A Festive and Fruitful Event

I don't want to spoil it by posting some not-so-great photos of the event, so I'll stick to some of the floral displays I created in this post.  But, I promise to follow up with some of the photographer's great photos of the event in the coming weeks, if I can sneak away with some. The Green Gala at the UC Botanical Gardens took place June 28th.  The day was magical and not only were the people fun and the fashion show spectacular, it was also a great fundraiser for the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens!  I donated my time and materials, as did many other vendors and artists: organic and sustainable catering from Amiee Alan Catering, Cara Mia Photography, organic wine from Quivira Vineyards and Winery, some great live musicians and the many local fashion designers who showed their creations. I was in charge of decorating the fashion show and auction area, in the Redwood Grove Amphitheater.  So I decided to include elements from the gardens themselves as well as the fashion presented in the  show.  For some beautiful shots of the clothes and models in the show, do check out Cara Gardner's blog (the photographer). I asked designers to send me scraps if they could manage, and ended up with one large piece of handmade felted wool.  Considering that it was summer, I was a little stunned at first.  But, then the idea came to me.  Why not run with the natural flavor of the material and the forest feel from the Redwood Grove, and make small nymph or hobbit satchels, just big enough to hold a few flowers?  So I hand stitched the satchels together using multi-colored yarn and some of my own recycled material scraps from SCRAP (a wonderful place for the recycled and sustainable artist, or anyone with a creative streak).  I must have made 15 different small wool bags, all in various shapes.  I tied them around posts, stairways and redwood trees and filled them to the brim with locally grown, home-grown and organic garden roses, hydgrangea, fern, dahlias and irises.  Here are some of them:

Here you can see the thick texture and natural feel of the fabric as well as the hand stitches I made on the ties.  Those are actually scraps of material from some curtains I used to have.

Here is one of a couple larger bouquets I made for the sides of the space.  I used some gorgeous fern that actually came from the gardens themselves.  And tied some recycled cloths around the vases to add some bright color to the scene.

Here is another arrangement I made adding some bamboo, living and dried, to emphasize some structural art that a local artist created for the garden space.  Her art was amazing, and I wish I had a good photo.  Maybe next post.  This photo isn't great either, but I hope to show you more pics when I get them.

The food was great, the wine was so yummy, the fashion was really creative and at times so beautiful and nymph-like.  The location was absolutely stunning.  Next year you'll have to check it out!  Green Gala

In Green, and Raising Green for worthy causes,

G&G