26th July, 2021

 Hello all,

I made the above arrangement after the white petals of the strelitzia nicolai died. They don't last very long, certainly not as long as the common strelitzia reginae. But the remaining, boat-shaped bracts are very strong and sculptural, extending their use in ikebana. The arrangement reminds me of a ballerina.

In my last post I mentioned Christine's Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), which I used in one arrangement. But I had another large branch, which I could not let go to waste. Having just pruned the apple tree, I was left with many long, straight bare stems and decided to put the two together. Bending the apple stems was not an option, so they had to be used straight. Here's the result.

The leaves of the Illawarra Flame tree are changing colour and, after I finished the above arrangement, I was drawn to the shape and colour of the individual leaves. On the shelf was a hand-blown glass container, which was made to my specifications some years ago and, which had an almost identical colour to the leaves. Putting them together seemed natural and the clivia berries add a splash of colour.

I almost missed the flowering of my garrya elliptica because it produced very few catkins. I have observed that this small tree alternates between flowering profusely one year and very parsimoniously the next. This year it's the latter. Still, I managed to get a couple of arrangements from it. And, of course, I couldn't go past camellias as  complementary materials.

With Brushfields Yellow camellia in ceramic vase

With kamo-hon-ami camellia in a kintsugi repaired
ceramic vase

I made this next arrangement some weeks ago but didn't get to share it. For want of a better word, I'm going to call this material a 'palm pod'. This one has a very convenient split down its length, into which I was able to insert a partially dried and heavily trimmed strelitzia nicolai leaf. 

In this time of contstand doom and gloom, let me share with you my very pleasant Sunday afternoon. After taking care of household duties and mum's needs, I went into the garden for a couple of hours, which I enjoyed enormously. Then I went around the garden and collected random materials, which I took to the studio and started playing. It's rare that I start my ikebana without any idea of what I want to do but I enjoy it when it happens.

One of my favourite Greek singers, Tolis Voskopoulos, sadly died recently, which prompted me to seek out his music on YouTube. Sam and I used to listen to his very romantic and moody music when we were 'courting'. So, picture me, in my studio, steeped in romantic nostalgia, happily creating ikebana. I, even, did a couple of turns on the floor to the music of a 'zeibekiko'. I was like the proverbial pig in ........

So, here's what I ended up with. Just when I thought I couldn't find a new way to use the umbrella grass, I came up with this. Using a clear glass container has its benefits and its drawbacks. What's inside the container should be an integral part of the whole arrangement, I wanted to feature the lines of the stems but I did not want to have the ends of the large mass showing. I managed this with a slight optical illusion. By placing the ends right on the water line, they seem to disappear. How cool is that!?

Bye for now,

Emily