Apart from interpretation, this class had to show contemporary techniques. “Contemporary” is an interesting word in floral art. It generally means “of the moment” so designs or techniques that are new or emerging. For me, it is easy to confuse with “European Influenced” and these days to a lesser extent with “Modern”. I now know that “Modern” means designs and materials that were prevalent in the 1960s to 1980s. This was apparently followed by “European Influence” when emerging designs trends came from Europe.
These days, designers anywhere in the world can showcase their techniques and design ideas so “Contemporary” can mean anything goes (that hasn’t necessarily been seen before).
Somehting of a side track, but I found it confusing when I started out so am trying to share my learning over the past few years!
For this design I decided to make my own “net” as the showcase for a contemporary technique. Elsewhere I will have the step by step instruction for this technique which (in this case) uses old dead agapanthus foliage twisted into rope and then tied in to a net, much the same as macrame or making a fishing net.
The base is an unpainted piece of timber with two vertical metal rods screwed into it. One rod is completely covered in bleached, dried seaweed the other has intermittent placements of the same material. The net is stretched between the two rods with more seaweed and Norfolk pine foliage “caught” in it..
The design is placed at an angle to the front of the staging bench to provide more depth to it.
This design received a Highly Commended award.
Judges Comments: An intriguing design with its use of more than one contemporary technique. The issue is that the design, overall, is not contemporary even though it uses contemporary techniques such as bleaching and the making of the rope and net.
It is the placement of the plant material that keeps it from being a contemporary “design”.
The design is cut in half horizontally by the placement of the central seaweed with too much plant material in total for a contemporary design.
At present in contemporary designs, less is more.
