COMPOSITIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE

Hello all,

It was not a conscious decision to make two arrangements in black and white. It was only after I had completed them that I realised there was a common thread. Of course, it was the materials that dictated how they were to be arranged. Although there is an abundance of white flowers, in nature there are few black materials. So, when I found these shiny, black berries, I, instinctively, gravitated towards the black and white container. The old, sprayed magnolia branch practically called out to me. Then, the Kamo Hon Ami camellia was a no brainer.

The above arrangement started with the arum lilies that are just beginning to flower. The container is in two pieces - the black is a solid piece of wood and the white a rectangular, ceramic container. Placing the black piece over the white diagonally gave me two entrance points for the flowers and allowed me to bring the flower heads close together. The clusters of small flowers are from a tree that's growing by the road.

By sheer coincidence, Vicky was also in a black and white mood. Just like me, it was her material that was the starting point of her arrangements. She has a magnificent, white magnolia, which flowers for such a short time that she tries to get as many arrangements from it as possible before it drops its petals.

In this case, Vicky used jonquils and a wisteria vine -
Mass and Line

In the above, wall arrangement, I used more of the black berries, which I picked from a plant that looks like dracena but I'm not sure. Google was no help. If anyone knows what they are, I would be very grateful if you could let me know. The 'container' is, actually, a piece of art, a much prized gift from Lucy in my early days of ikebana.

I dropped off some groceries to my aunty and uncle when I noticed their Japanese, flowering quince in full bloom. Mine doesn't even have a hint of flowers yes. So I begged a piece and teamed it with camellias. For me, this is a match made in heaven.

Ikebana without flowers

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,
Enforced rest has led me to become a veritable couch potato, so I was looking for activities I could do whilst sitting down. One such activity was to use this very fine, orange coloured cane to create triangles, then I joined them together to form this structure. Apart from some jonquils, camellias are about the only other flowers in my garden, so I used them with some oranges to complete the arrangement.

I did quite a lot of pruning recently, including the geranium, which had some coloured leaves and, of course, had to be put to use in ikebana.

Geranium and rose in lacquered vase

Sometimes it's nice to go back to basics. So I made this basic upright nageire with the geranium stems and used some leucadendron flowers from my rather small plant. When I photographed it, however, I noticed that the colours were too similar and replaced the leucadendrons with yellow camellias.

I used jonquils in the next two arrangements, not just the flowers but also the leaves, which I wired to enable me to shape them.

Paying attention to the shape of the container

I'm still learning how to use equisetum. It's not nearly as easy as it appears in some books. Here's one attempt with small gymea leaves and iris.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

So I pruned the apple tree and I pruned it hard. It was growing very tall and encroaching sideways towards the driveway. It was hard work because I'm still recovering from surgery and have to take things easy. Having finished the pruning, however, I was faced with more work because I couldn't possibly throw away all the lovely branches when I could use them for ikebana. Above is one arrangement with camellias in a self made vase.

The next arrangement, above, was quite challenging because of its size - 2m across. The weight of the slanting branches called for some serious mechanics to be employed. After trying a number of different methods to support them, I settled on screwing pieces of split bamboo onto the branches to help wedge them into the container. I confess, I worried that the actual weight of the branches would break the ceramic container. So far, so good. The photographs, below, show the bamboo pieces screwed onto the apple branches. I had the main branch hovering above the container the way it would sit inside it. The smaller branch to the left required only one piece of bamboo.

The last arrangement was much easier because the branches were positioned upright with the centre of gravity going straight down the container. So, a kenzan was all that was needed.

Apple branches and Green Goddess lilies

And here are some arrangements just for the fun of it.

Fresh and unconventional material. The mesh
ribbon is metal

Using only one kind of material. Fern

Arum lily and stem of taro leaf

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

The above arrangement has the theme 'In a suiban without a kenzan'. I made it using leaves rather than branches as a way to challenge myself. And, yes, it was quite a challenge to get the leaves to hold each other up by feeding them through slits. The difficulty was to keep this 'feeding' to a minimum to avoid clutter. I used flax leaves and gymea leaves, which are considerably smaller than usual because these grow along the flower stem. Their smaller size can be quite useful.  And I was delighted to discover four flower stems in the clump.

I mentioned the garrya eliptica in my last post but I can't resist using it again whilst I have it. The arrangement on the left is quite tall, over a metre in height. I used an old piece of tortuous willow, spayed black and 'Brushfield's Yellow' camellias with the garrya. The tall, glass vase is one that I and other colleagues bought a very long time ago, whilst studying with our teacher, Carlyne Patterson. It's been sitting in the very back of my storeroom, out of reach and, thus, not been used as much now as it has been in the past. It's hard to guage size from the photos but the wall arrangement, to the right, is about half the size of the other one.

The previous Saturday I felt I had to come to the defence of ikebana. I'm a regular listener to the ABC radio gardening program. One of the guest gardeners is Steven Ryan, a very knowledgeable nursery man. He made a comment which, I suspect, was tongue in cheek but, which is something many people would believe. He was discussing the red stemmed dogwood, Cornus Siberica Alba and said that people who do ikebana would like it because 'they use a rock, a stick and a flower'. I needed to dispel that notion so I made a couple of arrangements, photographed them and sent them via text to the program the following Saturday. Unfortunately, I had an appointment to get to and didn't hear the whole program and don't know if any mention was made of them but I'm happy I made the effort.

I created asymmetric triangles with the dogwood and massed them but couldn't decide which flower was best to use with the structure. So, I photographed both.

The other arrangement is one with a branch of the dogwood that I had manipulated whilst it was growing and ended with this interesting swirl of lines. The colour of the leucadendrons seemed fortuitous, since they were all the flowers I had.

A couple of dried strelitzia leaves lying around in my work room were put to good use, together with the first of my arum lilies.

I cut these grevillea flowers from a shrub outside the pathologist's rooms when I was last there. It goes without saying that I got permission first. They lend themselves best to naturalistic arrangements, hence the bamboo basket. The dietes leaves provide the lines.

We've had quite a few days of miserable weather but I happened to be outside just as the sun peaked through and I noticed the iridescent quality of the wet moss on this rock. I had to take a photo. Sadly, my photographic skills leave a lot to be desired. But I'm learning.

And, just a recap on the story of my sculpture. I had an email from the purchaser, who included photographs of the piece in its final home. I was absolutely delighted to have my work displayed in such an elegant setting. It seems to suit the space very well.

Bye for now,
Emily