I completed a commission to decorate some mosaic pots for the Festival Theatre at the Royal Horticultural Society Spring Festival at Malvern, Worcestershire.
My friend Hannah Genders was asked to design and landscape the Festival Theatre and the mosaic pots were part of the display. The Festival Theatre was the venue for the Celebrity guests to hold their talks and Gardener’s Question Time.
Hannah decided on all the elements of the display and the centrepiece was a fantastic metal sculptured tree by Matt which held planted herbs and had lots of herbs including lavender, planted at the base in metal troughs. There were plenty of other planted items too – beautiful organic veggies and flowers in large wooden tea crates. We had fun “distressing” the tea crates by painting them and then burning them with blowtorches to make them look aged. The mixed planting of flowers and vegetables was very effective. Some of the vegetables had flowers too – broad beans and peas. A good reminder that vegetable growing can be useful and beautiful.
The best bit for me though was doing the mosaic pots which were placed on the stage planted up with bay trees.
Hannah, Hilary and I, had several fun afternoons decorating the pots which were quite large. As the mosaic part was taking a while to do, we decided to paint the other sides of the pots in a sunny Mediterranean orange. We used glass tesserae and glass pebbles for the mosaics. None of the tiles were nipped and the designs were loose curves and circles. I think they were very effective. Copious amounts of lemon cake, flapjack and tea were consumed in the process of decorating these pots!
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