Thursday, September 7, 2017

NGC Grouped Mass Design Floral Design

I was playing around with the Grouped Mass Design today and came up with the flower arrangement below.  I'm still unsure about it, so I submitted it to a judge who is in our Club and I'm waiting for her opinion.  So.... what is a Grouped Mass Design???

Grouped Mass Design - a mass design of only plant material with radial placement.
Like material is grouped and placed next to other different grouped material.  Additional plant material may be included, but the proportion of groupings dominate the design.  Plant material emanates from one point of emergence.

The jury is out.... I'll let you know.

The word came back that this is not quite the thing.  I will get a better photo of a Grouped Mass Design to include here.


NGC New Design Type. - Low-Profile

I've been perusing the updated 2017 NGC Handbook. Garden Clubs world-wide follow this handbook very faithfully, even religiously, when they plan a Standard Flower Show or write the schedule for the upcoming Club year.  With the addition and deletion of so many design types, it is rather daunting to remember everything.  I have made a decision to study the five new types and also wrap my mind around the Botanical Arts info in Chapter 10.

The first type I'm studying is called the Low-Profile design type.  It is to be viewed and judged from above.  The other factors are:  It is to be a three-dimensional design incorporating three or more design techniques, and the completed design must be at least four times as long and/or wide as it is high.

Our Club had Jane Vandenburgh as a speaker in the Spring.  She is a very gifted designer and she focused on creating some of these new types for us.  I was lucky enough to win the low-profile design.  The pic with the purple clematis is the one Jane did... in the second one, I added stones, new leaves, and different yellow flowers to enter it in our Club's Garden Tour design exhibits in April.  The dimensions obviously match the rules.  And, as you look at the photos, you will see she has used bunching, leaf manipulation and a strong line.  When I changed it, I used the identical techniques, but added stones in the tray for texture.  The last picture you will see is one I got off of the internet.  It is so very simple.  It shows you the design does not have to be a rectangle to be an effective low-profile flower arrangement.