SOGETSU VICTORIA EXHIBITION CONTINUES

 

Hello all,

We are currently into our third week of our four week exhibition. As I mentioned before, the arrangements change each week with some exceptions. 

This week is for students, who are still on the curriculum and their teachers. It is a great opportunity for less experienced ikebanists to exhibit. This, of course, is done under the supervision of their teachers.

The arrangement, above, is my exhibit for this week. It's quite a large one measuring approximately 1.00 metre high by 1.4 metres wide by 1.00 metre deep. The plant is a palm that has been growing in its pot for many years, so much so, that I think it is partially bonsaied. It was growing slanted because I had tried to remove it and failed, so I left it. The result is a very pleasing, slanted growth habit. I tried a lot harder this time and was successful in removing it. I washed thoroughly and tidied up the roots. Using a saw, I created an indentation to sit over the lip of the second container securely. The yellow birds of paradise, strelitzia reginae mandela's gold, were provided by my student, Bredenia.

Below is Deborah (Deb) MacKenzie's arrangement of Variation No.2 Upright Style Moribana, which is the lesson she is currently up to.

Dianne Longley is in Book 4 and chose to make the lesson Variation no. 4 Slanting Style Nageire. She particularly wanted to use her contorted hazel, Corylus Avellana 'Contorta' and her waratahs, of which she is particularly proud.

Lei Sun (Wendy) is also in Book 4 and her arrangement was of the lesson 'Mass and Line'. She used dried muehlenbeckia complexa for the mass and two strelitzias  reginae for lines.

In last week's exhibition I made an arrangement using fresh and unconventional materials. In a heavy, ceramic container with a split down the middle I placed a structure made with stainless steel pipes. The fresh material was a strelitzia reginae and two of its leaves.

And now to class. The advanced students were asked to create a freestyle arrangement because some of them had left over materials from our workshops, which should not have been wasted.

Lucy made a very smart arrangement using one New Zealand flax leaf and a single heliconia. And, no, the flax is not touching the table.

Vicky used a large, rectangular, glass container turned to its narrow side and placed a branch of gingko biloba and a single waratah only on one side. She emphasized the thick stem of the branch inside the container.

Shaneen used dried branches and her home grown alstroemeria, which she kept to one side allowing for the split of the container to be visible.

Lei reused the palm leaves from the workshops, trimmed down to a fan shape and placed them in a fun container. She added the strelitzia reginae peaking between the 'fans'.

Although Mary's arrangement was a freestyle it can, also, fit the lessons - 'The shape of the Container' and 'Repeating Similar Shapes and Forms'. She used umbrella grass stems, a single strelitzia reginae and two trimmed down leaves.

Bredenia's arrangement comprised of a number of variegated New Zealand flax leaves and a single strelitzia reginae Mandela's Gold.

 

Bye for now,

Emily