29th November, 2021

 

Hello all,

I made the arrangement, above to showcase the large, softly coloured, oriental lilies, which were a gift from my two beautiful nieces, Angie and Joanna when they came to dinner last week.

I used the agave because I had it in abundance, having just trimmed it back, away from  my lawn-mower man with his whipper snipper.

Looking around the garden, I noticed some pink and mauve flowers and was inspired to use them together. This was not easy because the agapanthus and clematis are both very dominant and hard to use together. Hence the two tall vases. I put each material in a vase - the agapanthus going upwards and the clematis hanging down, as this was the way it grew. The dark purple material was Siberian Iris. 

When I placed the two vases next to each other, the arrangement did not jel and seemed quite disparate. The one on the left looked contemporary where as the one on the right looked naturalistic. I overcame that problem by placing a sprig of clematis leaves in with the agapanthus, thus changing the look to a more naturalistic one. My teacher, Carlyne would have said that now they 'married'.

Before

After

Continuing with the mauve theme, I used the clematis with its long vine in a wall arrangement. This time I used iris ensata to complete the arrangement.

As you know, I have an abundance of materials in my garden but I still get very exited when I get the opportunity to use something I don't have. The Grevillea Robusta in my next arrangement came from my neighbour's tree. I noticed it every time I drove past but then forgot about it when I got home. Today I remembered. The frustrating characteristic of this tree is that it flowers up high, requiring my extendable cutter and the flowering branches hang downwards, making them difficult to be put in water and have them look right. I managed to find a couple of stems that were usable.

Last week I wrote about our workshop with the combined theme of 'Arrangement in Glass Vessel' and 'With Leaves only'. Christopher has uploaded the photographs from the workshop. Please go to  Sogetsu Victoria to view them.

Continuing with the glass container theme and, as I mentioned before, with an abundance of agaves, I made the arrangement, below.

My student, Mary did the next arrangement from Book 3 - 'Composition of Straight Lines'. She used umbrella grass stems (Cyperus alternifolius) and Strelitzia reginae in a ceramic suiban.

On Saturday I had a rare day alone with my 9 year old, grandson, Xavier. He was nursing an injured ankle and couldn't play his scheduled basketball and, with his parents out, he spent the day with me. Typical boy, he can't sit still for a second but, with a sore ankle, he was forced to. Amongst other activities we engaged in was ikebana and it was at his request. Imagine my delight when he was able to understand my explanations of angles and proportions involved in the first lesson in the book. And, he was wearing the Jacket I made him during the lockdown. He also wore it to school on Friday as they had a free dress day. Apparently, his friends liked it and said that I was talented. But the biggest complement was when one of them referred to me as 'Bad ass'. For an old granny, that's pretty cool!

My very special boy with his 'Basic Upright' arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily