MASTERCLASS #31

 

Hello all,

Walking down the street yesterday I found some bark from a gum tree lying on the ground. I picked up one piece and brought it home. It was one of those times when an arrangement almost makes itself. Placing the camellia branch took some effort but, by and large, it was an easy arrangement.

For the recent Masterclass, as before, I provided three different types of materials to each student and instructed them to use as much or as little as they wished.

Angie secured a rather heavy pine branch (pinus radiata) in a ceramic container and added two proteas. She took care to place the materials to the left, leaving clear space to the right of the container.                     

Vicky took time to remove all the leaves from her cotoneaster apiculatus branches and, with some effort, managed to secure the heavy branches slanting sideways. She added an Oriental lily with a bud, leaving a clear space on the left side of the rectangular container.

Bredenia also removed the leaves from her ficus obliqua Moraceae, leaving just the little figs. She used the hakea branches hanging downwards and placed the Oriental lilies to the back, in a tall, ceramic vase.

Lei had a large cotoneaster frigidus branch, which she trimmed heavily, revealing strong angles in the stem. She also reduced the leaves emphasizing the pendulous berries. The stem of the single protea followed the line of the cotoneaster stem.

Swann also had a large cotoneaster epiculatus branch, which she cut down and placed in a ceramic container, together with fig berries and Oriental lilies.

Lucy also reduced her cotoneaster stem and secured it in a ceramic container, which has a semi-circular shape. She used both of her Oriental lilies and only a small sprig from her large pine branch.

This week's camellia arrangement is in a bamboo basket and features, again, the kamo-hon-ami camellia. I also added some clivia berries to the back.

Bye for now,

Emily

 

Hello all,

The wall arrangement, above, is on a piece of slate, into which I cut a hole and placed a flat, plastic bottle behind it to hold water and the stems of the materials. It took a bit of engineering with thick wire to make it all come together. The materials are half a monstera deliciosa leaf, cumquats and kamo hon ami camellia.

The theme for the regular Wednesday class was 'Complementing an Art Piece'. Below is my arrangement.

I bought the art piece, which is made from reconstituted stone, when I became a mother for the first time. The sentiment depicted by the piece moved me deeply and I had to have it. The materials I used are one large and one smaller monstera deliciosa leave and two pomegranates.

Lucy's art piece is a stylized, metal, tribal mask. She used two gymea leaves, half a monstera deliciosa leaf and a single chrysanthemum in a ceramic container.

Lei chose one of Henri Matisse's papier decoupe pieces, which he created during the final years of his life. Lei used monstera deliciosa leaves, partially stripped and cut out more holes to mirror the work. The flowers were pink snapdragons. The container was a ceramic trough.

Vicky's plate is by Erte, a Russian-French artist and designer. It depicts the Queen of Sheba. Vicky used a metal vase on top of which she placed a scrunched up, thick, black wire. She then added chrysanthemums and a single camelia. She placed the vase on a gold place mat.

Dianne's class theme was 'In a Suiban Without a Kenzan'. She arrived with several, large pieces of nandina domestica. It took some effort to create this arrangement, which is challenging at the best of times, let alone when there are heavy branches to deal with. She managed, however, it with a little bit of help and started to remove some of the leaves but ran out of time. She promised to fine tune it at home. The flowers are chrysanthemums.

The May Sogetsu workshop was led by Akemi Suzuki, who chose as the subject 'Creating Windows'. She demonstrated three arrangements, one of which is in the photograph, below with Akemi looking through the 'window' that she created. She used polygala branches and dietes leaves in a quirky, ceramic container.

For my arrangement I used the red stemmed, Siberian dogwood to create an oval 'window' that protruded forward. The roses that can be seen through the window are called 'Lolita'.

Side view showing the forward 
movement

Lucy made triangular windows using corky elm which she sprayed with two different coloured sprays to create a burnt look. She used nerines for the floral focus. 

For this week's camellia arrangement I have used the first to open of the red flowering camellia (name unknown). So far I've been using the white, kamo hon ami camellia because it starts flowering in April and finishes in September. It does not produce masses of flowers but it does have a long flowering period.

Bye for now,

Emily

 

Hello all,

The theme for our last, regular class was 'Mass and Line'. In my arrangement at the top I made two masses - One with chrysanthemums, a gift from Mary, and the other with cumquats. I arranged the chrysanthemums loosely and the cumquats more tightly. The 'line' is a branch from my weeping elm, that has a distinct zig-zag form.

In the next arrangement I used spent agapanthus flowers for the mass and curved agapanthus stems for the line. Interestingly, these materials were lying on the table after having being removed from another arrangement. Looking at them, the arrangement seemed to morph together in my mind.

Nicole made two small arrangements, in both of which she used nerines for the mass. The one to the left also had alstroemeria psittacina leaves and a prunus stick for the line, The line to the one on the right was an umbrella grass stem.

Lei's arrangement was made in a container with a split down the middle. She used leucadendron flowers for the mass and a long, thin bamboo for the line.

Vicky made two arrangements using the same two materials. The mass was made using alstroemeria psittacina leaves and sansevieria cylindrica for the line.

Lucy created a tight mass with chrysanthemums and added a dried and sprayed agapanthus stem for the line, in a glass vase.

Mary's arrangement was made using marigolds and a stem of cornus Siberica alba for the line, in a ceramic suiban.

I saw a whole diosma shrub cut and thrown on the verge in a nearby street. I resisted the temptation to take some of it the first three times I drove past it. On the fourth I gave in (I always carry cutters in the boot). I made the arrangement, below, in a container that I chose for its colour. I created lines by stripping away the lower parts of the stems to give the illusion of a continuation of the lines from the container. I was particularly taken by the movement of this material. The focal point was a bunch of proteas in different stages of flowering.

One of the left over branches had an interesting line, begging to be used. I placed it, together with a rose in a vase that has no opening at the top but two openings, on either side of the neck.

And now for this week's camellia ikebana. I secured the camellia stem in a small, lop-sided vase and added some cumquats, reused from a previous arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily