IKEBANA - A MOMENT IN TIME

Hello all,

Well, we made it! Our exhibition is on and, as immodest as this sounds, I'm proud of it. I can tick it off the bucket list. I have been wanting to hold an exhibition for my students for a very long time and had been held back by the inability to find a venue. Until now. I spoke to the curator of Artspace at Box Hill Town Hall, who was friendly and accommodating and offered me the All Nations Foyer for our exhibition. This was last year and a couple of postponements later, here we are. Everyone who took part has done so with enthusiasm and cooperation, making my job that much easier.

Above is a photograph of my wall piece. The doughnut shaped metal piece is approximately 80 cm in diameter and quite heavy. I decided to make the bamboo structure to go over it because I wanted to reuse the lovely green bamboo, which I, originally, used in my exhibit at MIFGS last month.

I invited advanced ikebanists, who have attended my Masterclasses to also take part in this exhibition and, happily, they did. Below is Christopher's arrangement in a magnificent, large, Shigaraki container. It sits in front of a mirrored pillar, which reflects two, white phalaenopsis orchids placed at the back of the arrangement. It is best viewed standing right in front of it.The heavy driftwood has a wide sweep forward, which is lost in this image. Lets face it, the photographs do not do it justice, you'll just have to come and see it.

Below is a photograph without the pillar and you have to imagine the phalaenopsis orchids at the back.

I  made my second arrangement using a technique I developed, decades ago, of joining the stems of umbrella grass to create surfaces. I used two ceramic containers in a muted colour and two crucifix orchids.

Those of you who have been following my blog since its inception in 2014, may remember that I used the same technique for my exhibit at the Sogetsu exhibition at the Shinjuku Takashimaya Department Store. The theme we were given was 'Green' and 'Line'. I thought I'd nailed it.

The making of that arrangement is quite an interesting story and, if you can be bothered going back to my post dated 11th June, 2014, you can read all about it. It's an exhibition and an experience I will, certainly, never forget.

Vicky's arrangement is made up of these strange looking seed pods of a creeper, the name of which we've not been able to find. She also used nandina domestica nana in two matching metal containers.

Mary Sutherland, who is still on the curriculum made an arrangement with the theme ' Paying Attention to the Shape of the Container'. However, it can also fit the theme 'Repeating Similar Shapes and Forms'. Mary used umbrella grass stems for the shapes and lisianthus in a ceramic container.

These are all the photos I have so far but, I promise, I'll share more with you in the coming weeks. Now I'm going to go out and try to plant some of my spring flowering bulbs, which are already growing shoots in the storeroom. Poor, neglected things!

Bye for now,

Emily