Hello all,
As there were only four attendees to last Saturday's Masterclass, I did not dedicate a blog post to it. Instead, I have incorporated it into my regular, weekly post.
I've been intending to workshop hawthorn branches and was waiting for the berries to be at their best. Unfortunately, between last month's class and now, the birds discovered the berries were ripe and stripped most trees of them. The few that still had berries were not easily accessible but I managed to cut enough branches with the help of my trusty, extendable cutter.
I provided the students with hawthorn branches and accompanying materials but I allowed them, after studying their material carefully, to choose their own container. Once the container was chosen, they were not allowed to change it.
In my arrangement, above, I used red hawthorn berries and black, Portugal laurel berries. I removed the berries from their branches by cutting them with scissors and not pulling them out. This, together with a teaspoon of bleach, keeps them going for a few days. I used a single anthurium and squiggly grass to complete the piece.
Jenny made a large, naturalistic arrangement in one of my self made containers that she has been wanting to use for some time. Since she was given a choice, she was not going to miss out on the opportunity. She used hydrangea leaves and flowers to complete her arrangement.
Christine stripped the leaves from the hawthorn branches, leaving only the berries. She also used amaranthus and cosmos flowers and one calla lily leaf for depth at the back. She emphasised the split in this strong container by leaving it free of materials.
Vicky made a very tall, vertical arrangement using two triangular containers. She created a mass by cutting sprigs of the berries and putting them together. She also massed the sedum flowers tightly, creating a very dramatic effect.
Cym wanted to float the berries in a glass container. She used two rectangular, glass vases. Into one, she put water half way up the vase and floated the berries. She, also, scrunched a newly unfurled, monstera leaf into an informal mass at the top. In the second, smaller vase, she used pieces of the stem of the monstera leaf to create lines at the top and finished it with a belladonna lily, which she reduced in size.
I, also, wanted to use the hawthorn berries in a naturalistic arrangement. I, painstakingly, removed all the leaves from the branches and chose a strong container with two openings. In one I placed the branches and in the other, some Japanese anemones. The end result is a simple arrangement, however, the mechanics required to stop the heavy branches from falling forward, were not. The openings of the container only allow for a narrow kenzan, which is not heavy enough to hold the branches. So, I wedged a stick between the kenzan and the 'roof' of the container, stopping the kenzan from tipping forward with the weight of the branches.
At last week's Ikebana International meeting, our workshop theme was 'Late Summer grasses'. Our demonstrator was Angeline Lo. Please click
II Melbourne to see Angeline's demonstration piece as well as the work by the attending members.
As for me, I took the exercise quite literally and used only grasses whereas other members used other materials as well. Apart from the miscanthus, which I grow, the rest are wild grasses, the names of which I do not know.
When I was searching for interesting grasses, I came across some really big bull rushes, which, of course, I cut and brought home. It took me a couple of days of looking at them in the bucket before deciding how to use them. They were more than 1.5 metres tall, so the first thing I did was to cut them shorter. I like the look of them in this container with many holes. However, because it can only hold water up to the first hole, there was the danger of the container tipping over. I kept shortening the bull rushes until an equilibrium was reached. The wooden structure is one I've used before.
And now for an announcement. Please see the flyer, below. I was asked to take part in this exhibition and I sent my photograph.
The instructions were to make a colourful arrangement. Here is my contribution. I used Cornus Siberica alba branch, bromeliad (Neoregelia
carolinae), and Portugal laurel berries. Ceramic container.
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