The photographs, above, are of my Prunus mume tree in full bloom and a close up of the blossoms. It seems incongruous to have blossoms in the heart of winter, which makes this tree most desirable for us, ikebanists. Its delicate fragrance is an added bonus.
For last class I provided the advanced students with branches of this tree, as the basis of a freestyle arrangement. They were to bring containers and accompanying materials to complete their arrangement. The branches grow in a rather unruly fashion making them more difficult to arrange than one would think.
My arrangement, below. was to be placed on the coffee table. I used the blossom branches in a slanting style and added a couple of haemanthus lily leaves. There was a sweeping forward movement of the branches which is lost in the photograph.
Shaneen used a ceramic jug as her container and kept her arrangement relatively simple adding only a couple of small stems of coprosma.
Vicky used a slate container made by her husband, Peter. The design of the container is such that it conceals the small kenzan that is glued inside, thus doing away of the requirement to cover the kenzan and allowing the lines at the base to be unencumbered.
Jenny had a rather wide, ceramic vase and placed her branches so that they swept to one side. She, also, used salvias in deep purple and white, which looked quite lovely but, which are somewhat lost in the photograph. The deep purple doesn't show up against the dark background.
Mary used a ceramic suiban into which she placed branches she had trimmed to emphasize a forward sweep,( again, lost in the photo). She had roses with a pink centre, that looked to me as though they were puckering up for a kiss.
Nicole added to the feeling of spring by the use of daffodils with the blossoms. She also added some alstroemeria psittacina leaves at the opening of the ceramic container.
Cymbie used two rectangular. glass containers. In the large one she placed the large branch and a much smaller branch, following the same lines in the smaller container.
Bredenia's arrangement was one 'In a Suiban Without a Kenzan'. She balanced the branches with minimal wirering and added a single strelitzia stem with a double head.
Bye for now,
Emily
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