September Welcome Back SPECIAL Pressed Flower Workshop by Beth Murphy
46 members and two guests joined us for a warm and welcoming return to Fall, hosted graciously at the Trinity Church. Large tables were spread in anticipation of our wonderful workshop with speaker, artist Beth Murphy - we got to design our own take home treasures with the beautiful pressed flowers processed in advance by Beth. Lots of photos below!
Thanks to our September food committee, who brought delicious sandwiches, fruits and sweets - Let Sue H. know if you can help with October' refreshments - coming right up! Please do take a look at the new Yearbook supplement Betsy M. brought for you - you might need to remind yourself which meeting you've signed up for! Thank you to the Yearbook committee for the careful updates; and to the Program committee for an excellent line-up of speakers and events for the coming season.
Valerie and Michele made two beautiful arrangements for display - Valerie invites us to visit her at home and take home cuttings from her prolific hydrangeas. Easy to dry for future - she says to keep them in a bucket of water and let it slowly evaporate. (Also remember to measure your car before creating a LARGE arrangement.) Michele's dahlias are always blockbusters.
We have a few changes to our Board, so please take a look at your emailed minutes for the latest. Thank you to our new Membership Chair, Ann W., and her team. Our hearty thanks to Scout, our past Membership Chair, and Jane S., our past Recognition Chair and Parliamentarian.
The Plant Sale committee and ALL the volunteers who helped before, during and after the May sale did a tremendous job. With the Bake Sale, we raised over $2,000. Wonderful result from a very rainy Saturday.
The summer was active! Summer annuals got planted in the downtown boxes, and we are encouraging the downtown merchants to keep up with the watering with their new Garden Club watering cans. We have two new officers for downtown beautification: Betty S. will chair Civic Beautification for the public gardens, and Irene V. will head Civic Beautification for the downtown boxes. New MUMS are going in to the gardens in the next week or so - take a look around town!
[We made a separate news feature for the Public Garden teams - please take a look at our other news article this month. We held a team recognition with placards for each of our 21 gardens - cute and fun!]
Most of our photos in this news entry are of the wonderful workshop with 'pressed botanicals" led by Beth Murphy, the pressed flower materials, and the lovely results. Enjoy!!
First the flowers are PRESSED - Beth showed us a number of varieties of press; we were thrilled that she had done all the time-consuming work for our workshop.
Beth helped us understand that not all varieties of plant material hold their color.
She encouraged us to separate thick flowers into their components for pressing, and to play with the empty space around each specimen for dramatic effect.
Beth brought samples of her artwork for sale, and gave us plenty of examples of how best to achieve sweet and charming art with these spectacular processed flowers.
Thank you Beth! It was so fun!
Comments