30th October, 2023

 

Hello all,

Earlier this month our Sogetsu group had a guest presenter at our workshop. Sandy Marker from Sydney had set two themes for an all day workshop. The first was a double theme - 'Using two or more Containers' and 'A Massed Arrangement'.

Above is the front and back view of my arrangement. I used viburnum opulus flowers and callistemon firebrand in two stainless steel containers.

The second theme that Sandy set was 'An Arrangement Expressing a Feeling/Emotion'.

I chose to express Anger/Rage. I used bamboo sprayed black, acacia aphylla, with its spiky look and altissimo roses in a laquered, asymmetrical suiban, red on the inside and black on the outside.

The first of my hippeastrum to flower had a rather longer stem than most and I wanted to take advantage of its full length. Because the stem is so soft and hollow it would not hold its weight when placed on a kenzan. So, I used a straight stick the length of the stem and pushed it firmly into the kenzan, then fed the flower stem over the top of it. The hippeastrum is such a large, strong flower that, I felt, the accompanying material had to be equally strong. However, the arrangement had to be kept simple.

I'm particularly fond of the flowers from the Portugal laurel, especially before they are fully open and the buds look like little beads on the end of the flower stem. They, also, have an intoxicating fragrance, which I wish I could share with you. In the arrangement, below, I teamed them with a pale blue, flag iris, which had grown in a slanting position.

The palm inflorescence, below, took some effort on the part of my cousin, Nick to cut it from his palm tree. Then, it took some serious effort on my part to split it. The split stem became weak and would not attach to the kenzan successfully. I had to hammer two, stout sticks into the kenzan and then wire the two inflorescences onto the stick. The single strelitzia was all that was needed to complete the arrangement.

Ornithogalum  arabicum is another plant I like to play with. I bend the young flower stems and secure them by tieing with their leaves and, as they continue to grow, they create interesting, fun shapes. Below are a couple of photographs of arrangements that I made using these plants. They are quite self explanatory.

In the next arrangement, I had reused a stem of pink dogwood (Cornus Florida rubra). In its original incarnation it had flowers but when they died the leaves on the branch were still very green and fresh. So, I just added the arum lily for a very simple arrangement.

Mary's curriculum theme was 'Complementing an Art Piece'. She chose a small calligraphy on a board as her art piece. In a ceramic container she placed 2 arum lilies, 2 stripped aspidistra leaves and wisteria vine.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTERCLASS # 19

 

Hello all,

At Saturday's masterclass I provided each participant with a large glass container (70 cm high) in the shape of a martini glass. I had bought 25 of these vases 13 years ago to use as centrepieces for my son's wedding. With the help of my sisters and sisters-in-law, we created arrangements using a monstera deliciosa leaf with a long stem placed inside the vase, so that the veins of the leaf were visible to the guests and the long stem rose upwards. We filled the cavity that was created by the leaf with masses of white alstroemeria. The effect was of giant martinis.

Unfortunately, the only photo taken by the photographer is the one below. I apologise for the quality but it is a photo of a photo.

I also provided each participant with two different materials and asked them to make a table centrepiece arrangement for a function.

This exercise comprised three themes - 'To be viewed from below', 'Glass Containers' and 'To be Viewed all Round'. It occured to me, albeit too late, that I should have photographed the arrangements from below, from which we could see better inside the glass container.

I make a point of making an arrangement of whichever theme I set my senior students. I feel it's important to challenge myself as well as the students.

I made the arrangement above using umbrella grass and aloe flowers that I found growing by the roadside. At first glance one might think that I bent the umbrella grass but I didn't. I cut them and wired each group, diagonally creating interesting lines at eye level of the guests. Also, if I had just bent them, the stems would have been out of water.

Christine used Kashmir Cypress (Cupressus cashmeriana) along the rim of the container like a lacy curtain and massed the aloe flowers just above.

