Flower-making demonstration by former Royal Worcester flower-maker Avril Pulley
In this flower-making demonstration you’ll learn all about the skilled porcelain creative Avril Pulley. Joining The Porcelain in 1967, at just 17-years, Avril Pulley was engaged as a china flower maker. Spending 11-years in this role she made thousands and thousands of porcelain flowers and met her husband, Raymond, an ornamental castor.
Avril is the last remaining Royal Worcester Porcelain china flower maker to demonstrate flower making skills and share Porcelain stories.
She’s made life-size flowers as well as the instantly recognisable tiny 5mm Royal Worcester roses which decorate figurines and birds. And she diversified, making the striking yet petite china bows which dress the mane of celebrated modeller Doris Linder’s famous ‘Shire Stallion’.
On leaving The Porcelain Avril has been in demand as a cake decorator using her training to make sugar flowers for weddings and special events.
Remarkably she can still craft a 5mm rose in under three seconds, commenting on her dexterous skill, Avril says:
It’s just practice and experience, and fortunately I’ve had a lot of both
For her demonstration Avril swaps 20th century Cornish clay for 21st century Japanese ‘Hearty Soft Paste’ – a mix of air-drying rice flower, potato flower and glue. Using Porcelain skills she expertly colours and fashions large single flowers like roses, hand-pulled primroses and single sprays of flowers. Many of Avril’s finished pieces are on sale in the Museum of Royal Worcester shop.
Alongside her demonstration are her stories. Ranging from Royalty – the late Prince Philip on a Royal Tour who looked at the sprawling Severn Street site and declared: ‘How on earth do you find your way around?’ to the mischievous antics of Jean, cigarette in one hand and broom in the other… This fascinating talk is a singular opportunity to witness china making skills that took the Porcelain brand around the world, together with stories of the people who made it happen.
REFRESHMENTS
Make your visit even more special. Choose from a range of refreshment packages, all served on Royal Worcester china.
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