Hello all,

I was very saddened to hear of yet another loss to our little community in the recent passing of Brenda Thorpe, one of our founding members. Brenda contributed a lot to ikebana over the years but most especially during the time that our Ikebana International Group was exhibiting in Daimaru department store. We will miss her.

Julie Alston was another member, who passed away on 12th June 2013. As per her wishes, her funeral was a very private affair, which meant that none of us was able to attend. Recently, her family, very generously, made available to the ikebana community Julie's containers. Those of my students who bought containers and I, thought it would be a fitting tribute to Julie for each of us to do an arrangement in a container that once belonged to her. I believe she would have been happy to see the work that was done in her containers. 

 Janette Fonda

         Monstera leaves and Viburnam opulus          

Helen Novic
Loquats and succulent

Lucy Papas

Strelitzia leaves

                                                          Vicky Kalokathis

                                     Agapanthus leaves and geranium

Bredenia Raquel

Willow and spuria iris

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Stripped conifer, loquats and alstroemeria leaves

The branch that  I used in the above arrangement is the same
one I used in the arrangement on the left, which I did on 28th
August. It was still green when I stripped it to use again.







On the 30th October, I did a demonstration for The Floral Art Association of Victoria. Those of you who have read my last blog can be forgiven if you are a little confused because I then wrote about my demonstration for the Victorian Floral Art Association. They are, in fact, two different groups.

It was an East Meets West theme, with three senior floral artists demonstrating three very different but equally pleasing arrangements as set out below.

Barbara Maier

Norma Bathie

Janet Alesich

Then we enjoyed a delicious, east-meets-west supper followed by my ikebana demonstration of seven arrangements. My student, Nicole McDonald, was my very capable assistant for the evening, fetching and carrying materials and containers. For me, it was a very pleasant evening because I was doing what I love best in front of a very receptive and appreciative audience.

Again, I recreated my arrangements at home for the purpose of photographing them against a blank background, which would have been impossible on the night of the demonstration.

Using two containers - a glass decanter inside a ceramic bowl with two holes. Hippeastrum, watsonia and nandina flowers

Birds nest fern and spuria iris

A single philodendron leaf

An experiment with cutting and re-joining this palm spade. Strelitzia and alstroemeria leaves

Quintessential ikebana - a flag iris arrangement

Stripped wisteria vines and spuria iris

Pine, altissimo roses, iceberg roses and mizuhiki

(A little early for Christmas but I couldn't resist)

Hello once again.

On the 15th October I had the pleasure of demonstrating for the Victorian Floral Art Assoc. Inc.'s AGM. I always enjoy demonstrating for this group because they make me feel very welcome and seem appreciative of my work. Also, because they are experienced floral artists themselves, they understand what's needed for a demonstration and they provide everything without my having to ask.

On the day, I had Vicky Kalokathis, who is my sister as well as my student, assisting me. After some coaxing, I managed to convince her to demonstrate one arrangement and here she is with her piece. She used watsonias, which are growing wild near a creek and some common weeds to create this light, pleasing arrangement.

I demonstrated seven arrangements and the ones that photographed best, I've included here.

Corky elm, anthuria and iris leaves

Fishbone fern and roses

 Haemanthus lily leaf and Strelitzia Reginae

Mahonia and roses

Loquat stem and dutch iris

As I could not take photographs myself, when I got home I recreated the arrangements so that I may photograph them properly. To those that attended the event, I apologize if there are some small differences from the original but, I'm sure, you know that we can never recreate perfectly something we've done before.

The loquat branch in the tall black vase has been reused a number of times with different flowers in this wall container. And it is still as fresh as the day I cut it.

 

The Floral Art Society of Victoria Inc. has paid me the great honour of asking me to set up a large ikebana arrangement as part of an event that is taking place this weekend at the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens.

The Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria is celebrating its 165th birthday with the launch of the book - 'A Seed is Planted: A History of the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria'. There is an exhibition of floral art from the Victorian era to today by the Floral Art Society of Victoria and my piece is the ikebana component.

1880's English influence

Barbara Maier

1950's and 1960's

Myrna Demetriou

1964-2014 representing ikebana

Emily Karanikolopoulos

1970's and 1980's Japanse influence

Norma Bathie

1990's

Norma Bathie

Today

Janet Alesich

Spring would not be the same without at least one iris arrangement in the traditional style as has been taught to us over the years by Theresa Feile, one of our founding members.

So I leave you with this photograph until next time.

Emily

Hello all,

For years I've been wanting to visit Canberra during Floriade and the previous weekend on an impulse, my husband and I flew there. Floriade is promoted as the biggest celebration of spring in Australia but it left us seriously underwhelmed.

They had mass plantings of bulbs and spring flowers and not much else. There was no artistry in the planting and no elevated platforms from which to view the garden beds.

Disappointment with Floriade notwithstanding, we enjoyed the three days in Canberra, going to NGA where we saw the Sydney Nolan and Arthur Boyd exhibitions, visited Parliament House and walked around Lake Burley Griffin. We also dined at some very nice restaurants and enjoyed the unusually balmy weather. Outside the Floriade site was this delightful little copse of cherry trees in full bloom, which was a poignant reminder of Hanami in Tokyo.

