an article I contributed to our Church Website

FLORAL ARRANGEMENT CLASSES –
CONDUCTED BY
MS. JUNITA DE ALWIS


For many years I was an outsider admiring the beautiful flower arrangements that would appear on the altar- specially during Easter, Christmas and Thanks-giving. On some occasions they were just exquisite.

My curiosities of who was behind all this lead me to Junita!
Chandra, Aunty Grace, Chandani, Nilani , Nuala , me and a score of others had been talking to her about classes. Well thanks to a few enterprising young women mentioned before the above classes began to take shape. Junita needed no persuasion- she was always willing and gracefully accepted our invitation to conduct the classes for the few of us (or so we thought-16 was a great no!) were committed to it.
We did so gladly and then commenced 6 glorious days of expert guidance and inspiration par excellence! Every Saturday was awaited with anticipation, discussing via texts and email what flowers to bring and foliage and fillers colors and textures (flower types) as discussed by Junita.
We would come in early afternoon and find Junita already there before 4pm!
The set-arrangements planned for that day would be displayed, the equipment set out and her helpers would also be around to get us started.
She took us step-by –step through the basics from cutting stems to choosing a style- she called Fusion arrangements.
In all of this what came as a surprise to all of us is the discovery of hidden talents
and new friendships being built. We felt a bonding with each other- which I think would also have been a reason why a few of us went on to become member’s of the Mother’s Union of our Parish- in response to many appeals made by the Grand-mother –mother President! We were a motley group of ladies from 30’s to 80’s, with a few very young member’s gracing the occasion from time to time and one regular (rose or thorn)-our unassuming Das!!!!


It was a very special time as we discussed hues , shapes and materials, we learnt so much in the short span of six lessons. “We are sure we can start our own little business”, some of us quipped –(after doing the Crescent, inverted Crescent and the Hogarth curve).We were ready to give up our present jobs and start this new vocation. We were truly absorbed into the beauty of it all (hard work was all part of it too).
We are so grateful to Junita who took this task on and made time for us amidst her very busy schedule as an organizer of the forthcoming flower show (18th March 2012) and many other events unknown to us! Her expertise and flair made it all look so easy! She herself took to Floral Arrangements over 20yrs ago under the guidance of Ms. Pamela Wijetunge. She also got the opportunity to understudy Ms Judy Blacklock, School of Flower Arranging, Knightsbridge, UK.*
Junita is a qualified Flower Arranger and a member of World Association of Flower Arranging Societies, (WAFAS) and National Association of Flower Arranging Societies, UK (NAFAS). She has also participated in many floral Work Shops conducted by internationally famous Floral demonstrated viz., Messrs Derek Armstrong, Christopher Lim, and Ian Buxton. She gave us a taste of two worlds in Floral Arrangements – Western and Ikebana- and she called it ‘Fusion Style ’.

We take this opportunity to thank Fr .Charles and the Board of Wardens for granting us the go-ahead and for use of the hall.

We want to express our deep appreciation to Junita (uncle Sunil too!) and her able assistants, for imparting her love for Flowers and the joy of arranging to us!
We thank her for doing it with so much dedication and enthusiasm and for her untiring efforts to make each class special as she walked around guiding, adjusting and correcting and giving us praise and encouragement where appropriate and communicating to us how happy she was at how deeply interested and involved we were. Hat’s off to her for making us so! We wish her and her ‘golayas’ and of course untiring Uncle Sunil –All the very Best in all their future endeavours and plans.
Please take a tour of the photo gallery and see for yourself the beauty that exists in flowers. ******Angie Gnaniah Seneviratne*****

• www.judithblacklock.com/
• Judith, principal of The Judith Blacklock Flower School, has been teaching professionally for more than 30 years. Her school has an exceptional reputation for teaching classic flower arranging skills and cutting-edge floristry methods

• www.nafas.org.uk

• The World Association of Flower Arrangers (WAFA) is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization of floral art societies representing 30 member countries
Highlighted - Amended by Junita de Alwis 10 03 2012 (her credentials)