SOGETSU VICTORIA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

 

Photograph by Lei Wang

Hello all,

Well, our exhibition is in full swing and the gallery is looking quite impressive with the great variety of Sogetsu arrangements. We had the official opening yesterday and this, being the first of a four week long exhibition, will be changed on 6th November. There will be subsequent changes each week thereafter.

In the first week many of us had the privilege of using ceramic containers, which are part of the Council's collection. In the arrangement, above, I used a container by the artist, Brian KEYTE - Baluster Vase Copper Red, Wheel thrown, stoneware clay. It measures 40cm in height.

I wanted to make a larger arrangement than the container would allow, so I built a bamboo structure around part of the plinth and the container. I had the measurements of the plinths that are owned by the gallery from previous exhibitions of mine and my students' work in 2022 and May 2024. This meant that I could prepare the structure to fit snuggly around the plinth. 

I'd been watching the flowers on my strelitzia nicolai for weeks, hoping they would open in time. And they did. To reach them, I enlisted Lucy's help to bring out a table, on which I stood and, using the extendable cutter with a saw attachment, I was able to cut them down. The only other material I used was nandina domestica with its inflorescence in bud.

For my second arrangement I made a sculptural piece as per our lesson in Book 5 'Composition Using Unconventional Materials'. I had the bent wood in my storeroom for many years and was happy to finally put it to use. It's quite self explanatory but I should point out that the piece has movement. The top part can pivot over the vertical dowel.

This photograph of me by Lei gives a
sense of proportion 

I will feature more photographs in due course but, you would enjoy the exhibition much more if you were to visit it.

Venue:
Whitehorse Artspace

Box Hill Town Hall                                                                                                        1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill 

Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm                                                                                    Saturday 12pm - 4pm

And now to ikebana at home. My strelitzia reginae has been quite prolific, with some of them reaching two metres in height. I was loathe to cut such lovely, long stems so I figured a way to use them using this rather large container full of holes. The difficulty was in bending the strong stems without snapping them. 

In the next arrangement, the flowers have so much character that no other material or manipulation was needed. I merely placed them in my self-made container.

Lei's class arrangement was a freestyle. She used a container which is split in half and placed two fatsia leaves and a cymbidium orchid on one side. She, then, brought two horsetail reeds (equisetum hyemale) delineating the left from the right side of the container.

In her freestyle arrangement, Mary used Japanese maple, Altissimo roses and inflorescence from nandina domestica in a ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTRCLASS #26

 

Hello all,

My spring garden is continuing to delight me. My pink dogwood (Cornus Florida rubra) was in full flower for the first time this year and I dared to cut two stems to bring inside. Apart from some trimming and securing the branches in the container, I did not need to do anything else.

Also, my mollis azalea avocet is pure perfection. The contrast of the delicate, white and yellow flowers against the lime green leaves is quite charming.

Last Saturday's Masterclass was particularly challenging. I had provided each participant with only one, rather large branch of red callistemon and two containers. I asked them to be creative and to think outside the square. Having only one material to work with to create an interesting arrangement is not easy but the girls rose to the challenge and made me proud.

As always, I too, took the challenge with an arrangement but forgot to photograph it. 

Lei cut down her branch and selected two side shoots with interesting shapes. She removed almost all of the leaves allowing the stems to be featured.

Christine, needing extra height, placed one vase on top of the other, then draped two stems of the callistemon over them.

Lucy separated the side shoots which had only buds and draped them over one vase then placed four flowers, vertically, through a slit in the second container.

Cymbie placed her branches up side down and, then, proceeded to wire flowers and buds giving them a rather unnatural but interesting direction.

Vicky's arrangement was reminiscent of the lesson 'Disassembling and Rearranging the Material'. She removed flowers, buds and leaves from the branch and placed the flowers in her two containers. She then used the 'stick' to add a line.

