Saying it with flowers

Workshop on flower arrangement for various occasions

The Flower Arrangement group in the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation hosts many workshops and demonstrations. Their aim is to spread awareness of flowers and flower arrangements among the residents.

Recently, Yoko Matsumoto, the Flower Arrangement group's captain led a demonstration-cum-workshop for a small group of women at the Cultural Foundation's Delma Corner. She presented a flower arrangement for the dining table, in the "horizon" style.

Most of the participants were beginners, except a few who had had formal training in flower arrangement. The women belonged to various nationalities like American, Belgian, Canadian, Egyptian, French, Japanese and Korean.

All participants were provided with flowers such as rose, hipericama, alchemilla moris, orchids, tuberose, startis and leaves. Participants were free to use vases of their choice.

Yoko commenced the demonstration with a few tips regarding the basics of the horizon style of flower arrangement and flower arrangement in general. Later on they were encouraged to arrange the flowers in their own style.

At the end of the two-hour session, Yoko reviewed each arrangement, offering suggestions to improve individual styles. Each participant came up with a totally different arrangement, though every one was provided with the same raw material.

Mitsue Ochiro, one of the participants at the workshop was familiar with the Japanese style of flower arranging and has been arranging flowers at home on various occasions. She found the workshop useful as it gave her the opportunity to meet people from different countries and learn English.

Debra Hartman, another participant who was slightly familiar with flower arrangement found the workshop was relaxing and spiritual, in addition to being informative.

Matsumoto has undergone a formal training in Ikebana and holds a licence to teach it anywhere in Japan. She has also done a course in European style arrangements from one of the institutes in Yokohama. She has been arranging flowers for the Delma Corner for the past few months.

Coming from the north of Japan, with its lush green fields, mountains, trees, flowers and fresh air, Matsumoto has grown up with a love of fresh flowers.

This workshop is the first of its kind that Matsumoto has presented as the captain of the flower arrangement group. She plans to hold workshops regularly to encourage ladies to love flowers and to develop their creativity regarding ideas and styles of flower arranging.