ARUM LILIES

 

Hello all,

I run my regular classes on the first and third Wednesday of each month. On some months, such as August this year, there were 5 Wednesdays all told, which meant that there were two weeks free of classes. This is an explanation for the absence of students' works in this and the previous posts. At such times I have to work a little harder to produce enough material for the blog on my own.

In the above arrangement I used a structure that I had created in the past and which I enlarged by adding more pieces to it.The material is the New Zealand flax flower spike, which, when dry is light and, generally, straight, making it quite easy to work with. I was able to suspend the structure without it resting on the table because it is so light.The strelitzia reginae added more drama to the piece and, in contrast, the nandina domestica nana added softness.

I had removed the dry seed pods in order to use the straight stems but could not discard them. I made a small arrangement with them and two of my tulips.

A couple of weeks ago I made the wall arrangement, below, using camellias and weeping willow branches, which are just starting to produce leaves. I absolutely love this stage of the willow. The tree looks as though it is wearing a sheer, green veil. The arrangement looked quite charming with the willow reaching almost to the floor.

When the camellias died, I removed them and reworked the arrangement, adding arum lilies instead.

With an abundance of arum lilies, I wanted to use them in different ways. This time as a mass. They are big flowers, creating a big mass and, therefore, requiring big branches for balance. The loquat tree provided the heavy branches and I split and interlocked them in the tsubo vase. This method is called Kousa-dome. 

And I couldn't do a blog about arum lilies without using some, whose stems I had manipulated into interesting, curved shapes. I, also, used sprigs of geranium leaves in a ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily