Hello all,

The theme for last week's class was 'Glass Containers' from Book 5. In this exercise and because of the transparency of the containers, attention needs to be given to the inside as much as the outside of the container. The added interest is the refraction of light through water.

In my example, above, I chose not to use water, mainly because it is a very big bowl which would require at least 15 litres of water. It would make it quite unmanageable. Also, the agave I used will last better dry. If I were to immerse it in water, it would rot quite quickly.

In my next example I used the coloured leaves from my blushing bromeliad (Neoregelia Carolinae) in a tall, rectangular container, which I filled with water to the very top.

Below are two views of the same arrangement showing the change in the look of the leaves because of refraction of light through glass and water.

I made this next example because I found some rather large squiggly grass, which were growing in part shade and thought their lines would be ideal for this exercise. Once I made it and photographed it against a white background, I looked for a surface on which to display it. I was in a hurry before class and put it on a dark piece of furniture. It was only later, when I was discussing the arrangement with the class, that I realised I was wrong to place it on such a dark surface. A great example of the importance of making an arrangement suitable for the place in which  it will be displayed. In this case I should have, also, taken into consideration the colour of the surface.

In the first arrangement, below, Jenny used small agapanthus seed heads in a narrow, cylindrical vase filled with water. She, then, placed that vase in a larger one but decided not to use water in the second vase because it distorted the appearance of the arrangement too much and not in a good way.  She used the bent stem of an agapanthus to add line to her mass.

In the second arrangement Maren used a single aspidistra leaf and a single agapanthus flower. She managed to keep the materials off the bottom of the vase giving an impression of floating.

Vicky used a decanter with one large and one small
agapanthus seed head, with th seeds off

Bredenia used two birds nest fern leaves
and one gloriosa lily in a tall cylindrical vase.
The frilly edges of the leaves relate well with
the frilly edges of the lily

Lucy used two tall, cylindrical vases with an aspidistra
leaf in each. She removed half of each of the leaves
making them narrower, thus emphasising the curl.

Lei's piece of 'Intertwining Plant Materials'. We had a discussion of
keeping our weaving more loose as it had been pointed out to me
many years ago by Kawana sensei, when I did exactly the same
weaving.

Shaneen's arrangement 'Showing Lines
at Base. She used papyrus and sedum

Wendy's 'Vertical Composition' using gladioli and
their leaves

I'd like to let you know of some of my up coming events:

Sunday 10th May, 10.30am

2 hour workshop

Bulleen Art and Garden

6 Manningham Road W, Bulleen

https://bulleenartandgarden.weteachme.com/classes/1035149-ikebana-workshop

Saturday 30th May, 10.00 am

2 hour workshop

McClelland Sculpture Park & Gallery

390 McClelland Drive, Langwarrin 

Monday 6th July, 2.00 - 4.00pm

60 - 90 minute ikebana demonstration 

Whitehorse Library Blackburn 

Cnr Blackburn and Central Rd, Blackburn 

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,
Above is a photo of our Lucy giving a demonstration at our recent Ikebana International meeting. It was the first for the year and, also, the first to be held at 6.00 pm, giving the opportunity to working members to attend.

Phillip Rhodes was our guest speaker, a milliner of vast experience and talent. He brought along four examples of the types of hats he creates for theatre, ballet and opera and we were quite engrossed in his description of the work - the time involved as well as sourcing materials for his projects etc.

Following his talk, Lucy Papas demonstrated two arrangements referencing the glamorous hats worn by stars of  the silver screen of a by-gone-era. Picture Audrey Hepburn, Larna Turner et al.

In her first arrangement, Lucy used a palm spathe, which she coloured egg shell blue on the outside and gold on the inside.She placed it on a tall thin vase, saying it reminded her of a lady's elegant neck. She used orange flowering gum as a mass and a fresh, green stick for line.

In her second arrangement she used leaves only - two strelitzia leaves, aspidistra leaves and New Zealand flax.

Please go to II Melbourne and click on 'Blog' to see more photographs from the meeting.

