MASTERCLASS #17

Bredenia's condolence gift arrangement

Hello all,

The above arrangement was made by Bredenia. Instead of the set task for the Masterclass, she requested to make an arrangement to take to friends when paying them a condolence visit. In a tall vase she placed florists' foam and attached a dried, sprayed branch, then added cymbidium orchids and alstroemeria psittacina leaves.

Saturday's masterclass was quite challenging for the attendees. I had provided for each of them a large branch of pine (pinus radiata), which I left outside, as they were too big to work on indoors. After studying the branch, they trimmed it to manageable proportions and brought it into the studio. There they each selected a container and proceeded to create the base of their arrangements. Once they were satisfied with the placement of the pine, they went into the garden and cut camellia branches to use with the pine. This was an important part of the exercise because cutting the correct stems will make placing them easier. Camellias are not an easy material to work with and require some skill and experience to arrange them correctly.

Jenny kept her branch quite large and opted for a tall stove pipe container. To secure the branch onto the container, she used a vertical fixture onto which she screwed the branch. She was, then, able to place the camellias comfortably whilst maintaining the asymmetry.

Vicky removed side shoots from her branch, revealing the curved stem that sweeps from the top of the container towards the front. She used Brushfield's yellow camellias to complete the arrangement.

Cym kept only two tufts of pine needles on her branch, having removed all the others. Interestingly, she did not remove the superfluous pine needles along the stems, as we normally do but the work looks good. It reminds me of Iemoto's comment that 'There are rules and then there are exceptions'. Cym used two different kinds of camellias but in the same colour.

In contrast to Cym, Christine really went to town with her trimming. She said once she started, she couldn't stop. She removed all but the very tips of each side shoot, emphasising the lines of the stems. With her heavy container, she needed the strong, variegated, red camellias for balance.

Akemi was less severe with her trimming and placed her branch in a tall vase, making sure that the large pine cone was prominent. She kept her branch quite naturalistic. I, particularly, like the lower, three tufts because they remind me of ballerinas in long tutus.

Midori, also kept her arrangement very naturalistic. She used a ceramic container in the shape of a basket with a twisted willow handle. She utilised the split in the container for placing her stem and made sure that the handle was not obscured.

Lucy started off with a very big branch with a thick base. She removed the bulk of the pine branches leaving only the base and a couple of thin, curved stems. She chose a large, glass container which was, before it broke, in the shape of a martini glass. The jagged edges at the top helped to secure the branch. Being a glass container, Lucy was careful to conceal the camellia stem behind the thick pine  when placing it in the water.

As I was cleaning up after class I found a piece of pine that I couldn't throw away. The vase that I chose has three holes midway and upwards on either side. I fed the stem of the pine through one of the holes, then used a horizontal fixture to hold it in position. I, then, added the kamo hon ami camellias in the space that was created, being careful not to fill the whole space.

A small explanation about the direction of the pine needles in the various arrangements. The girls were very careful to make sure that all the stems were placed correctly, that is in the way that they grew on the tree. It is flowering season for pines and their clusters of flowers grow upwards, whereas the needles point down. In some cases, on the same branch, some of the tufts of needles will point upwards and some down.

Bye for now,

Emily