24th May, 2021

 

Hello all,

Mum was sweeping the path in the back garden where the succulent, above, was in her way so she broke some pieces off and tossed them in the bin. Fortunately, I saw them and retrieved them and, together with the pomegranates that had to be cut to be saved from the birds, I was able to create an arrangement. Both materials are long lasting, so I expect to have this arrangement for a long time. Good for exhibitions.

At our recent Ikebana International meeting a workshop was conducted by Felicia Huang, a practicing teacher of the Ohara school. Felicia demonstrated two moribana landscape arrangements using winter branches. I direct you to our II Blog for more information and photographs of Felicia's work as well as that of the many members.

For my part, I took along an arrangement I made previously using a horizontal piece of magnolia but this time I used tulips instead of the floating camellias.

I found Felicia's work quite inspiring, in particular her use of fine and delicate branches, whereas I usually am drawn to more bold and strong materials, as is evidenced by my use of the magnolia.

With all of this in mind, for class I asked the advanced students to make what I call a 'Pond Arrangement', which is to say a landscape scene depicting plants growing beside water.  We really enjoyed this exercis and were delighted with the results.

For my arrangement I used driftwood, stones, pine, Dutch iris, baby tears (Soleirolia soleirolii), umbrella grass, cosmos and branches from my prunus mume, which had tight flower buds. Unfortunately, the photo does not show the forward sweep of these branches.

A few days later, with the warmth in the house, the iris are open as well as some of the flowers of the prunus mume.

In her arrangement, below, Maren used similar materials - drift wood, prunus mume, an unknown succulent, umbrella grass, spider plant and jonquils in a ceramic suiban.

Jenny used driftwood, Siberian dogwood,calla lily leaves, ming fern and daisies in a ceramic suiban.

Vicky used Siberian dogwood, fern, umbrella grass and daisies in a large, metallic suiban.

Lucy had a maller suiban and opted for height, using a  piece of bark, prunus mume, Umbrella grass, spider plant, cosmos and lobster flower (Spurflowers Plenctranthus).

Wendy's curriculum lesson was 'Curved lines'. She used Siberian dogwood, Oriental lilies and alstroemeria psittacina leaves.

Lei's curriculum lesson was 'Mass and Line'. She used cotoneaster berries and a prunus mume stem in an interesting, ceramic vase with two openings.

Shaneen's curriculum lesson was 'Vines'. She used jasmine and coleus in a curbed, ceramic container.

I leave you with these two views from our balcony of our back garden in its autumnal splendour.

Bye for now,

Emily