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