Hello all,
The rather poor photograph, above, is of my exhibit at our recent  Sogetsu annual exhibition. Try as I might, I could not get a good photograph of this piece. The wisteria vine is resting on the floor but is also attached to the container that is hanging on the wall. The materials, which are placed in the container are nandina domestica nana, red and orange cotoneaster berries and dietes leaves. The whole structure is almost as tall as me. More and better pictures can be seen on our blog Sogetsu Victoria.

I'd like to go back to the New Zealand trip and include some pictures from the final workshop in Wellington, which was 'Composition Using Unconventional Material'. The first sentence in the book regarding this theme is - ' Use only non-plant materials to explore a composition which cannot be made in an ordinary arrangement of plants'. 

Once this exercise was completed and critiqued, fresh material was to be incorporated in it.

I brought with me a couple of easily transportable examples -

A stocking and wire sculpture to which I later
added the calla lilies

A book, which I folded into this sculptural design and to which I later added
dietes leaves

For my demonstration piece I went to a great deal of trouble to find paper that had one colour on one side and a different one on the other. Equipped with these, I proceeded to make cone shapes that I intended to join together using a stapler and double sided sticky tape. Unfortunately, my stapler fell apart at the very start of my demonstration and no one in the room had one to lend me. So I had to contend with the sticky tape, which was not quite strong enough to hold the weight of the structure. As a consequence, I ended up with a much smaller and less satisfactory piece.

Purple freesias were added to complete the piece.

And now for the members' arrangements-

Helen Wareham - plastic sheets
(Helen later added large leaves but, unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it)

Elizabeth McMillan - copper and ball
Later added dietes leaves

Sandi Hurnard - Metal mesh
Dietes leaves were added later

Maria Cullen - Metal pipes and plastic straws
Later added the anthurium

Adriana Nickless - Origami balls
Later added red carnations to the back

Julie Middleton - corrugated cardboard
Later added asparagus fern

This ends my New Zealand adventure and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the lovely ladies, both in Christchurch and Wellington, who welcome Lucy and me with such warmth and, who went out of their way to make our stay a pleasant one. We took away lasting memories. In a way I'm sorry I have finished writing about this trip because, by doing so, I've been reliving the experience. One particularly memorable hour, killing time before our flight home, was our drive around Wellington with Helen at the wheel. It's an exquisite city and everyone should see it.

Bye for now,

Emily