Cheryl Thevenet - "Japanese Ikebona"
Cheryl Thevenet has been a member of the Mystic Garden Club since 1996. Cheryl has had a lifelong interest in flowers and gardening. She lived Marin and owned and operated a successful design Atelier in San Francisco. She specialized in corporate events, producing gala gatherings for the likes of Fetzers Winery, Mumms Vineyards, Hewlett Packard Corporation, Visa Corporation, The French biscuit company “LU”, and “Art Bash for Hot Trash” a Santa Fe Event for commercial artists.
Cheryl’s interest in Japanese floral design dates to 1982 when she began her first formal instruction in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in San Francisco. Her course of studies was directed by Soho Sakai and continued for nearly a decade. Following marriage and relocation to Tokyo, Japan, Cheryl pursued further studies at the world’s center for Sogetsu Ikebana. Cheryl completed the requirement to obtain a teaching certificate during her residency in Hong Kong. During her four years of residency in China, Cheryl exhibited at several international shows and collaborated in the floral design for the Italian Institute of Hong Kong’s Armani opening of Italian Fashion. The display work involved the arrangement and presentation of 24,000 red roses.
Following her return to America, Cheryl next earned her certification as a Connecticut Master Gardener. She has volunteered her skills to help further various community initiatives that have ranged from the Voluntown Peace Trust’s organic community garden, to habitat a garden at the Voluntown Elementary School, and teaching seed propagation to the conservation initiative, “Women in the Outdoors”. Cheryl is presently enrolled in a course of studies with the National Garden Club’s Environmental Study School at Yale University. Cheryl will be part of the first graduating class here in Connecticut. She is married and lives with her husband and 2 teenaged boys, in Voluntown., Ct.