I leave you with this arrangement that I took to my friend, Merryl's place on Friday, when I went there for lunch. We are a group of four friends who met at our children's high school, helping out at the tuck shop. We call ourselves 'The Tuck Shop Girls'. (We sound like a girl band!) We have maintained our friendship ever since by meeting 3 or 4 times a year for lunch at alternating houses. These are marathon lunches which last a minimum of seven hours. Surprisingly, we never run out of things to say.

I chose the green goddess lilies for this arrangement for their longevity and, wired the way I had them, they are easy to transport. The wisteria vine is fresh, so in about a week or so, it should sprout leaves. To cover my mechanics, I used baby tears (soleirolia).

Bye for now'

Emily

DEMONSTRATION AND EXHIBITION

 

Hello all,

The time is quickly approaching for our exhibition and the demonstration by Master Instructor, Kosa Nishiyama, in celebration of our 60th anniversary. We're quite excited and are working very hard preparing for it all. We'd love to see as many of you as possible to both events. To my interstate readers, Melbourne is glorious this time of year and might act as an added incentive to visit.

Our exhibition will be held at Whitehorse Artspace  over four consecutive weeks with changes to the exhibits each week.

It will run from 26th October to 23rd November.          

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm (Saturdays 12.00 to 4.pm)

And now to our regular ikebana. For last lesson the advanced students were asked to make a spring arrangement. In my wall arrangement, below, I used a large wisteria vine and added pink roses and purple flag iris.

Lucy used a metal stand on which she placed a glass vase, then added jasmine, clivias and cymbidium orchid.

Jenny used apple blossoms and mauve lilacs in a ceramic, curved container.

Nicole used branches of hawthorn in bloom and rhododendron in a curved, ceramic container.

Shaneen came with swathes of materials but used only four - Japanese maple, clivia, day lily and freesias in a ceramic suiban.

Mary used crab apple branches in bloom and three arum lilies in a ceramic vase.

 

The following week Mary made a freestyle arrangement in a tsubo vase, using nandina domestica and arum lilies.

Lei made a freestyle arrangement using viburnum opulus, blushing bride (Serruria florida) and a prunus stem in a gorgeous, ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily

SPRING IN MY GARDEN

 

Hello all,

After 33 years of planting in my half acre property, I am inundated with so much material this spring that I'm tripping over myself trying to arrange as many as possible. The snow ball tree (viburnum opulus) is currently flowering and, for me, it is at its best when the flowers are still green.

 
In the arrangement, above, I wanted to contrast the vibrant, lime green of the flowers with the equally vibrant purple, Dutch iris. The container is made of resin.

Still with the snow ball tree, in the next arrangement, I used a ceramic vase with three holes on each side. I placed two stems through the side holes and one through the top and draped the branches over the container. 

My white lilac shrub was a gift from my parents a couple of decades ago. It is now looking a bit sad and has dropped some limbs. It has produced only a few flowers this year and, I fear, I might be losing it.

My daughter and her husband have recently moved into their new house, which is on a half acre lot. As I was inspecting all the plants on the property, I came across a loquat tree with a branch that had been partially broken but continued to grow towards the sun. An opportunity not to be missed. So, I brought it home and placed it in one of my taller vases.

I debated whether to add any more materials and I tried a few but was not happy. I did not want to conceal the interesting bend of the stem at the top. I, finally, settled on some snow ball flowers because they have a draping effect but which allowed the bend to be visible.

  

My crucifix orchid is, also, quite prolific and I've been manipulating some of the flower stems to interesting curves. This one is sitting in front of the mirror in the powder room. People can enjoy the beauty of the flowers up close when washing their hands.

Then, there's my wisteria, which has been the source of great frustration over the years because it stubbornly refuses to produce more that a few flowers each spring. I have threatened to remove it more than once. This year, however, after being heavily pruned, it has produced quite a lot of flowers. Below are a couple of arrangements featuring this beautiful, fragrant material. At this stage the racemes are not fully open. In a day or two they will look much fuller.

Wisteria with arum lily

 

Wisteria with clematis

Bye for now,

Emily