Floriade

Here are the first few photographs of the Floriade which I have recently visited in Venlo, the Netherlands.
The top picture shows outdoor planting in drifts of colour including Echinacea plants which seemed a very popular flower at the event.
The next two shots show some of the flower arrangements in one of the main arenas.
Great use of textured materials such as wood, fibres and stone featured strongly in the very creative displays.
The bottom photo shows a reptile made out of abaca fibres which come from a banana plant native to the Philippines[musa textilis]. The plant is harvested for its fibres which come from the trunk and they were once known as Manila hemp. It used to be used mainly for making twine and rope but now has more specialised uses in the making of teabags and banknotes among other products.
I intend to source some of the fibres and use them in my textiles. I have already used tissuetex which is made from abaca. It looks like tissue paper but is very strong and takes dyes and inks very well. I have used it previously in in my piece of work called Herb Garden. In this case I coloured it with Procion cold water dyes to use as a background for stitch. The bottom photo shows some of the coloured tissuetex. I did also buy some coloured hemp fibres from the shop at the Floriade, these were made in Nepal. I look forward to using them.