Back home and in class on Wednesday, the theme was a freestyle spring arrangement using 5 or more materials. This can be a difficult exercise, often looking very Western and the students struggled a little but produced very nice work in the end.

Below are my examples.

Front view

Side view

This is my newly-acquired antique basket. 

In this arrangement, I tried something a little different by using five glass vases to hold the five materials. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't get a good photograph of it.

I also had some other freestyle arrangements around the house because I can't resist all the wonderful spring material around me. 

Strelitzia with leaf

Viburnum Tomentosum and Rhododendron 

Golden Elm blossoms in wall arrangement

(An example of an arrangement using only one kind of material)

Cymbidium orchid, canna lily and Siberian dogwood

Yesterday I attended class with Elizabeth Angell, who had been away travelling for a month. She had set us a combined theme - a ka-bu-wa-ke arrangement and Colours in Contrast.

I had several ideas but I settled on the two below.

Viburnum opulus and Rhododendron

Stelitzia Reginae leaves, clivias and wisteria

I feel very blessed that all the materials for all the arrangements in this post have been sourced  from my garden. It took many years and a lot of hard work but I am now reaping the rewards.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Well, spring is in full swing now and we are enjoying some glorious sunny days. My garden beckons as there are many chores to be done in preparation for summer but a chronic back problem is preventing me from getting stuck into it.

However, my sore back is not stopping me from enjoying ikebana, using spring flowering branches and flowers.

For our previous class I set a double theme - 'A Freestyle Arrangement in a suiban without a kenzan' and 'Using only one kind of material'.

This was quite challenging as I expected the students to avoid resting the stems against the container and balance the work to stand freely. I'm happy to say that they all rose to the challenge.

For my arrangement below in a large class bowl, I used 'Prunus Elvins' stems. I planted this little tree two years ago and this is the first time I cut it.

The branches for this next arrangement are from some type of eucalyptus with creamy white flowers growing along the stem as well as some interesting gum nuts. It grows in my neighbours garden and I'm sorry to say, I've not been able to find out its name.

I had mentioned in a couple of my previous posts that we were to participate in the Box Hill Floral Art Exhibition and we did so on the 13th & 14th September. This was a very successful exhibition, which featured a 90 minute demonstration by Mary Sweeney, a very experienced and world travelled demonstrator. She did many arrangements, my favourite of which is the one below, using apples and coat hangers on pieces of wood.

My students and I put some arrangements in the foyer. Unfortunately, a number of my students were away traveling and could not take part. Those that did are as follows:

Marcia Lamrock did this arrangement to be viewed from above, using loropetalum and camelia.

Aurelia Dong, who has just started on book 2, did this variation number 4 upright style moribana, using bamboo which she treated to make it last.

Vicky Kalokathis worked on this unusual material removing a lot of the branches to create this creature like structure. She then added cymbidium orchids and aspidistra leaves. Unfortunately, it does not photograph well but I've included photos from two angles to get a better perspective.

Lucy Papas made these two glass arrangement, cleverly linking the inside of the container with the outside. In the first, she used palm leaves and a stem from umbrella grass. In the second she used a philodendron leaf, which she stripped and a waratah flower. They were much admired by the public.

I did the next three arrangements, two of which I photographed after I brought them home because the background in the hall was too distracting.

In this first one I used a large branch of weeping mulberry which I rescued from my neighbour's wood pile fighting his dog the whole time. This rusty old container seemed perfectly matched and was the only one large enough to carry the branch, which measures 1.5m X 2.0m. I used large Green Goddess lilies coming forward and at the back I used white calla lilies, which are hidden in the photograph.

The silver birch in this next arrangement was lying around in my garden for some years and developed these fascinating fungi. When I stumbled (literally) across it, I couldn't resist making an arrangement to showcase it. After I brought it home and set it up, Lexi, my cat, claimed it and would not come out. So, here she is part of my arrangement.

As they are difficult to see in the main photo, I've included a couple of close-ups of the fungi below. I find them absolutely fascinating.

My Strelitzia Nicoli flowered, very conveniently, just in time for the exhibition and had to be used. The smaller part was actually attached to the larger piece but I separated them and used them in two containers with this copper coloured fabric. This strelitzia is very heavy and has a short stem thus limiting the ways it can be used.

On the stage of the hall, 3 ikebanists and 3 floral art members were given the task of making an arrangement to complement a painting of each one's choice. We all enjoyed this challenge and with permission from the Whitehorse Council, who own the paintings, I am able to feature them here.

Jan Keppie

                Norma Bathie

Glenda Nielsen

Betty Karanikolopoulos

Toula Karanikolopoulos

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Just as I was reviewing this post in readiness to publish, I received the very sad news that CARLYNE PATTERSON, my ikebana teacher for 15 years, has passed away after a protracted illness. Carlyne devoted herself to Sogetsu ikebana for decades and her passing is a great loss to the ikebana community.

I am very grateful to Carlyne for her teaching, constant encouragement and support. It was at her insistence that I began teaching and to make it easier for me, she offered her studio for my classes, which I used for a short time.

Carlyne was a dedicated teacher and I am, by no means, the only one to have benefited from her tutelage. There are a great many people who are enjoying ikebana because of her and who are, I'm sure, just as sad at her loss. May she rest in peace.

Emily