Paper Flowers for a Green School Graduation

This June marks a couple of milestones. First, my youngest daughter is graduating from high school and going off to college. Second, she is a member of the very first graduating class for The Green School, An Academy for Environmental Careers, a new high school here in Brooklyn that first opened its doors to students in September 2007. As its name implies, The Green School's focus is environmental responsibility and sustainability so, of course, its graduation exercises has to promote that mission. Also of concern is the budget so the event must be organized on a shoestring. To that end, I volunteered to create large floral arrangements with which to decorate the auditorium during the ceremony. The paper for these flowers was salvaged surplus that was previously printed with school notices, flyers, etc. and was designated for the recycling bin. Never mind that I have no floral experience and have never done anything like this before. I just jumped in, learned what I could as I went long and whatever I didn't learn, I made up on the fly.

The photos here were taken at the school one day when one of the art teachers volunteered all his art classes one day solely for the purpose of helping me cut the massive amounts of paper petals and leaves required for this project. In addition, the students also pre-assembled many of the flowers and the paper bows. Here is also a photo of three completed arrangements. All told, there will be a total of six arrangements that will be placed side by side across the front of the auditorium stage. I have already completed four of them. Two more and I am done. Phew! I had no idea how large a project this would be but I'm so glad I took the chance and did it. It has been a great learning experience and has yielded a very satisfying result.

Next time perhaps I'll actually get some floral training so I'll know what I'm doing.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva