CHRISTMAS CHEZ NOUS

Sam and me with our precious grandkids

Hello all,

On the lead up to Christmas, apart from all the cleaning, food preparation and Christmas decorations, I made a number of arrangements with a Christmas theme. In fact, I probably went a bit overboard.

The arrangement, below, is quite big with the 'martini glass' measuring 70 cms in height. After removing superfluous branches and pine needles, the branch was interesting enough on its own that it did not need any other materials to complete the arrangement. It was placed on the large dining room table, where, because of its height, it did not obstruct the guests' view of each other.

The next arrangement, which was placed on the informal dining table was, also, quite tall. The lovely glass vase was a gift from my cousin, Steve and his wife, Nieves, who had the foresight to drop it off to me on Christmas eve, giving me time to make a quick arrangement for the day.

The Kashmir cypress was cut from a tree belonging to the neighbour of my student, Wendy. I love the look of its pendulous branches, plus it is much easier to use than pine.

The next arrangement was on the coffee table in the family room. Like a child with a new toy, I wanted to use my recently acquired, black container. The traditional Christmas colours of red, white and green did no work with the black, so, I opted for white and silver with a hint of green.

I reworked the next arrangement, which was, originally, one of my demonstration pieces for the Sogetsu workshop  we had recently.  I had crocheted and starched the hanging bell about 35 years ago together with dozens more Christmas tree decorations.

Original - Intertwining plant 
materials

Wall arrangement

The floor arrangement, below, sits under the curve of the staircase and is the first thing guests see when they enter the home.

 The next arrangement was a gift to my favourite cousin, Steve and his lovely wife, Nieves. I can say this here, safely, because my other cousins don't read my blog.

Christmas lunch for 38 people was a resounding success, judging by the feedback we got and our own observations. The main feature of the feast was the lamb on the spit. My brother in law, Peter together with Steve, a retired butcher, took charge of selecting, buying and preparing the lamb. It's quite an involved process and the boys did an excellent job. There was a second spit with rolled beef because the lamb would not have been enough for so many people. We, also, had two tables full of savoury dishes and one full of desserts, most of them contributions of the guests. The younger members of the family took charge of clearing and washing up, giving us 'oldies' a break.

The weather had threatened to be a big problem, with all kinds of extremes forecast. Thankfully, it was just rain we had to cope with and, for that, the boys had erected a marquee type of cover over the lamb. The only disappointment was  that the traditional cricket game that is played on the lawn had to be abandoned.

The boys at work on the lamb - what's left of it!

Someone had produced an inflatable Santa costume and my grandson, Xavier, was raring to get into it and parade around, much to everyone's delight.

Bye for now,

Emily

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 Hello all,

This year I had Christmas cards made using photographs of a number of my arragemens. I sent them to friends and relatives that I will not be seeing on Christmas day. To you, my readers, I'm sending the photo, above, together with my best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a truly happy new year.

I made a number of Christmas themed arrangements, two of which I forgot to photograph, to give to friends.

The first one is for Su, my nail technician. I used a dried strelitzia leaf that I had sprayed gold, a strelitzia reginae flower and white hydrangeas.

The next one is for my friend, Anne, who is usually very generous at Christmas. A naturalistic arrangement for her.

The next two are just for me. In the first I used a spent strelitzia nicolai which I sprayed half in gold and the other half in silver. Calla lilies, pine and mizuhiki complete the arrangement.

This next one is earmarked for a narrow space in the powder room. It is a dried and sprayed gold strelitzia leaf and one calla lily.

In the beginning of the year I made the mistake of allowing a man with secateurs in my garden. Despite very specific instructions to remove the elm suckers, he went and removed all of my raspberry plants and most of my clematis. By the way, I apologise to those men who are more restrained when using cutters. I'm sure there are some of you out there, I just haven't met any.

Anyway, nature is indestructible and little shoots of the clematis have grown and even produced flowers, to my great delight. Arranging them, however, is quite challenging because, as a vine, the stems grow downwards. I go and move the vines onto adjacent trees and shrubs so that the flowers may grow upwards.

And, before I leave you because it is 11.00 pm and my hysterical yawns have started, I wanted to share this photo of a visitor in my garage climbing onto my drill bag.

I usually publish my blog on Monday nights. I doubt that I'll be doing so next week, after hosting Christmas for about 35 people. I hope you'll forgive me.

Bye for now,

Emily

11th November, 2023

 

Hello all,

I have iris ensata (photograph above) growing in a number of pots, which, unfortunately, I neglected in recent years. Last year it looked like I was going lose them but I gave them quite a lot of TLC this year and they rewarded me with four flowers. Best of all, they seem to have recovered completely.

