It was an interesting sight to behold: the lounge, usually filled with students whose faces buried in their books, was transformed into a florist’s shop, filled with flowers and foliage. Held on the evening of 18th February 2016, the floral arrangement workshop was organised by the Arts, Culture and Social (ACS) subcommittee to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Year 2 Communications student, Hilary Tan, led the two sessions for the workshop with nine participants each. During the hour and a half slot, each participant would make their very own mini table flower arrangement and a hand-tied bouquet. Hilary started the workshop with an introduction of the flowers to be used for the two floral pieces, which included white eustomas, fragrant eucalyptus leaves, and the all-time favourite – red roses.
When asked where she had learnt her skills in floral arrangement, Hilary said that her church had conducted some workshops to teach the basics previously and so she picked up her love for flowers from there. “To craft a beautiful floral arrangement, one needs to find the balance between order and disorder,” Hilary shared, “You want the flowers to be placed neatly but you don’t want to overdo it such that it becomes too uniform and organised; but then again you don’t want to have a jungle on your table.”
After Hilary elaborated on the elements of designing a good arrangement and demonstrated how to prepare the flowers and foliage for arranging, everyone got to their feet and began creating their respective arrangements. The lounge was largely quiet, except for the occasional request for help, to which Hilary would rush over and offer her expert guidance, swiftly rearranging the various components of the arrangement to the participant’s delight.
As the workshop drew to a close, participants were tying up and adding the finishing touches to their customized bouquets, some doing so with a huge sigh of relief that they had finally completed both the products. Year 1 Accountancy student, Ng Jin Xiang commented, “Floral arrangement is such a laborious job! Now I understand why I have to pay so much for a bouquet for my girlfriend during Valentine’s Day; I think I’ll be leaving the arranging to the professionals next time.”
When asked who he would be giving his products to, Year 3 Aerospace Engineering student, Low Zhi Hong, contemplated for a while before answering, “I think I’ll give the table flower arrangement to my mortal in the Angel/Mortal game we’re playing within USP now, and I’ll give the bouquet to my mom. My arrangements aren’t perfect but I hope my recipients will appreciate the effort I put into crafting them!”
“Even though we only managed to cater to a small portion of the USP community, I’m sure everyone who participated had a great time and I hope they’ll be able to spread some love to their friends and family with the products they made!” head of the ACS subcommittee, Germaine Tan chirped as the participants filed out of the lounge, carrying their arrangements proudly in their arms. Germaine would like to thank her subcommittee members, Lydia Cheam and Lim Li Kim, for helping to organise the workshop, and most importantly, Hilary Tan for ordering the lovely flowers and conducting the workshop.
