Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show

Hello all,

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show has been and gone.We dismantled everything last night. As I have done since 2007, I took part in the Shop Window Competition. This is an area of 2.5 metres wide by 2.00 metres deep by 2.4 metres high. 

The theme this year was 'A Celebration'. After considering all types of celebrations, such as birthdays, New Years Eve, etc, I settled  on a Japanese wedding celebration. I felt this would suit my aesthetic very well. I did some research on line and spoke to my friend Emiko Chishima in Tokyo to find out what the customs of a traditional Japanese wedding are. I then proceeded to create a scene as per the photograph, below.

I'm aware that I sound like a broken record when I complain about the difficulty of a two dimensional medium capturing a three dimensional scene but, damn it, it continues to frustrate me. I did take a short video but I don't know how to upload it to this blog.

The arrangement, above was one that sat on the table in my exhibit. You have to look closely to see it against the busy background of the kimono.

The three special little cups are called sakazuki and are used in the wedding ceremony by the bride and groom who sip sake from them. The bride usually writes a letter of thanks to her mother, which is meant to be quite emotional and tugs at the heart strings. Emiko, very kindly, wrote such a letter and emailed it to me. I was able to print it on a pretty parchment paper. Of course, being in Kanji, very few visitors could read it but those few that did were impressed.

The wedding kimono in the background was given to me by my friends Gary and Margaret Eidem some years ago. They were scaling down and needed to reduce their possessions, so they gave the kimono to me, knowing just how much I would treasure it.

The Japanese, antique table and large, ceramic urn were lent to me by the generous people of 'Tombo - Japan - China' . I found way too many things in their shop that I wanted to buy but I managed to restrict myself to one (for now).

The wall of bamboo required a large number of fresh, green bamboo. Enter Diane and Alf Ottrey. Two very generous people, who, not only gave us as much bamboo as we wanted but helped cut it and load it into the car.

And the lovely scroll in the tokonoma was lent to me by my student, Shaneen Garbutt. So, my display was made possible with the help of a number of kind and generous people.

And speaking of kind and generous people, my family are right up there. My sisters, Lucy and Vicky, my brothers in law Peter and George, my son, Dennis, and son-in-law Warren. But first and foremost and always my rock is Sam. In just about everything I do, I rely on my family and they have never failed me.

Ikebana was very well represented at the show this year. There were three other Sogetsu ikebanists participating in the Shop Window Competition, The Ikenobo group had a stand on their own and Ikebana International took part in the Visual Display competition, and.... wait for it... they were awarded a very well deserved, silver medal! Congratulations to all the participants and organisers. The common thread between the arrangements was a reference to a Haiku poem by Matsuo Basho - Bright Red, The pitiless sun, Autumn winds.

Below is Lucy' contribution to the display. It was placed on a high pedestal as it was at the back of the display area.

So, no sooner have I finished with one exhibition than I'm working on another. It has been in my bucket list for some years to have a solo exhibition. When I say solo, I mean my own work and that of my students. My only stumbling block has been finding an exhibition space and finally, last year, I did. Like so many things, this was supposed to have taken place late last year but the delay is probably to our advantage, as it has afforded us more time to prepare. The details are in the flyer, below. Feel free to share it with your friends.

Just one thing - if you wish to attend one of the demonstrations, you will need to book.

I leave you now, as I'm utterly exhausted,

Emily