15th November, 2021

 

Hello all,

For our November Ikebana International meeting, Chieko Yazaki, head of Shogetsudo Koryu School, lead a workshop on Christmas Ikebana via zoom. Chieko demonstrated three Christmas themed arrangements and we, the members, were asked to make our own arrangement and send a photograph of it to the committee to be included in our Instagram and Facebook accounts. If you would like to see all the arrangements by Chieko and the members, go to our instagram account 'ikebanainternationalmelbourne' but give it a few days for them to be uploaded as the due date for submitting the photos was today.

The arrangement, above was my contribution. I used a mahonia stem with berries, my first white hydrangea, iris ensata and mizouhiki in a glass container.

I made a second Christmas arrangement because I had materials that were crying out to be used. This time it was a wall arrangement using hippeastrums, rhododendron leaves and, behind the flowers and seen only from  side, a spray of white, miniature roses. The silver material is sprayed, dried, spear grass. I debated about which arrangement I should submit. The wall one is simpler but more striking, where as the table arrangement is more subtle as well as more complex. I went with that.

My smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria 'Grace' has gone berserk! It grows on the southern side of the willow and, in an effort to reach the sun, it has grown really long stems, all of them with flowers at their end. I've been impatient to use this wonderful material but, if cut too young, it wilts immediately. Today I gave in to temptation.

Smoke bush in the garden
Apologies for the poor photography but it's very hard
to photograph against the sky

And in the vase with nandina domestica and 
arum lily

My evergreen dogwood, Cornus Capitata is also doing very well and I cut the first stem and used it with the first of my pink hydrangeas.

The 'container' in the next arrangement is made up of a curved container at the bottom. The top is a tile, into which I cut a hole and which I use as a wall container. The two had been sitting on a table in my studio, waiting to be put away, when the idea came to me to combine them. I chose the Siberian iris for its elegant, long stems as well as for its vibrant blue colour. The squiggly grass added some interest with its curves lines.

The ornithogalum that I have featured a few posts ago was 'Ornithogalum arabicum'. In the next arrangement I used Ornithogalum thyrsoides, which flowers a little later. Very convenient for us, ikebanists.

Bye for now,

Emily