by Heather Towne, CFD
When you take a class with Ron Mulray AIFD, CFD you know it is going to be challenging, thought provoking, and most definitely uncommon! On Jan. of this year, I got the full experience. The benefit for me was the close proximity of this class to my hometown, but I would still travel hours for a day-long class.
Ron planned 3 projects to fill our day. As you might expect, we had to take homework with us to complete one of the projects on our own. Each design was uniquely different. For the first project, he challenged us to create a minimal design in a study of 2’s with a pottery frog designed by Ron himself. Grouping and shadowing was the name of the game.
The second project was my favorite as it incorporated multi-layers of textures with cardboard cat scratchers, yarn, wire, florals and glass test tubes. It was all about the process of building layers of texture created out of cardboard shapes, that were then enhanced by wire covered in yarn and bullion wire. Our water sources were, of course, covered by the same materials to unify the individual pieces.
The last piece was a hand tied bouquet with an armature for structure – wire was key to this design. The best part of the class, other than the instructor’s vast knowledge of design styles and pushing the limits with materials, was hanging out with a few flower friends, learning together, bouncing ideas around, and sharing flowers and a meal together. Time well spent for a pandemic hands-on class.
