Hello all,

Firstly, I'd like to draw your attention to an added feature of my blog. On the right hand side, below my profile is a slot that, those of you who wish, may enter your email address and you will receive automatic blog updates. I have Lucy and Christopher to thank for this, the former having created it at the suggestion of the latter. I am very grateful to them both.

Today I'd like concentrate on class work, the first two of which were Iemoto Classes. However, Iemoto was not present.

The theme for the first was book 3 lesson 1- A Vertical Composition. For beginners the lesson was Basic Upright Style Moribana.

The instructor was Sozan Nakamura and for his demonstration of the Basic Upright he used azalea and campanula in a round red suiban, the colour of which harmonized beautifully with the azalea.

For the Vertical Composition he used two large palm leaves and a branch of magnolia, which he trimmed quite a lot to bring out this interesting line. At the bottom of the arrangement he used some yellow bromeliads and their green leaves, which, he pointed out, he chose because they repeated the shape of the lip of the container.

For my own arrangement, much to my embarrassment, I initially confused the lesson with ka bu wa ke and started off with two kenzans. Tamae-san, who was assisting, very kindly pointed this out to me and I made the necessary changes. This was the end result. The materials I used were scotch broom and campanula. In his critique Nakamura sensei nodded and used the word 'success'. He did, however,  move the campanula at the front slightly forward.

The next class was two days later and the instructor was Seiko Ozawa-san. The theme for beginners was again Basic Upright Style Moribana. Ozawa sensei explained that, whilst now in spring we have a lot of flowering branches for our arrangements, in summer there are not as many and we are left with mainly flowers. For that reason she created her arrangement using only flowers. She used calla lilies and roses. She manipulated the calla lilies to get the correct angles and placed them facing different directions. Although I would never have thought to use these materials together, I found the end result very pleasing.

                                                                     

For the Horizontal Composition, Ozawa sensei used a large trough in which she put two horizontal fixtures to support the heavy branch of cherry blossom and the large green leaves.


I used a very basic nageire container for the Horizontal Composition with black coloured pussy willow and dancing lady orchids. Sensei's critique was that the placement of the branches could have looked too separated, however, by placing the orchids diagonally across them it made the arrangement.

I next went to the International class, the instructor for which was Yoka Hosono san. Many of you in Australia will remember her from the workshops and demonstrations she did when she visited us some years ago. I was very pleased when I saw her name in the program.

The lesson was Freestyle and for her demonstration Hosono sensei chose from book 4 Lesson 16 - Paying Attention to the Container and to the  Place where the Arrangement will be Put. She used a strong iron container with Scotch Broom and Green Goddess lilies.

 As for me, I decided to play, so I picked this cute triangular container with an open back and a hole at the front. I used bull rushes to create the triangles and squiggly alliums for the curved lines. I'm sorry the photographs do not show the depth.

Until next time,
Emily