Happy New Year 2013 Asking God to bless you today and every day in the year ahead, with the wonderful gifts of His grace and love.

A new year new inspiration and trends. What would we do without New Ideas? It keeps us up to date with the World of Flowers. With the aid of our wonderful Plant Materials which inevitably enhance any design. South African floral artists adapt easily to New Trends and New Ideas in the Flower World ! Contemporary floral art is challenging & exciting. The inclusion of extraneous material is an accepted practice lately. But the design need at all times to be handled artistically and with restraint. The Art Principles and Elements of Design must always apply - or the end result will no doubt be a poor design. I can not wait to start the New Year to experience what new concepts, new ideas, plant material - used in new and different ways and new innovative containers and designs ! the new year will present in Floral Art.

Memories of a Sea Holiday – The Coral Reef ! The design was constructed onto an iron stand with a wire cage that held 3 oasis. A painted driftwood was placed and fixed to the wire cage with florist wire. The iron stand was placed into a clear tray and filled with pebbles and shells. Sea Coral and Sea fans was glued onto a bamboo skewers and placed into the design. The overall placements was much fun – I took the photograph that I had taken when I was diving off the coast of Bazaruto. I walked through my own garden, to see how many substitutes of the shapes of the coral and sea creatures- that was in the photograph- I could find in the shapes of the plant material in my own garden! I was quite surprised! Painted flax Philodendron skeletons Bromeliads Large Bromeliad Asclepias Agapanthus seed head Gerberas Twigs Fern Cacti Cypress Penny Gum

How to make the Philodendron skeleton Turn the leaf over to show the vein clearly. Take a sharp scissors and cut all along the veins of the leaf. Discard the green parts of the leaf. Trim the ends of the veins to the size that you want the skeleton to be. The Plant material that I used to match the sea plants, weeds and animals in my photograph 1.The Flax – sea weed. 2.The Philodendron skeleton – Skeleton sea coral 3.The Bromeliads – Marine Algae 4.The Asclepias - Sea Sponges 5.The Gerberas – Anemones 6.The Cacti – Sea Fern 7.The Agapanthus seed heads – Sea Urchins 8.The Cypress leaves – Sea Weed 9.The Penny Gum – Sea Sponge 10. Spray paint - pink, burgundy, cream and purple

I can only think of one experience which might exceed in interest, a few hours spent under water, and that would be a journey to Mars !