Floral drops | Bangkok Post: lifestyle

FLORAL JOURNEY

After my first visit to Isan, the northeastern region of Thailand, 30 years ago, spending time in Phu Kradueng National Park, I recently had the opportunity to revisit the region during the New Year holidays. From Bangkok, we travelled to Nakhon Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Nong Khai and Loei provinces. We wanted to avoid the crowded city areas, so we spent most of the time staying at the various national parks. In Chaiyaphum, we stayed at Tat Ton National Park. And in Nong Khai, we stayed at a small resort called Chomkong, that has an unobstructed panoramic view of the great Mekong River, which was very picturesque and quiet.

In Loei, we spent the first day of 2012 in the pristine forest of Phu San Sai National Park in Loei province. On the early morning of January 2, I was gently awakened by the chirping sounds of wild birds. As I came out from my tent, I slowly surveyed my surroundings, soaking up the best that Mother Nature had to offer. As I looked around, I saw a drop of morning dew falling from the tip a leaf. To me, it was such a pure and brief moment in time _ something so simple yet so powerful.

Inspired by that special moment, I've created today's floral composition. Here I use green chrysanthemums and the leaf of a small yellow palm tree as my plant materials, and a tall glass vase as my container. I begin by cutting the stems of the green chrysanthemums completely from the flower heads. Next, I pierce a needle-point pin through the face of a chrysanthemum blossom, then pierce another blossom using the same pin but from the bottom side so that I have two affixed chrysanthemum blossoms (facing opposite each other) connected by the one pin. After that I prepare the S-shaped hanging hooks using florist wire. I make a small loop at both ends of a piece of thread and hook the S-shaped hanging hooks to the loops created.