Masterclass No. 3

 

Hello all, 

This past week was a particularly busy one, ikebana wise, I had my regular classes on the first Wednesday of the month as well as the private lesson I teach on Friday and the Masterclass, which falls on the second Saturday of the month. By coincidence, all these classes fell in the one week, leaving me somewhat short of time. So I was unable to make an arrangement using agave, which was the exercise for the Masterclass. I looked into my archives and came across the arrangement, above, which I made in 2017. 

A number of the attendees of the class had not used agave before and were pleased to get the opportunity to workshop this rather challenging material. We explored the difficulties in using agave, such as the fact that they are thorny, which can be overcome with sturdy gloves and very heavy, which requires strong mechanics to balance. I, also, demonstrated how to use a kenzan with them. 

I had cut the agaves two days earlier and left them out of water to make them a little bit more malleable. I also provided a number of different accompanying materials to each participant to complete his or her arrangement.

Vicky used umbrella grass stems and seed
heads from Japanese anemones in ceramic
container which has a wooden piece fitting 
over the top

Christopher used smaller pieces of agave
and Japanese anemones in ceramic container

Akemi cut her agave and fitted it in pieces in this heavy, split 
container. She also used Siberian dogwood and hydrangeas

Christine managed to balance the agave without resting on the 
container. She used only three sunflowers with it in a very heavy
stone container

Susan used two stems of agave and just some persimmons 
on the branch in my self made ceramic container

Jenny worked hard to balance the two agaves in this slanting position, then
used wisteria, whose leaves she had stripped, leaving just the stalks, creating softer 
lines which contrasted with the strong lines of the variegated agave. The sunflowers
completed the piece.

 
Bye for now,

Emily