For my arrangement I used a very distressed, asian, bamboo hat. The type one sees in photos and videos of farmers working in paddy fields. This hat lived on the head of the scarecrow the grandchildren and I built last year. It kept getting blown off and I kept putting it back on until it practically disintegrated. When I picked it up intending to throw it in the bin, the horder in me came to the fore and I put it in the storeroom. When I was looking for inspiration for this arrangement, I found the hat!

We had fun making the scarecrow but he was totally useless in
scaring away the birds. I even saw one sitting on his arm.

And, below is the arrangement with what was left of the hat. Despite having glued quite a bit of it together, it is still quite fragile. I used a newly acquired, coppery vase, smoke bush flowers that I had sprayed gold and placed at the back. I used 2 white hydrangeas on the top of the hat and one underneath. The two long-stemmed crucifix orchids provided the line.

Whilst working in the garden I came across a number of fruit on my Japanese flowering quince (Chaenomeles japonica). It's not uncommon to find one or two fruit but this many is unusual. So I collected them all and made this arrangement, using my one and only sun flower. I took care in the placement of the stems to remain upright without resting on the lip of the container. It is a fitting example of the lesson in Book 3 - Showing lines at base.

A close up of the fruit

In a previous post I mentioned my lovely next door neighbours. Well, the next arrangement is dedicated to Marisa for giving me these two bromeliad flowers. She said she didn't use them herself because they were too floppy. I told her to use a tall vase and let them hang down.

My arrangement

Marisa's arrangement. She was very happy with it

I leave you with this next arrangement in another, newly acquired vase from Dawn George.

Bye for now,
Emily

Wisteria day.

My arrangement of wisteria and hydrangeas

Hello all,

We had the first class for the year last Wednesday with a workshop on wisteria. Many times I've threatened to get rid of my wisteria, which I planted at least 20 years ago and which has been stubbornly parsimonious in its production of flowers. The neighbours, with whom we share a fence and over which the wisteria has been growing, are also unhappy with its uncontrollable, rambling habit and want it gone. So this was it. If I was going to get rid of the wisteria, I was not going to waste the opportunity, so I provided ample material for all the students to play with.

The result was a very messy but satisfying lesson. I pointed out to the students the main characteristics of this material and suggested that they think about which one they would feature. They could either choose from the cut vines or they could cut their own from the plant. One very important point to remember is that the leaves must be facing upwards. Care needs to be taken in the selection of the stem to be used because anything that grows downwards needs to be arranged downwards so the leaves are facing upwards.

The three arrangements, below are the examples I made featuring different properties of wisteria. In the first I used the vine naturalistically, featuring the curve, which reaches forward. I used hydrangeas with it in a ceramic container.

In the second arrangement I stripped the leaves and left the thin spikes on the vine. This left the material very thin and delicate, so I chose a tall glass vase and I continued the line of the vine, which is visible inside the vase, on the outside. I needed delicate flowers to complete this piece and the crucifix orchids fitted the bill just fine.

In the third arrangement, I wanted to feature the twisting habit of the material. This piece was cut together with many others,indiscriminately, as the plant is very much overgrown and tangled up. When I picked it up from the pile, I noticed that one stem was longer than the other. I thought I would need to shorten it so that they may both go into a container with water. On closer inspection, however, I realised that the longer stem had no leaves attached to it and would, therefore, not need to be in water. So, then came the search for a suitable container and, after trying a number of them, I settled on this vase with holes at the top, allowing the short stem to go into water and the long to extend beyond the vase. The amaranthus flowers and dahlias added colour.

The following arrangements are by some of the students. I have to point out that the photographs don't do justice to the arrangements that have a forward sweep. Depth is lost in the two-dimensional medium of photography. Also, a number of the students are in the early stages of the curriculum but I wanted them to have a go anyway because opportunities like this are infrequent and should be taken advantage of.