This next arrangement started with a stem of white Oriental lilies, which had two flowers and bud. The flowers were so big and bold that I needed equally strong materials to use with them. In the bucket, conveniently,  were sitting some gymea leaves and some flax leaves and the idea was formed to use the flax leaf in front of the gymea. The arrangement is 1.5 metres tall.

Last Wednesday was the last class for the year and, as always, the theme was a Christmas arrangement. As I have mentioned before, most of my work is opportunistic. So, having the gymea leaves in the bucket, I decided to experiment with them. Not a material one would associate with Christmas but that didn't deter me. Below are two views of the same arrangement made with one gymea leaf and one New Zealand flax leaf sprayed gold. The large, red bauble picks up the colour on the container. At the base, I used agapanthus leaves sprayed gold and silver, then intertwined.

In the second arrangement, I used two gymea leaves holding up a large, gold bauble and white hydrangeas in a ceramic container.

Lucy used a very big, glass container, at the very top of which, she placed a plastic tub so that her materials would be in water. The vase was kept empty except for the baubles that were suspended in its centre. Lucy used cypress stems, hydrangeas and geranium flowers. Photographing a curved glass container is fraught with difficulties because there is no way to avoid reflections.

Bredenia used kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos flavidus), alstroemeria psittacina and a gymea leaf in a large, ceramic container. She finished it with mizuhiki and Christmas baubles.

Nicole used dried Manchurian pear stems which she sprayed white, agapanthus and Christmas baubles in a ceramic container.

Wendy had a beautiful piece of pine (pinus radiata), which was cut from a young tree, altissimo roses and white hydrangeas at the back. She finished the arrangement with mizuhiki and baubles. 

Shaneen's class theme was 'Using Various Locations' and she chose to do a dinner table centrepiece. She chose all edible herbs and flowers. They were - Kaffir limes, branch and fruit, bay tree stems, mint, parsley flowers, marjoram and day lilies.

 Lei's class theme was 'Jika-dome (direct fixing)'. She used branches of smoke bush (cotinus) and pink flowers I'm not familiar with in a yellow glass vase.

Mary's class theme was 'Preparing for a Future Ikebana Exhibition'. Her materials were hydrangea - leaves and flowers and agapanthus buds in a ceramic suiban

Bye for now,

Emily

SOGETSU WORKSHOP

 

Hello all,

Last Monday I ran a workshop for our Sogetsu group with a double theme - 'Intertwining Plant Materials' and 'The Shape of the Container'. I demonstrated five arrangements to a very receptive and engaged audience.

My first arrangement was in a small, triangular suiban using bulrushes, bent and intertwined, thus creating an asymmetric triangle, and finished with a single strelitzia at the back.

The second was in a curved, ceramic container and I used branches of Siberian dogwood, leaves removed, and intertwined at the top. The rose I used is called 'Lolita'.

The third was made using spear grass, again, intertwined at the top but I picked this self made container because it is quite challenging to use. The difficulty is in the placement of the kenzan over the curve at the bottom of the container. I took some time to explain and demonstrate how the problems can be overcome.

The fourth was in a self made, double vase. I used agapanthus buds and New Zealand flax, which I split and intertwined around the stems of the agapanthus.

The last arrangement was in a large, curved container with three openings. I mostly like using the side openings for placement of materials, rather than the centre. In this case I used an olive branch, which was dying and had to be pruned. The previous evening I split a couple of New Zealand flax leaves and curled them up, then tied them to keep the curl. I was, then, able to loosely weave the flax through the fine, olive branches and for the colour focus, I used another strelitzia.

The photographs are by my clever and generous student, Lei Wang. Thank you Lei!!

Back in class, Mary did an iris arrangement using my Siberian iris as we didn't have iris ensata in flower.

Front view

Side view

I had some Louisiana iris that had fallen and taken a slanted shape. I placed them in this Art Deco bowl and thought about other materials that I could use with them but, everything I tried, cluttered the arrangement, so I left it as an arrangement using one kind of material.

And, having hit December, the Christmas arrangements will becoming thick and fast. Here's the first one of mine. It is the piece I set up at the Hawthorn Art Centre for the Summer Salon Exhibition. I used a palm inflorescence, which I had soaked and reshaped, then sprayed white. I added pine, red crucifix orchids and Christmas beads in a tall glass vase.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTERCLASS #20

 

Hello all,

At the last Masterclass for the year, I provided each participant with 20 stems of umbrella grass, a monstera deliciosa leaf, a New Zealand flax leaf and a strelitzia reginae stem. They were to choose their own containers.

The arrangement, above was done by Lei. She wired umbrella grass stems to create surfaces, then joined them to create triangular designs. She repeated the triangles by trimming the monstera leaf. The sharp angles were meant to contrast with the curves of the container.

