Well, it's been a long time coming but we've finally been able to have another Masterclass. As always, I tried to challenge these advanced students. I set them the theme 'In a Suiban Without a Kenzan' but I added a degree of difficulty to this, already challenging theme, by providing quite disparate materials. They each had some sort of dry branches as well as fresh ones with leaves, which would require water. Also, they were given large containers and materials to encourage them to make large arrangements. I'm very pleased to say that they all rose to the challenge and did it justice. Very satisfying for a teacher.
The arrangement, above, was done by Akemi Suzuki. The unusual, dry material is the flower of the agave plant. It is very woody and heavy. The green material is a cordalline, whose leaves were cut sharply and the flower, of course, is an arum lily. Initially, I had given Akemi a much larger suiban but, when the arrangement was finished, it was obvious that the container was inappropriate. So we changed it for a much smaller one and everyone was happy.
Nicole had tea tree branches in two different stages - flowering stage and seeding stage. Also, walnut branches and, for the accent, a stem of oriental lilies in a ceramic suiban. Nicole is not used to making such large arrangements and her comment before she left was that she would have to move house in order to fit this arrangement in it.
Christopher had some unknown dry branches, as well as coastal banksia. I was particularly taken by the white colour on the underside of the leaves of this material. So, Christopher, in deference to me, chose to make a feature of this and he positioned the large oriental lilies behind the branch structure, allowing the banksia to dominate. The container he used was a glass suiban with an uneven base, making this exercise just a bit more difficult.
Vicky had three stelitzia reginae leaves and one flower as well as some unknown dry material. Her container was a large, oval, ceramic suiban.
Jenny had some browallia orange branches, which I cut from my son's garden, a double headed strelitzia reginae and a couple of walnut branches. The container was a rectangular, ceramic suiban.
Christine had couple of pieces of kangaroo apple (solanum aviculare), some dry bamboo and a stem of oriental lilies. The interest in this arrangement is the creation of triangles with the bamboo which was both in and out of the rectangular, ceramic suiban.
Just as an explanation, especially for the non-ikebanists amongst my readers, all the arrangements were big and challenging. All the participants struggled to produce the work they did but it was worth it in the end. I, too, had some difficulties and that was with photographing them. They were so big that they barely fit within the area of my photographing screen.
Bye for now,
Emily
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