reds, finished with ostrich feathers and then we visited The Lion King. This was probably the most flamboyant design of the evening and Claire transported us to the jungle with exotic colours and plant material. Her mechanics were stunning even before she added the flowers. Whilst building this design Claire also gave us lots of ideas for using palm leaves including plaiting in different ways and cutting to produce different shapes.

For her final design Claire took us to the set of Grease and the Pink Ladies. This design was more traditional and included several shades of pink with olive and grey-green foliage. However Claire did add a final touch of flamboyant pink feathers!

Claire Bond recives a vote of thanks

Claire's interpretation of My Favourite Things

Claire's Grease theme

Butterfly Flowers by Catherine Wickens

Catherine Wickens and her colleague Lauren delighted us at our July meeting with their demonstration entitled ‘Butterfly Flowers’.

Having completed a floristry course together at Moreton Morrell College, both ladies felt they wanted to make use of their hard earned qualification and therefore decided to start a business together, which is based in Wellesbourne.

Memories of her grandmother, and particularly an inherited lead crystal vase with a beautifully engraved butterfly, lead Catherine to suggest the name ‘Butterfly Flowers’ as the name of the business and Lauren was happy to agree.

During the demonstration Catherine described the content of the floristry course which covered both traditional and contemporary design.

It was evident from Catherine’s designs that she is talented at both styles.

She began the demonstration with a very bold contemporary design using orange proteas, phormium leaves and twisted hazel but then moved on to a very traditional basket with a wonderful selection of cottage garden favourites.

The demonstration also featured a stunningly simple design using the most beautiful coloured anthurriums and Catherine ended with a pedestal arrangement in white and green featuring roses, wax flower and white moth orchids, some of which were suspended on wires beneath the pedestal.

All the designs featured a form of butterflies, either in the style of flower, the type of flower that might be enjoyed by butterflies or the mechanics used.

It was a demonstration with something for all our members to enjoy.

Catherine demonstrates a stylish rose ball

Catherine presents a basket of cottage garden flowers

A simple design using anthurriums and gerberas

A contemporary design from Catherine

Report from Shipston's March meeting

‘Easter Celebrations’ with Sarah Horne

Following a change to our programme, we were delighted to welcome Sarah Horne from Leamington Spa to demonstrate at our March meeting, and what a fabulous evening it turned out to be.

Floristry is very much a part of Sarah’s background, and she began learning her art whilst helping in her mother’s shop, ‘House of Silk’ in Leamington Spa, when still a young girl.

Although the original core business was silk flowers, when Sarah inherited the business at the beginning of the nineties, she made the decision to concentrate on fresh flowers.

Following advice from a marketing consultant, the business name was changed to ‘Sarah Horne Flowers’ and Sarah has not looked back since.

She now has shops in both Leamington and Warwick and is internationally acclaimed for her floristry skills.

Not only that, but she has also won Bronze and Gold medals at Chelsea as well as being an advisor to InterFlora and a member of ‘Pandora’s Box’, a European design group.

Sarah gets inspiration from the European contemporary style of floral art and has attended workshops all over the world to increase her skills and knowledge.

She is renowned for the ‘structures’ she uses in her designs, many of which are formed using twigs. Sarah told us that she often gets some strange looks as she walks through the streets of Leamington with a branch over her shoulder to use in the next creation!

As is typical of contemporary style, Sarah uses only a few flowers in her designs and very little, if any, foliage, but her creative skills are such the end result could be described as a work of art.

For our meeting Sarah produced seven simple but beautiful designs all on the theme of Easter. Her style of delivery is natural and informal, her enthusiasm for her work is infectious and her designs are truly inspiring.

Photographs from Shipston Flower Club's March Evening Meeting with Sarah Horne

Sarah with one of her designs

Sarah at work

A Sarah Horne design

Another of Sarah's designs

Another Sarah Horne design