Centerpieces For a Party
If you are planning a gala event, you may be looking for a way to provide a focal point or centerpiece for your spread. You can opt to have many different types of items as the centerpiece of your table, from simply decorative to functional. This article describes a few of the most common and useful centerpiece ideas.
Many centerpieces are simply decorative in nature. This could be a large floral display with flowers such as roses for a Valentine’s event, or Lilies for a more formal occasion. It could even be made of pine branches and pine cones with holly berries for a winter formal. But a decorative display doesn’t have to be floral in nature. You could also easily choose to go with something like a large ice sculpture as your focal point. This type of item brings an added element of drama to the event, and your guests are sure to appreciate it.
Many events choose to use a flowing fountain as the center of attention. This could be a large tiered fountain that is dispensing delicious punch, or it could be a chocolate fountain. Your guests will definitely flock to the fountain and gather around it, so it provides a nice meeting place, and it gives your guests something to do (helping themselves) so it is functional as well. It is even possible to combine this idea with the previous one, and have an interactive ice sculpture, such as sculptures that have a hollow tube through which guests pour their beverages to chill them (although this is most frequently used for things like vodka shots, it works fine with punch, too).
The last idea is to use some dramatic cupcake stands as your centerpieces. These can be decorative or plain in nature. The plain ones will depend on the cupcake decorations themselves to provide the splash of color that you are looking for.
Exploring and teaching Art
If you are teaching art to young and not so young people you should encourage them to touch the art. Get a feel for the art by closing your eyes and touch by exploring the art items. Creating the awareness is important to the understanding of artistic concepts and the senses are an important part of the art experience. Remembering the smell of paint and turpentine will help recall an art experience or maybe the seeing of a vivid color in a painting will create a memory that will be everlasting. This aesthetic awareness is beneficial not only to a budding artist but to all of us who appreciate our environment.
Allow people, especially children, to love art and to indulge their fantasies when they are involved with art and allow them to express themselves through whatever artistic medium is available. Try to involve as many resources as possible to encourage creativity. For instance, try a combination of charcoal, paint, matchsticks, paint rags, small twiglets, card, newsprint, fabric, paste, wax crayons, pencils, felt pens, chalk and any other painting tools you can think of. Some people will attempt to create a recognizable image while others will be content to use the materials abstractly and just enjoy the tactile nature of the various painting media.
Artists have a keener eye than other people but it can be a skill that is learned by encouraging visual awareness from an early age. To improve the artists observation it is a good idea to employ a viewfinder. A viewfinder can be made simply from a small piece of card by cutting a rectangular slot 1½ inches by 1 inch. This cut out is the viewfinder and will concentrate the eye on a particular feature of the landscape or artistic subject whilst blocking out the surrounding areas. It helps with perspective, scale and judgment of distances.