Chicken wire, sticks and dried hydrangeas, artfully placed, are the tools of dried flower designer Maria Salcines. During the Wiscasset Art Walk on Thursday, August 29, from 4 to 7 p.m., Salcines will install a cascading arrangement of dried flowers in Wiscasset Village. Although much planning went into the presentation, Salcines will improvise the installation throughout the evening. Visitors are welcome to stop by to watch, ask questions and enjoy.
According to Salcines, who lives and works on her farm, Fogwood Gardens, in Arrowsic, she will first sketch out a concept for the arrangement in Wiscasset Village, but will work out the details during the WAW evening. A branch or stick will run horizontally along a railing and a wire mesh structure will hang down. Salcines will add “bouquets” along the branch to make it “look like it’s in bloom,” she said.
She will then fill the wire mesh structure with garden flowers she is currently harvesting and drying, including hydrangeas, calamus and sage. She will add a few dried “wild elements” and some fresh carnations for scent. The final installation will look like “a waterfall of flowers falling onto the walkway,” she said.
Salcines calls her work “agricultural art.” Everything is grown on the farm she owns with her husband, Keith, who can be found every Friday at the Wiscasset Farmer’s Market this season. Salcines grows flowers specifically for drying, she points out, and harvests them when they are at their best in color and freshness. She preserves them by naturally drying them when they are at their best.
Salcines is also on a mission to “change the image that flowers are disposable. They can last a season or more,” she said. Her own wedding bouquet made of dried flowers is still beautiful even after two years. In fact, “I can keep pieces alive as long as someone wants them” by adding fresh dried flowers to freshen up the arrangement, she said.
Salcines will return to Wiscasset Village at the end of the weekend after the Wiscasset Art Walk to dismantle her installation and reuse the dried flowers for other arrangements. “We need beauty as a harvest. We are nourished by the beauty of flowers.” Salcines added that using dried flowers from the garden is a way to “preserve Maine’s fleeting summer.”
The final Wiscasset Art Walk of the 2024 season will be held on September 26th from 4-7pm. Enjoy the Village’s collection of fine galleries, unique shops, a variety of excellent food vendors including the MAZU food truck, and plenty of sidewalk activities. In 2024, the businesses supporting the many free WAW activities and artists are the main sponsor Islebrook Village in Wiscasset and the main sponsors are Ames True Value, Big Barn Coffee, BIRCH Home Furnishings & Gifts, Bradbury Art & Antiques, Carriage House Gardens, First National Bank, IndustrialME, J. Edward Knight & Co., Jodie’s Café and Bakery, Peter Eaton Antiques, Red’s Eats, Rock Paper Scissors, Sherri Dunbar/Tim Dunham Realty and Water St. Kitchen.