Cym, also, used Kashmir cypress around the rim of the container but created some height  with a couple of the stems. Her flowers were bottle brush (Callistemon citrinus), which she massed to one side and, because it was to be viewed all round, she placed a small number on the opposite side.

Lei opted for a more minimalist look, using only the aloe flowers, whose stems created interesting angles inside the container. She added accent with one umbrella grass which she trimmed into the shape of a pin wheel.

Lucy, as is often the case, decided to go high but she paid particular attention to the placement of the roses inside the container to make sure they were not 'squashed' together and that the stems and leaves were pleasantly arranged.

This was not an easy exercise, one of the difficulties being the dropping of bits of materials at the bottom of the conical vase. As this would have been at the guests' eye level it was important to keep it pristine. We employed a number of tools to retrieve them. I produced tongs, Lucy suggested piercing with wire and Cym produced a mini vacuum cleaner with a thin nozzle, photo, below.

At Wednesday's class Shaneen's theme was 'Relief Works'. On a pale green board, she attached dried elk horn, which she sprayed copper, dried cycad leaves and one dried leucadendron.

Lei made an iris arrangement using Louisiana iris, the only ones she had available. She had to use leaves from flag iris to arrange in the traditional way. She placed a small sprig of Japanese maple to finish the arrangement.

I found this large monstera deliciosa flower in the garden, that had to be plucked and arranged. Not an easy thing as it is heavy and has a short stem. It, also, doesn't penetrate the kenzan very well. So, I decided to create interest with the leaves, cutting away half of each and then trimming them into triangles. The arrangement looks rather flat in the photo but it isn't in reality. The lower leaf extends forward.

Bye for now,

Emily

16th October, 2023

Arrangement of Mass and Line
Viburnum opulus and callistemon viminalis

At last class, for the advanced students, I had set a double theme - 'Paying Attention to the shape of the Container' and 'Intertwining Plant Materials'. The arrangement, below, was mine. Firstly, I used fine, yellow bamboo to create a shape called parallelepiped (yes, I had to look it up) to mirror the shape of the ceramic container. I, then, used variegated New Zealand flax, stripped in half and intertwined them through the bamboo shape and through each other. I placed 2 red roses and one bud at the centre back.

Nicole used fine silver birch branches and intertwined dietes leaves through them creating movement and curves, which related to the container. Her flowers are cottage gladioli.

Vicky intertwined horsetails (equisetum) creating angles around and through her unusual, ceramic container. The yellow clivia was placed at the back to be viewed through the tangle of horsetail.

Jenny's container was also unusual and rather striking. She used flax in earthy colours, which she wove together, very loosely to create a ball like shape and added one viburnum opulus flower to the back. Both the shape of the flax and the flower reflected the shape of the container.

Lucy used one of my self made containers and used dietes leaves intertwined and cascading over the container, into which she placed one clivia flower. The curves of the dietes mirrored the curves of the container.

Front view

Side view

Mary's curriculum theme was 'Relief Work'. On a thick piece of black cardboard she attached skeletonized leaves and dried lotus pods.

Shaneen's lesson was "Tsuribana' - Hanging arrangement. In a bamboo  container she placed elk horn fern (platycerium bifurcatum), cymbidium orchid and smoke bush (Cotinus grace).

Bye for now,

Emily

WONDERFUL, WINSOME WISTERIA

 

Hello all,

It's wisteria time and my large plant, once again, only produced a small number of racemes. I've been frustrated with this plant for decades and have threatened to remove it more than once. You may recall the large, twisted wisteria stem that I used in my exhibit for our Sogetsu annual exhibition. That was almost half of my plant. So it was put to good use, albeit, in a different way than I had envisaged when I planted it. I had visions of masses of pendulous, fragrant flowers but it was never to be.

I had cut all of the flowers that were produced and arranged them. In the arrangement, above, I teamed the long stemmed wisteria racemes with a long stemmed rhododendron, in two ceramic vases.

