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The over 50's club in my village have asked me to go and make something and chat about it whilst iam doing it of course i have said yes but now i dont know what im going to make.Im going to raffle the piece off at the end with a free raffle but what would you make i was thinking about a basket.Gonna be hard cos never had to think about talking about it and explaining what im doing when im making something i normally just get on with it

any advice guys !!!!

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Just Me!!!

over 50s club so it will have to be something traditional i would have thought.A basket sounds a safe bet to me.Good luckkeep us posted.Pretend your talking to yourself you will be finethats what i would do heheheh

ooooooo your first demo!! I love them!

I find actually that the over 50's usually like something a wee bit different. You'll find that most of them think they know about flowers etc, so using something different from the usual cars and xanths has proven very successful. Also, impress them by using variety names etc...

As to what to talk about, I don't usually even talk about the flowers, well not much anyway. Tell them about your shop, what you can do, yadda yadda. They'll pay much more attention

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www.AmandasFlorist.co.uk

"The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" - Albert Einstein.

i did this leanne when i first started and i did a posy and a modern piece, then i raffled them off for them. I started with "ive never done demonstrating so be gentle with me!!" This broke the ice and then i welcomed questions as i was going along. Ask the leader to ask questions if it goes quiet. Talk about the conditioning of flowers, where they come from, ask them if any of them likes to play with flowers, tell them which last the longest, what they would need to do their own arrangement. Just a few ideas.

And in my experience it should be called the over 100's!!

Are they looking for you to dem something they can have a go at themselves or just for you to entertain them? I demmed for the WI a bit ago and the thing that got the best reaction was a flower cake and cupcakes. I even had some of the ladies come in to buy things to make their own cupcakes after the event.

1: be confident ... they wouldn't have asked you if they didn't think you had something to offer.

2: Have some spare designs ... you don't say how long you're spose to be on for but you could find you whiz through the one and they want/need more. I'd have four or five made up designs showing different styles so that you cover all tastes and you can quickly talk about each one. However make it clear you're only raffling one as otherwise it could get pricey.

3: If you have any nerves imagine the audience naked. I find it helps as it reminds me everyone is the same underneath.

Good luck

Ive done the local gardening club a few times but i'm not a confident speaker so dont really enjoy doing demos, I wouldnt do a basket if i were you as they'll probably want to do their own and not buy yours, even though they are over 50 you will be surprised how they enjoy something different, try and think of what you have in the shop that you wouldnt mind getting rid of in the way of pots etc and what you could do with them that people would want to have a go at and come and buy them from you. I didnt use too many flowers because it was the gardening club and they dont buy flowers really, just whats in their garden but i did use quite a few sundry bits so they would buy them, wires, butterflies etc. One thing that did go down quite well was the vase that i filled with fruit.....cranberries i used cause it was around xmas but you could also slice fruit like lemon, limes, oranges and put couple of large leaves and a few anthuriums or something out the top, you could do that for a side line not to raffle maybe. The other thing they liked was the birds nest design with bendy twigs, i used dogswood ivy etc, but this taken quite a long time so had to half do the design and just told them what i had done, a bird cage might be a good idea too. Anyway, whatever you decide, good luck with it and remember to know the latin names of everything you're using, cause theres always a smart ass in the audience. Dont forget to take a selection of what you are using so that you can sell stuff afterwards

If poss to add a bit of wow,make something in a snazzy container(bowl vase)but.....actually place a cheaper/inexpensive container within it...something you can lift out easily and thats their raffle prize not your top of the range snazzy base....also to break the ice give out strips of ribbon and get em making bows its usually quite hilarious to see a simple bow being massacred in those eager mitts..., if you've got time to kill make a corsage and give it one of them to wear,do what ever feels good,go with it.

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seldom rong!!!!

being just over 50 and not ready to retire yet!!! i would do a realy modern h/t everyone loves them,when we done demos in the hotel the modern designs went down really well and coloured oasis really amazed most of them a structured design in a low dish or bowl was a fav too.
just keep talking as though you were chatting to a mate and laugh with them if you make a slight cock up and have fun!! best of luck

I demo'd for local gardening club with colleagues and we made

1. textured handtie on a bird nest base
2. tulip table centre (in the fish bowl job)
3. large gift basket
4. miniature pedestal on a galvanised milk churn
5. delphinium vase arrangement with contorted willow

Took about an hour if that! Talk about everything. They like to know variety names I found. Our theme was 'things from the garden', so we had peaonies, delphiniums, alchemilla mollis, roses etc.

The modern textured handtie was really popular. The base was madeup before hand, but could show them how to make one if you need to stretch it out.

You'll be great. Be loud, be funny, be inquisitive (they love answering questions). Be yourself!

Jake xxx

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