Now that's different - an Aberdeen Angus bull is the best FLORAL exhibit at the Border Union Show!
EVEN the most seasoned judges won't have seen an exhibit quite like Sian Sharp's Blooming Unique Bull before, which took pride of place at the Border Union Show at the weekend.
Following the closure last month of her Duns-based grocery store BordersFayre, Sian has embarked on a new venture, concentrating on her flower business form home under the new name 'Blooming Unique'.
And her first commission as a full-time florist - to produce a life-size Aberdeen Angus bull out of flowers and wire work - meant that she couldn't exactly ease into the transition!
"The Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society (AACS) hold a prestigious annual national show, which is held somewhere different each year," Sian explained. "Last year it was at Newbury, but this year it was hosted at the Border Union show.
"I was asked to make a life size Aberdeen Angus to stand outside their tent! I was really excited to do it because I'm launching my new business and as a farmer's daughter it tied in nicely."
Although some people would be daunted by the sheer size of the project, Sian found the quirkiness exciting, and put her skills to the test by transferring the usual wedding wiring and flower work into a life size model. "Obviously it was a testing piece because the weather played a major factor, and most of the work had to be done at the last minute, but I was really up for the challenge," she insisted.
With an award-winning herd of Aberdeen Angus, Sian's parents of Cheeklaw Farm, Duns, were the perfect people to ask for advice.
To create the base model, Sian put her father's young bulls into the crush and measured their vital statistics, before recreating the shape out of wire. She explained: "We started off with a metal frame which looked like a stick animal, but you couldn't really tell which animal it was supposed to be!
"My dad helped, he was judging at the Royal Welsh Show a couple of weeks ago and has been asked to judge at the Great Yorkshire Show next year, so he knows what he's talking about! My mum was there too so three sets of eyes helped to model the rabbit netting, which went on next.
"I sprayed layers of paper and glue on top of that and then wall paper paste," Sian said, adding that she avoided traditional papier mache because of the sheer size of the model - it would have taken too long to dry.
To keep the coat of her flowery friend as fresh as possible for his two days in the spotlight, Sian only began to add the flowers last Wednesday, just two days before the show, and had to hoist the model with a fork lift to cover the underside.
"It was quite hectic, I worked on it until 10 o'clock on Wednesday night and all day Thursday," she said. "We took him across to Kelso at 6.30 on Friday morning.
"I was a bit worried about transporting him - we had a trailer but I thought the vibrations could cause all the flowers to come off."
But she needn't have worried, with just one solitary flower falling from the tail during the journey, Sian's prize bull landed at the show intact - and caused quite a stir when he was installed outside the AACS tent.
"There were a lot of people trying to handle him because he looks kind of hairy! People just wanted to go up and stroke him," Sian said.
"I usually show Aberdeen Angus cattle for myself and my father but this year we took a year out, so it was nice to have an exhibit of some sort there, even though it didn't make the parade!"
And this weekend the people of Berwickshire will get a chance to see the county's most unusual bull. "I'm going to take him to Duns Show next week and put him out there as well," Sian said. "A lot of people in the town knew I was doing this so it will be a chance for the people of Duns to see him. After that I'm going to spray varnish him which will preserve him a little bit, and see how long he lasts - it could be weeks, it could be months, I just don't know."
With her first Blooming Unique project such a huge success, Sian is looking forward to the future. "I was devastated when I had to close BordersFayre because that had been my baby for so long, I really wanted to make a go of it," she admitted. "But the shop shut last Saturday and I have to look forward now. Blooming Unique is my future.
"This has been a great project and a fantastic way to launch my business - It's a new florist business in Duns, specialising in weddings and bouquets, but, as the Blooming Unique bull shows, we really can do anything!"
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Weather for Duns
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
