22nd November, 2021

 

Hello all.

The wisteria constantly needs cutting back because it grows very quickly, especially this time of year, and attaches itself to the trees growing near it. After a recent prune I found this beautifully curved piece. As you can imagine, I had to remove quite a number of side shoots to reveal this shape. The vase was ideal at it allowed me to feature the lines and it supported the vine, which would, otherwise, be floppy. The arum lilies and smoke bush stem completed the arrangement.

Today we had the pleasure of meeting face to face with our Sogetsu colleagues at our scheduled workshop after a number of previous, such workshops held on line. This time  Angeline Lo led the workshop with the themes of using "Leaves only" and in a "Clear Glass Vessel". She demonstrated three arrangements and emphasised the refraction and reflection that can occur in water through differently shaped glass. I found it a very interesting workshop and enjoyed seeing the different works and containers of our members. Christopher would not have had time to post the photographs onto our blog yet but I'm sure he will in time.

For my arrangement, I had prepared a piece initially, with which I was quite happy. I used a  small, square, crystal vase with facets which reflected onto the oddly shaped vase on top. I worked two variegated, New Zealand flax leaves in and out of the containers.

However, this was not the one I took to the workshop. Going over Angeline's notes again, I remembered a tall, triangular shaped vase that I've used before and know that it reflects very well. I used a mauve coloured glass cylinder inside the vase, around which I twisted a single, variegated, New Zealand flax. I had intended to use a second flax but the reflections filled the glass to the point that it looked almost crowded.

 Another, very interesting aspect of glass arrangements is that the view changes based on one's viewing position. I have taken photographs from three different aspects to demonstrate this.

Front view

Three weeks ago we had my son and his family move in with us, quite unexpectedly, after a kitchen fire which rendered their home uninhabitable. My little granddaughter, Althea was sent home with a sore throat on Tuesday and had to go through the precautions of testing and awaiting results. Fortunately, they came back negative. However, as my regular class was scheduled for the next day, it had to be cancelled. The exercise I had set for the advanced students was to bring along their most difficult container so we could workshop it in class. Before the need to cancel the class, I had prepared my example with a container that I designed and made in 2016 at the Sogetsu kiln. The difficulty with using this container is that the receptacle for water is small and set high, which means I can't use any heavy materials as it will topple over.

So, I opted for, primarily, light materials, such as the horse tail (equisetum) and smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria - Grace). The heaviest was the strelitzia reginae but it was placed low and close to the centre of gravity.

When there's a flower on my strelitzia nicolai, which I can reach with a reasonable ladder, I have to cut it come hell or high water. In order to get the longest possible stem, I had to sacrifice two, very large leaves. But it was worth it.as I used parts of those leaves in the arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily