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Every year, the Museum of Fine Arts hosts an exhibit of floral arrangements matched up with works of art.
This year Winchester residents Deb DePeter and Becky Tellefsen did a piece that echoes a 5,000 Egyptian funeral dress. In addition, Winchester Garden Club members Lori Taylor and Julie Hintlian also did an arrangement.
“This was the first year we entered the show, encouraged by the Winchester Home and Garden Club,” DePeter says. “We only used four varieties of flowers, which is unusual—we thought more than that would be a distraction.”
Yale Street resident Tellefson adds they glued the banksia leaves to the vase.
“We have to make sure the piece won’t tip over, so we put rocks in the vase,” she said.
According to Tellefsen, “The flowers need to reflect the structure, color and style of [the dress]. This item was found in pieces in an Egyptian tomb.”
DePeter adds the beads were lying on a skeleton and the dress was reconstructed.
DePeter says she’s not much of a gardener but, “I do container gardening and have plants in window boxes” at her Wildwood Street home.
Winchester Garden Club member Lori Taylor says, “At first we used toffee-colored roses to match the art, but on Saturday we switched to tulips because the roses were starting to wilt.”
Lori Taylor's and Julie Hintlian’s floral arrangements. COURTESY PHOTOS/LORI TAYLOR
The Wedgemere Avenue resident says she’s been in the garden club since 2015 and did her first Art in Bloom, whereas Hintlian has only been a member for about three years.
Taylor is also part of the “floral team” at the MFA.
“We go in each week and do the arrangements for four locations in the museum, and we also have to maintain them. It’s fun being working on both sides,” she adds— both as an Art in Bloom arranger and as an MFA volunteer.
And while Hintlian is an active gardener, Taylor says, “I’m a wanna be gardener.”
Taylor and her husband own a small Somerville business, Tracer Technologies which manufactures lithium batteries used in large machines. Hintlian is a retired American Airlines flight attendant.
Taylor points out that, “Julie found the drum.” She bought in on Etsy and it was shipped from England. Taylor made it waterproof.
DePeter and Tellefsen are interior designers and co-own Bryant Park Designs.
Tellefsen says floral arranging is a labor of love.
“Nobody pays us, but we do a ton of arrangements for local events, such as the annual Festival of Trees and Wreaths and we also enter our club’s local Art in Bloom exhibit,” she says.
“We buy the materials at the Boston Flower Market in Chelsea. The rules are very strict,” DePeter says. “The arrangements can’t include nuts or fruits, probably for fear that they might have insects.”
The day after the show they have to “come to the graveyard” at 7 a.m. to removed their arrangements.
Both women say they appreciate all the support and compliments they got from Winchester residents. And each of them has a 16-year-old who appreciates their work.
On a side note, Winchester Resident Abbie DiMatteo is the MFA volunteer programs coordinator and served as coordinator of the Art in Bloom floral designers. She said 45 garden clubs from throughout New England participated in Art in Bloom, as well as five professional designers. Approximately 29,000 visitors come to see Art in Bloom.
