Dave Berfield, Ceramist: #3

The Flowers and the Wedding

Over the past few months, we have chronicled the design, construction and
firing in a wood fire kiln of ceramic flower vases for artist Dave Berfield’s
daughter’s wedding. This blog post follows the final artistic preparations
and use of the vases.

We first visited the project as Dave was designing and building the
vases and preparing them for firing (see Post #1). Then we observed Dave
and his friend, Joe O’Brien, as they fired the vases (see Post #2).
On the Wedding’s Eve, it was time for another set of artists to
demonstrate not only their loving support for the couple,
but also their skills as Master Flower Arrangers.

Flower Arranging is an ancient art that requires an eye for floral
composition as well as a keen understanding of the physical attributes
of the plants that are used. After all, even the best floral display
loses its luster if wilted! The wedding was blessed with the contributions
of two outstanding floral artists: Suellen Cunningham, who lives here on
Bainbridge Island, and is a neighbor of the Berfields; and Brian Choy,
who lives on the island of Oahu. Both are longtime family friends and
have watched the bride grow up. They volunteered to be a part of the
artistic effort. From raw clay to display, these art works are
truly a labor of love.

Both floral artists started learning their craft young.
Suellen, a lady of the South, grew up in Lumberton, North Carolina.
There was no florist in town when she was a child and Suellen
assisted an older lady in creating floral displays for others, often for
funerals and other events. It was a volunteer effort and there was never
a charge. The art form became a part of her life that continues to this day.
Brian, who grew up in Hawaii, was influenced by his Grandmother
who taught him floral arrangement. An award winning Lei-Maker and
long-time teacher, for over ten years he oversaw the floral arrangements
in the Honolulu Museum of Art. He retired from that job but continues
to volunteer with several ladies at the Honolulu Museum of Art creating
large floral arrangements on a bi-weekly basis. He also occasionally
still makes lei for the May Day Lei Competition in Honolulu.

The Wedding Eve was a beehive of activity at Suellen’s home.
Earlier, Brian and Suellen had selected the floral materials and by
the time the blog’s reporters arrived they had laid out materials and
were already hard at work. It all starts with buckets of flowers and ferns.
Actually, that is not accurate: It all starts with a good eye, talent, and
experience. The two artists have these in abundance.

The construction process of each display very much resembles the
painting of a picture, much like laying out the paints before beginning to
paint, as each flower or fern is selected by the artists for its color and
texture. They then cut it and shape it, place it in the vase, critically
examine the effect, then select another and repeat the process.

Soon, they have created a three dimensional picture ready
to WOW the viewers the next day.

The artists have to be careful not only in gauging how the plants will look,
but also the structure of the piece so that it artistically holds together. It requires
a great deal of experience and skill to blend the individual pieces into floral art;
not only the plants themselves but the structure of the vessel must be taken
into consideration. In this case, they had begun working with Dave early
on in his design process, which resulted in the inclusion
of partitions in the vase tops.