The photographs, below, are two views of the same arrangement of wisteria and white lilac in a self made, ceramic, double vase.

Front view

Side view

I've used the piece of red dogwood previously in the wall arrangement, below. It was easy to remove the materials that had died and replace them with wisteria and the first of my altissimo roses.

Last year I had divided a pot of bromeliads (queen's tears) and planted them in the ground. This year they rewarded me with a dozen or more flowers. They are quite lovely but have rather weak stems, requiring some support when placing them in a kenzan.

And now for some students' work.

Shaneen's theme was 'An Arrangement Expressing a Movement'. She wired together umbrella grass stems and trimmed them to look like stairs, then added  yellow iris and a bud to represent climbing stairs.

Lei's theme was 'In a Suiban Without a Kenzan'. She used pussy willow, queen Anne's lace and hellebores in a ceramic suiban

Mary's theme was 'Various Locations'. She made an arrangement for my coffee table in the lounge room. As it was to be viewed from above and all around, she paid particular attention to use of jushi to conceal the kenzan, without overcrowding it.

Lei's 'Floor Arrangement', below, was placed next to long, silk, panels in my family room. She used silver birch branches, New Zealand flax and alstroemeria in a large, ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily

SOGETSU ANNUAL EXHIBITION

 

Hello all,

Our Sogetsu group held our annual exhibition last weekend at the Abbotsford Convent, in the Linen Room. As this was a generous space, we were offered the choice of making a second arrangement each.There were about 45 arrangements of various sizes. Some members had borrowed a container from amongst the number that had been donated to the chapter by the family of Sherry Glasser, a member who has recently passed away. I'm sure Christopher will upload the arrangements into our website in due course. 

In the mean time, I thought, the exhibition warranted its own blog post, featuring the arrangements made by my some of students and myself. The photographs were taken by our own Lei Wang, who is studying photography, so they are of a much better quality than I would have taken.

The photograph, above, is of the arrangement made by me. At 3.5 metres long, perhaps it qualifies as an 'installation'. The long, twisted piece of wisteria is from my garden and had been earmarked for some time for a future exhibition. Finally the time came to cut it. I used corderlines, viburnum opulus flowers, green goddess lilies and arum lilies in a large urn of indeterminate material. The colour scheme was mostly green with a little bit of white.

My second arrangement ended up much larger than I had intended. I used fresh, green bamboo to create a cube, which I tipped on its side and then added strips of split bamboo in a fan shape to the front and back. The strelitzia flowers added to the illusion of a bird cage.

Lucy, also, made a very large arrangement or installation. Her main structure was a lucky find by the side of the road but it took Lucy's creativity to see its potential. She placed palm leaves, stripped in half along the length of the 'ball', then added gymea leaves and green goddess lilies on the inside.

Lucy's second arrangement was also made with material she found by the roadside. It's a long, metal, copper coloured strip, which she cut and curved to create swirling movement. The cymbidium orchid finished it beautifully.

Jenny used one of Sherry's baskets. She kept the arrangement simple so as not to detract from the intricate weaving of the basket. She used a type of blood lily (haemanthus) and arum italicum leaves.

Her second arrangement was on the theme 'Colours in the Same Tonal Range'. She used yellow stemmed dogwood (Cornus sericea flaviramea) and yellow clivia in a yellow and white, ceramic vase.

Vicky, also, borrowed one of Sherry's, ceramic containers and used a twisted wisteria branch, tulips and flag iris.

For her second arrangement, she used her own tall vase with a piece of dried wood, strelitzias and singapore orchids.

Cym used two very different, red containers and a wooden structure she had created at our last Masterclass. She added Japanese maple and strelitzias.

Lei's arrangement featured a dry palm spathe into which she had brushed gold paint. She added arum italicum leaves and anthuriums in a ceramic container.

Mary used a glass container, into which she scrunched cellophane and added one New Zealand a flax leaf and some cumquats.

Bye for now,

Emily