Most people go to the fair to enjoy the rides, games, and especially the food. My first time to the fair in 20 years, I went for the San Diego Floral Design Competition, this past Sunday June 26th, at the San Diego County Fair.
Floral competitions generally have 2 parts: Designer’s Choice and Surprise Package. There is usually a theme for the designs and there are of course size limitations.
For this competition, the designers were given 45 minutes to complete the first portion based on the theme ‘Riding in Style.’ They came with their flowers fully in tact, their armatures or containers set, and their tools ready. It’s fascinating to see the designs come to life, especially in this case because they had to incorporate ‘Riding.’ We saw tires, steering wheels, little toy cars, checkered flags, and various carriages and wheels.
The Surprise Package is great because none of the designers know what to expect. They are all given the same materials: flowers, greens, ribbon, tulle, chenille (pipe cleaners to those of us outside of the industry), flat wire, oasis, pew holders, and in this case wire hangers and a chair. They had 30 minutes to complete their design.
The goal was to use the materials present to create a floral design that would decorate the chairs for a VIP benefit dinner sponsoring a racing event. A few of us discussed this part of the competition afterwards and decided next time the Surprise Package should include Match Box cars….ooo! or maybe toy tires to tie into the ends of the ribbon. I think it could work. This was a tough theme!
After long deliberation and tallying, the winners were announced:
1st place: Suzie Bowen
2nd place: Sonja Longley
3rd place and People’s Choice Winner: Masako Lesure
I did make it into the other parts of the fair, but I stayed away from those fried concoctions everyone is so crazy about. Maybe in another 20 years…I’ll stick to flowers for now.
See you around the store!
Stacey
