13th December, 2021

 

Hello all,

Sogetsu NSW have a Virtual Exhibition titled 'Sogetsu Ikebana Awakening', which was organised after the cancellation, twice, of their planned 'Celebrate 60' event. Click on Virtual Exhibition to view it. The arrangement, above, was my contribution. Each exhibitor was asked to express what 'Sogetsu Ikebana Awakening' meant to them. For me, it was the introduction of sculptural work in Book 5 of the curriculum that 'awoke' in me a desire to create sculpture. For my exhibit I used one large agave piece and glass rods.

It's mid December and my little granddaughters, who, together with their parents, are still living with us, wanted to decorate the house for Christmas. Inwardly, my initial reaction was 'Bah Humbug' but I put on a smile and told them that, of course, we will decorate the house. 

I made the mistake of sending Sam and our son to buy the live Christmas tree. They came back with a 3 metre tall number, which meant I could barely reach the top to place the angel, even with my step ladder. Certainly, the girls couldn't reach very high, so I left the lower half for them to decorate. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the lower half, they had lost interest.

Before I could start I had this to deal with -

It was only my consideration for the environment that prevented me from throwing them out and buying new ones. It took me a good hour to untangle that mess.

I have a large number of different, hand crocheted christmas tree ornaments, which I made over 30 years go and which have graced many a Christmas tree since then. They are looking a little worse for wear because the resin from all those trees has stained most of them. I could wash and re-starch them but the prospect of all that work and time leaves me cold.

A small sample of my ornaments

My deciduous dogwood (Cornus Norman Hadden) was just delightful this year. I made one, very simple arrangement based on the Variation No. 4 slanting style nageire, just to feature the beauty of the stem with its flowers on their long stalks sitting upright. I finished it with blue agapanthus in a self made, ceramic vase.

A little later I made the wall arrangement, below, with a branch from the same tree. You will notice that the flowers start to take on a delightful, pink blush as they age. This time I used pink hydrangeas to complement that colour. The container is metallic. The photo was taken last Thursday. Today the colour of the dogwood flowers is a much deeper pink.

Bye for now,

Emily