Our Desert Designers kicked off the 2025 season with an energizing hands-on workshop at the Pyle Center on October 3rd. This first meeting was all about diving into a design style that has puzzled many of us in the past: Spatial Thrust. With the whole team participating, the room quickly filled with creativity, curiosity, and fresh floral energy.
What Is Spatial Thrust?
Spatial Thrust is a creative floral design that features two parallel placements of similar components—the “thrust lines.” These lines may be positioned vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The key elements of this design type include:
- Emphasis on the two thrusting lines and the space between them
- Components may only be added outside the outer edges of the thrust lines
- If the two thrusting lines begin on different planes, the required vacant space does not begin until they appear on the same plane
It’s a style that challenges designers to think differently about structure, space, and line, and it sparked lots of great discussions during our workshop.
Workshop Highlights
Members arrived with containers filled with wet floral foam, fresh blooms of their choice, floral tools, and aprons ready for action. Greenery, backdrops, and the much-anticipated thrust sticks were provided as the surprise design element of the day.
Under the guidance of Moderator Christine W., everyone set up their workspace and began exploring how to translate the Spatial Thrust definition into a three-dimensional arrangement.
The variety of plant materials and approaches made this workshop especially inspiring.
Our Lead Designers—Rea H., Amy E., Mickie R., and Kathie H.—created designs for the display table and shared their interpretation of thrust lines and their design choices. Their explanations helped clarify how the principles apply in practice, and their finished designs offered wonderful examples for members to study.
In addition, Kathie H. presented a horticulture display, and Mickie R. created a welcoming lobby design for visitors.
What We Learned
This workshop offered a valuable opportunity to:
- Reinforce our understanding of line, space, and placement
- Practice controlling empty space – a skill often overlooked
- Experiment with the relationship between parallel elements
- See how different materials can support the same structural concept
- Learn from one another through demonstrations and discussions
By the end of the morning, the “mystery” of Spatial Thrust felt far less mysterious. Members left with new confidence and a deeper appreciation for this innovative design form.
If you’d like to learn with us and be part of our creative design community, we’d love to have you join Desert Designers! Email: desertdesignersgardenclub@gmail.com
By Renee Waite — Vice President, Desert Designers
Photos by Mickie Rustad