Christine was the only one to use the umbrella grass with their seed heads. She chose this container because she'd heard me say that it is difficult to use and she wanted to challenge herself. The monstera leaf was very big and concealed the container but Christine did not want to trim it in the way that Lei did because she was after a naturalistic look. So she cut pieces away making the leaf smaller but keeping its general shape and created greater openings so that the container could be seen through them.

Bredenia did not follow the brief because she needed an arrangement to take to a friend on her 70th Birthday. She used some of the materials I provided but she brought her own yellow strelitzias (Mandela gold). She had to use florists' foam, as it was going to be given away and covered it with Baby's Tears (Soleirolia soleirolii). She told me her friend was delighted with her gift.

Vicky went for quite a dramatic look, using almost the full lenth of the flax and the strelitzia. She bent and joined the umbrella grass stems in a jagard mass, reflecting the openings of the ceramic container.

Lucy used two, small, triangular suibans and one slightly larger. She emphasised lines with the umbrella grass stems and the flax leaf. The double headed strelitzia added to the very graphic design.

Lucy had set up her arrangement at the Boroondara Summer Salon Exhibition at the Hawthorn Art Centre. In conjunction with visual artists, we are able to exhibit one ikebana arrangement per week until 20th January, excepting the week between Christmas and New Year. I am next to exhibit on 4th December.

Lucy with her arrangement at the Exhibition.

And a little announcement. Many of you will remember the street sculpture, Love Flower, that I collaborated with John Meade to design. It has been in its street position on Peninsula Link for four years and is about to be moved to its permanent location at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. To coincide with this move, there will be an exhibition by John Meade at the gallery from 2nd December 2023 to 17th March 2024. I've been asked to provide two large, Ikebana installations for this exhibit. I will be setting up on Wednesday 29th November.

Bye for now,

Emily

STRELITZIAS REGINAE

 

Hello all,

My clump of bird of paradise (strelitzia reginae) has been quite prolific and I've been enjoying arranging them. The stem of one of the flowers was so long that the whole thing was taller than me. Photo below.

Having cut it, I was faced with the dilemma of how to use that long stem in an arrangement. After all, what's the point of that length if I was going to cut it away. The arrangement at the top of this post is what I came up with. I photographed it without filling the vases with water because they would have been too heavy to carry to their designated spot. The large vase on its own weighs 4 kilos.

I was very excited when I saw the shape of this particular flower, below. I've been known to manipulate plants to create interesting shapes but I cannot possibly compete with nature. She never ceases to amaze and delight me.

I needed a long lasting arrangement in this spot on the wall and, with the abundance of strelitzias, it was an obvious choice. And, yes, I'm aware that there is a bit of a pattern coming through. I do like my angles.

At our recent Ikebana International meeting, our guest speaker was Miriam Ford, the President of Australian Plants Society. We were asked to bring native 'sustainable' arrangements. Australian native plants tend to suit naturalistic arrangements, however, I wanted to challenge myself to create a more contemporary one. I used two gymea leaves (doryanthes palmeri), leafless wattle (acacia aphylla) and yellow banksia in a ceramic container.

Lei's class theme was 'Arrangements for Celebrations' and she chose Christmas. She used a heavy, glass vase in the shape of a ball and added a structure she made by gluing together colourful baubles. The asparagus densiflorus created space, lines and added life to the arrangement.

Dianne's class theme was 'Intertwining Plant Materials'. She used Tatarian dogwood branch (cornus Sibirica alba) and coloured flax which she loosely wove through the branch. She added a pink rose as a focal point.

Shaneen's class theme was from the Fifty Principles of Ikebana, number 45. 'If the flowers are the main feature, the container should be subordinate to the flowers. Likewise, if the container is the main focus, then the flowers should be secondary to it'. Shaneen chose to emphasise the flowers and keep the vase subordinate. She used flag iris in a rich, purple colour and star jasmine.

For the advanced students I had set the very last lesson in book 5 - 'What Ikebana Can do Today'. They were to approach some shop owner or trader to allow them to place an arrangement in their premises.

Nicole used in her arrangement contorted hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contarta') and waratah flowers, a big bunch of which was brought to class by Dianne for all to share.

Vicky's Christmas themed arrangement was to go to her hairdressing salon. She used a monstera deliciosa leaf, hippeastrums and hydrangea in two red vases. She finished it off with the addition of mizuhiki as an extra nod to Christmas.

Lucy's arrangement was to be placed on a table at the reception area of the nursing home where our mother is residing. She used more of those fabulous waratahs, golden elm branches and iceberg roses in a large, ceramic vase.

Mary's freestyle arrangement was made using New Zealand flax leaves and banksias in a heavy, footed suiban.

Bye for now,

Emily