30th November, 2020

Hello all,

This week my ikebana had to take a back seat as I concentrate on recovering from surgery. Nothing very serious but a colossal pain, nevertheless. So I'm going to introduce you, if you're not already familiar with it, to the above publication. I copied the short blurb, below, but there's more information out there, should anyone want it.

Masterclass Ikebana is the eighth volume in the Stichting Kunstboek's international series focusing on Ikebana. These books haven't gone unnoticed and over the years have found their way to the various Ikebana Headquarters in Japan and their Grand Masters (Iemoto).

Ikebanists from around the world submit photographs of their work, from which the publishing company select and then, a book is born. A number of Melbourne Sogetsu members have participated in this and other volumes. Lucy and I have had our work included in the last four and I will share with you our photographs in this publication. In case anyone is concerned, we will not be breaching copyright. I checked.

The first two are Lucy's.

 

The next two are mine.

We had to remove two of the huge trunks of the tropical bird of paradise. strelitzia nicolai and were, thus, able to reach some of the flowers. Poor, old Sam again had to risk life and limb to cut them but he did so despite my protestations that they were not worth the risk.

Just call him Tarzan

Having cut the flowers and having given some to Lucy and Vicky, the rest had to be arranged.

I redid last week's wall arrangement by removing the large leaf, which curled up as it dried and added another flower and two juvenile leaves from the gymea lily. This arrangement addresses two lessons - The Shape of the Container and the Colour of the Container.

The next one is a large floor arrangement, in this case under the staircase.

I had to strip away some of the lower part of the leaf as it was too long and was left with some half unfurled pieces with which I created this next small arrangement.

And both dogwoods, cornus capitatum and cornus Norman Hannon are in full bloom as well as the hydrangeas. I have a number of shrubs in different parts of the garden, which produce different coloured flowers. This is due to the different ph levels in the soil. I picked this one to go with the dogwood because of the delicate, pale blue and cream that are picked up by the dogwood.

Variation No. 4 - Hanging style

Bye for now,

Emily