MYSTERIOUS Avatar-style creatures, a gorilla glaring through the rainforest and an alternative take on three little pigs formed the inspiration behind a spectacular display of floral artwork at Capel Manor College.
The advanced level floristry students transformed the Bullsmoor Lane college corridors into a wintery wonderland using everything from moss and spray paint to concrete, builders’ hats, scaffolding and tree stumps.
Head of floristry Gill McGregor, said: “Each year as part of the Level 3 Floristry Diploma students have to design an eye-catching display containing a three dimensional figure. Year on year the standard of the work shows how innovative the students can be – I’m so proud of them. The majority of the materials used are common materials such moss, chicken wire and aluminium rods.”
Kay Bedford, 55, Yolanda Ashall, 47 and Jane Kew, 47, built a building site featuring three pig workmen and a wolf scoffing sandwiches, which was inspired by a picture from children’s books.
Ms Bedford said: “We wanted to do something happy to cheer everyone up in these times of economic misery. It would have been nice to give them builders bums and string vests but we couldn’t find vests big enough.”
Another group used a Stubbs painting of Whistlejacket, which hangs in the National Gallery as the model for their version of the mythological winged horse, Pegasus. Using a chickenwire frame weighted at the back to allow the horse to appear as if it was rearing up, the students set the horse in a silvery forest of eucalyptus, ivy, pine cones and cineraria, with a pampas grass mane and white ostrich feathers for wings.
Other students used tropical plants such as palms, monstera, phormium, fatsia, to represent the Amazon rainforest, with the centrepiece of a moody gorilla surrounded by hungry pythons. More festive offerings included penguins and seals on an iceberg, sparked by Attenborough’s TV series, Frozen Planet, ice skating bears and a reindeer pulling a sleigh.
