Sue's Family, Flowers and Fun Stuff: NAFAS Show Harrogate - Part 3 - Miniature

Here goes for the next batch of NAFAS Annual Show photos from the class entitled Effervescent, again any missing are due to my poor photography, an odd comment here or there from me and as always in awe of the talent and ideas that come from each and every design.

This class is also the petite class which means all of these arrangements are no more than 4 inches tall and that makes these designs even more awe inspiring. Miniature or petite designs should adhere to exactly the same elements and principles of design as larger arrangements and all parts of the design need to be in scale and harmony. A miniature/petite design should look like a scaled down version of a larger design. Every part of the design needs to be thought about carefully from the container, the flowers and foliage through to the scissors used and how to place the stems into the foam or medium. After care too, how are you going to water a small arrangement?

To create a beautiful arrangement at a 'regular' size can very often be challenging enough but to do that in miniature is a real challenge and to do them as beautifully and creatively as the designs below is a real achievement.

I love the fluid design of the base which suits the arrangement perfectly and is in proportion to the height of the design and the mixture of a very traditional arrangement with the addition of the acetate(?) cones which gives it a modern twist and highlights the title of the class.

This design has a futuristic feel to it, almost representative of a space satellite or a moonscape, there is a great mixture of textures in the arrangement which emphasise the category and the use of the glass base adds to the whole reflective nature of the design.

This design really does effervesce out of its foliage base and was created by a designer who entered from Pakistan, The Floral Art Society of Pakistan which goes to show this wonderful hobby extends throughout the world and across many boundaries.

Here the design uses a piece of driftwood which shows that the designs can incorporate any aspect of larger designs as long as they in scale and proportion to the design, and the base adds to the movement within the design. I like the shimmering effect, it gives an impression of a piece of coral, you can almost feel as though you're underwater looking at this design.

A nice all round arrangement here in a monochromatic colour scheme, the designer has gone for a bit of bling too and echoed the shape of the arrangement in the diamante on the base.

I really like the base of this design, can't remember if it was slate or leaves but either way it achieves a distinctive look. I also like the use of Equisetum hyemale (snake grass) which is a wonderful foliage to work with as it so versatile and can be used to achieve interesting shapes in arrangements when bent at angles. Again a bit of bling in this arrangement too creates an overall interesting modern looking arrangement.

I love the shapes and movement of this design and another piece of brilliantly shaped wood. My concern with this design is the lack of covering on the base, perhaps the designer wanted a wooden base to match the wood but I would have preferred to see that covered for me it seriously detracts from the design, which is a hug shame as this could have been stunning for me.

Bling again and another all around and I love the look of the container in this design. In this design the flowers and foliage are the dominant element.

This design is lovely and refreshing because it doesn't use gypsophilia. Choosing which foliage and flowers to use in miniature designs must be quite difficult because you really need to use the who flower or leaf. I will need to check whether you can manipulate petals etc, as I believe it is preferred that you use the whole flower or floret (smaller blooms which make up a larger flower such as a hyacinth). The mixture of lighter and darker wood adds to the movement in the design, there is lots of texture and the bling works so well. I'm not sure what the flower is but the small amount of foliage at the base works and brings the plant materials through the whole design.

I really like this design too (with the exception of the silver foil), but there is a lot of work in this piece. I love the movement which bursts from the top of the design and the pipping of the flowers (I think they may be molucella (Bells of Ireland) and each floret has been threaded to achieve the result which is lovely). Pink and lime green is always a lovely colour combination and I like the variety in the foliage it brings texture and colour variation which works, although not sure about the purple.

An entirely different design again which gives an old fashioned flower arranging feel about it as well as the genie appearing out of the lamp at the panto!!

This reminds me of fireworks and sparklers so it is meeting the class title very well, nicely done again.

This appeals (it would its lime green!!) but also it uses one of my favourite sundries the medalino and it has a really interesting shape with lots of movement. The plaiting of the leaves must have taken some time and looks very very neat, but otherwise quite a simple design of repetition, which I feel can always be very effective.

I like this one too, as they have used a glass bell as the base of the design and arranged around and on top, which shows there are no boundaries to what you can use. I like the line of roses which establishes the strong central line in the design.

A different style of design again, and more dark and mysterious - it looks a bit like a sea creature opening out to catch its prey!

More gypsophilia in this design but used in a totally different way, and I like the use of CD's as the base of this design against the black background works very well. Two separate arrangements which are linked togehter well and look like they just flow into each other.

This was lovely but my photo is very poor, but really like the look of this design, cone shapes were very big at this year's show!

A very traditional looking arrangement and very nicely done, the colour harmonies work well together, I struggle to get a good shape with this style of design at normal size yet achievieng it at 4 inches is something to be amazed at. I really don't envy the judges having to pick a winner out of all of those!