Hello all,

For our last class I asked the senior students to make an arrangement using bare branches. I pointed out that this does not mean dry or bleached materials and, although the branches were to be bare, they should still have life in them. The above arrangement is one that I made using magnolia branches and camellias.

Lucy used elm branches, oranges and cotoneaster berries.

Bredenia used lilac branches, nandina berries
and nandina domestica nana at the base

Nicole used silver birch and proteas

Vicky used magnolia branches and stock

At our Ikebana International meeting, last week, our speaker was Caroline Davies, World President of the Mediterranean Garden Society. Caroline gave a very interesting talk on Mediterranean gardens and plants and, for those of us who hail from there, it was particularly engaging.

Caroline Davies

My sister-in-law, Toula was the demonstrator of a Mediterranean arrangement and she chose agave as her material. This was quite apt because Toula, being a Greek teacher explained that the word 'agave' is derived from the Greek 'Agaue', the name of one of the daughters of Cadmus in Greek mythology.

Toula with her arrangement
(apologies for my poor photography)

A clearer picture of the arrangement

Toula used one large piece of agave placed vertically on a board fitted with a spike, which pierced the agave and held it in place. She then attached to the main piece smaller agave pieces taken from the unfurled spikes and added bougainvilleas for colour.

For my arrangement, below, I used this very old container, which is made up of three metal rods held together by a brass strip, onto which sits a large dish. It looks like something that might have been used by the oracles of ancient Greece. It stands at 1.4 metres in height, hence its position on the floor. I used variegated ivy, oranges and geraniums to complete my Mediterranean arrangement.

Please go to Ikebana Melbourne for photographs by the other members.

I leave you with this next arrangement, for which I have re-used this succulent material when I demonstrated the theme "Arrangement Expressing a Movement".

The re-worked material in a stainless steel container.

Original arrangement - the movement - 'Crawling'

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Ikebana colleague and former student, Marcia Lamrock, made the above arrangement during a recent Ikebana International meeting. It is a wall basket woven from palm inflorescence, into which she placed the coloured, ornamental vine to complete this delightful arrangement. Marcia bought her basket at the International Flower and Garden Show.

This basket was the inspiration to make our own baskets. When I suggested the idea to the class, they agreed enthusiastically and we set aside one lesson for basket weaving. I made a basket before the lesson to work out any problems so that I could guide the students. I provided the inflorescence, which I had soaked earlier and off we went. It was a most enjoyable lesson with every student delighted with her creation. In the following class, as well as their regular lesson, we each used our basket to make an arrangement. The photographs are below.

This was my first attempt

Shaneen Garbutt - Wall basket

Nicole McDonld, table basket

Wendy Sun. This is a wall basket but Wendy made a base,
into which the basket can sit and be placed on a table

Bredenia Raquel - wall basket

Rachel Jones, still in book 1,- wall basket

Vicky Kalokathis - table basket

Lucy Papas made a larger basket by weaving it more loosely

Lei Wang - wall basket

Dianne Longley - wall basket

Mary Sutherland, who has just finished Book 1, made this table basket. I helped
with the arrangement

I had some of the inflorescence left over, after cutting branches for the students, and couldn't help playing with it. I made two more baskets.

As you can see, the baskets are very different reflecting each student's personality and taste. In the previous books of our curriculum we had a lesson - 'Making Your Own Container'. The thinking behind this was that while making a container, the student thinks about how it can be used and becoming more intimate with it. Making our own baskets fits right into that concept.

We are, also, toying with the idea of taking up pottery. We'll see.

Bye for now,
Emily