Chicken wire, sticks and dried hydrangeas, artfully crafted, are the tools of dried flower designer Maria Salcines. During the Wiscasset Art Walk on Thursday, August 29, 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.
Maria Salcines will be setting up a floral installation at the Wiscasset Art Walk next Thursday. Melissa Keyser Photo
According to Salcines, who lives and works on her farm, Fogwood Gardens, in Arrowsic, she will initially have a concept for the arrangement in Wiscasset Village but will work out the details during the Art Walk evening. A branch or stick will run horizontally along a railing and a chicken wire structure will hang down. Salcines will add bouquets of flowers along the branch to make “it look like it’s in bloom,” she said in a prepared news release.
Salcines will 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. She said the final installation will look like “a waterfall of flowers falling onto the walkway.”
Salcines describes her work as “agricultural art.” Everything is grown on the farm she owns with her husband, Keith, who can be found every Friday at this year’s Wiscasset Farmers Market. Salcines grows flowers specifically for drying, harvesting them when they are at their best 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 perception 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.
“I can keep pieces alive as long as someone wants them,” she said, adding freshly dried flowers to freshen up the arrangement.
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.
Copy the story link
