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