Dianne Longley

Rachel Jones

Nicole McDonald

Wendy Sun

Jenny Loo

Shaneen Garbutt

Vicky Kalokathis

Lucy Papas

In between the morning and afternoon classes, we had a most welcome visitor, Dawn George, a colleague  I hadn't seen for a long time. She is a Sogetsu teacher who is no longer teaching and who wanted to sell her containers. It was a real treasure trove for the students, who bought up big. A number of the arrangements done on the day were in the new containers.  I was particularly pleased to get some nageire vases for new students.

Bye for now,
Emily

Viburnum opulus branches and dahlias in ceramic container 

Hello all,
It's been a week of serious gardening and a start on much neglected pruning. This, of course, has provided ample material for ikebana. The arrangement, above is one example. The one below, is another.

Conifer and hydrangea

And I wasn't the only one puning. As I was returning from picking up grandchildren from school this afternoon, I came across council workers cutting a Corymbia ficifolia and putting the branches into a chipper. I had to hurry if I was going to rescue some branches but I had the two grandkids to worry about. I couldn't leave them in the car but it was dangerous to take them near all that machinery. So we agreed that they would stand across the road where I could watch them and they would be safe. The men were very helpful, cutting the few branches that still had flowers on them and handing them to me. I must say though, I found it amusing the way one of them insisted on helping me not to fall over the logs.

I love the way this material has buds, flowers and seed pods all at the same time on the branches. It makes it unnecessary to use any other material with it.

The gloriosa lilies are flowering their little hearts off. The only problem is the shortness of the stem of each individual flower. If I were to cut a longer stems I would have to sacrifice new buds and I'm loathe to do so. Hence my use of massing them. In the arrangement below, I used two triangular containers. In one I massed the lilies and in the other, I put a stem of hydrangea, which had fallen to the ground and created this interesting curve. It gives the impression that the hydrangea is 'speaking' to the lilies.

And below is another arrangements with massed lilies. Here I used a square container, on which I placed a slab of granite which has a rectangular hole in the centre of it. For height I used one New Zealand flax leaf and a stem of my neighbours' Port St Johns creeper. It's hard to guage from the photograph but the arrangement is quite tall, measuring 1.25 metres in height.

In this next arrangement, the squiggly stem of this succulent (probably Purple aeonium) has been in this container for many months. I just haven't had the heart to throw it out. So I added a larger flower to make a new arrangement. I know this will continue to live equally as long and will produce roots where it reaches the water..

I noticed something quite interesting this year, which I attribute to the unusual weather we've been having. Sam and I have always put water out for the birds. We have a bird bath, which we wash out regularly and put fresh water daily. This summer, I noticed a great number of honey bees all around the perimeter of the bowl all day long. This makes it difficult to change the water because it risks drowning them . In fact, I often have to rescue some that happen to fall in the water. By coincidence last Saturday, I was listening to a discussion on the radio with an apiarist, who said that the bees collect water and carry it to the hive to cool it down.

I've become more and more fond of bees and would get a bee hive in a heart beat if it wasn't for the grandchildren being afraid of them.

If you look at the photo, below, very closely, you will see the bees on the perimeter of the bird bath, which is old with a rough surface. This is an advantage because the bees can find purchase as they reach down to the water.

And so the saga of the nectarine tree continues. Those of you who read last week's post will remember that our broken nectarine tree had produced a new shoot, creating much joy for the family. And you will, also, remember that we had put a protective barrier so that our lawn mower man would not mow over it. Well, it beggars belief that he removed the barrier and mowed over the precious shoot anyway! He was lucky that we didn't see what he had done until after he left. I'm not sure either one of us would have been able to control our tempers and remain civil. As it is, by the time he comes back, we will have, hopefully calmed down somewhat.

We put the barrier back over what's left of the stump believing that if one shoot had grown, there's a chance that another will. Fingers crossed!

And one more thing. I intended to mention this last week but forgot. I want to thank those of you who wrote to me with comments of empathy for our Lexie. I realise my story would have brought back memories of the loss of a beloved pet for many of you. It is comforting to share such memories.

Bye for now,
Emily