22nd March, 2021

 

Hello all,

The arrangement, above, is an autumn one. The berries (cornus capitata) are popular with birds, so I use them as soon as they change colour from green to orange before they are devoured by our winged friends. The hydrangeas are late flowering ones and the Japanese anemones are at their absolute best.

At our last Ikebana International meeting a number of our Japanese members showed us how to put together an origami box and, then, use it as a  container for ikebana by placing some water holding bowl inside it. They had provided the paper and a variety of fresh material from which we could choose. For my box I used two different coloured pieces of paper and, when I got my arrangement home, I put it in this black wire structure for a bit more interest.

Here's a little heartwarming story of today's technology and social media to counter some of the very bad ones. At my first Masterclass Jenny Loo did the arrangement, below, using heavy pear branches. She, subsequently, posted the photograph on her Instagram account. Someone from somewhere out there was so impressed by it, that she or he was inspired to paint it. Try as I might I could not crop the photo of the painting to exclude the text. My apologies.

The original arrangement

The painting

At the end of the last Masterclass, there was a container and materials left over. They had not been used because of a student's absence. I gave the materials to Lucy, who has a very small garden and relies on mine for most of the materials she uses. The container is a very unusual one and the material was a curved agapanthus. On the spur of the moment I decided to challenge her to make as arrangement where the stem of the heavy agapanthus came out of the narrow opening of the container without resting on either the rim or the loop of the container. I would have accepted resting if anyone had used it in  class because it would have been much too difficult in the two hour session to come up with the necessary mechanics. Lucy, however, relishes a challenge and, having managed to do it myself in the past, I knew it was possible and that she would do it also. She said it took her all afternoon but she managed it. Bravo!

Close up of the opening and loop

I did something very similar in 2015 and had posted it on this blog and, since I don't expect you to remember it, here are the photos again.

The mechanics

A new and very beautiful, yellow nerine flowered and I was looking for a setting to do it justice.

I have bamboo growing in a very big pot at the front door. A piece had broken some time ago and I've been waiting for the right occasion to use what was left. The nerine and bamboo came together quite satisfactorily. The charming discolouration happened naturally. The difficulty I had was to cut the bamboo very straight so as to balance without the aid of a kenzan. I used a saw to remove it from the root and then very coarse sand paper to level it off. I treated the bamboo by placing it in  cup of boiling, salted water for about 15 minutes. This seems to stop the leaves from curling and drying. It's been six days now and the leaves are still fresh.

I used the offcuts from the bamboo in another arrangement but I treated them also with the salted, boiling water before arranging them.

And I leave you with this little arrangement that I'm particularly fond of. The leaf is bamboo with a delightful stripe 

down the middle and a dark pink nerine.

Bye for now,

Emily