My Japanese Flowering apricot (prunus mume) is quite confused as
it is flowering now whilst still full of green leaves. I removed the
leaves for this arrangement.

Yesterday I attended the funeral of Theresa Feile, a long standing member of Ikebana International and teacher of the Sogetsu school. She was a student and friend of Norman Sparnon, who often stayed with her and her family when visiting Melbourne. As an indicator of her fondness and respect for her sensei, she named her second son 'Norman'.

As an older and more experienced teacher of Sogetsu, Theresa was always supportive and encouraging towards me, a relative newcomer. Her ikebana work was always refined and beautiful and I learnt a great deal from her, even though she was not my teacher, especially about the arranging of flag iris.

It was a truly beautiful service. A celebration of a life lived to the fullest, which left a warm feeling in all of us who attended. The lovely ikebana arrangements made by her students and placed around the room were a fitting tribute to her. We will miss Theresa greatly.

Below is an arrangement she did in 2014 at the Sogetsu exhibition at Federation Square for our 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Theresa was known, particularly, for her iris arrangements and gave many demonstrations on the correct placement of flowers and, most especially, leaves. Below is one example of her work.

A fortnight ago we had our regular Sogetsu meeting and workshop with the theme 'Three simplified arrangements using the same materials', run by Thea Sartori. Please go to our website for the photographs of all the members.

The simplicity of these arrangements belies the skill required to make them. Simple does not equate to easy. Because each material used must be trimmed down to only it's very basic elements, whilst still remaining recognizable, extra care needs to be taken over which elements are to be kept. Every leaf, bud or flower must be placed correctly otherwise, the slightest flaw will be very obvious. Below are my three arrangements using bamboo and Kamo Hon Ami camellias.

You might be interested to know that I treated my bamboo by placing the stem in salted boiling water for about 10 minutes before placing it in the arrangement. This made them last for two weeks and, although the camellias have died, the leaves are still quite green.

Our theme for class last week was 'Green Plant Materials', one of the themes from the new book that has yet to be published. Having no direction from Headquarters about this theme, I decided that the students and I would interpret it in our own way, as I feel that it is important to experiment and extend ourselves. I heard Iemoto speak twice on the subject of getting out of our comfort zone and I took her words to heart. We will, naturally, follow the guidance of the book once it is available and if it differs from our concept.

I used Gyamea leaf from my friend Olga, flax leaves and clivia berries

Here I also used Olga's gyamea leaf with oranges and
keffir limes

Helen Novic used vine, aspidistra leaf and begonia leaves

Robyn Unglick used broom and berries

Bredenia Raquel used Aspidistra leaves and Chrysanthemums

Here Bredenia used Banksia flowers and their leaves

Lucy Papas used gyamea, flax and monstera
leaves in this wall arrangement

Vicky Kalokathis used Setaria Palmifolia leaves
and seed heads

If, like me, some of you have not received notification of a blog posting, I apologize but I assure you it was not my doing. I'm not very computer literate but I will try to get help from those who are and rectify the problem. In the mean time, I would appreciate it if you would let me know via email if you did not get notified of this or any other post and, if so, please enter your email address in the slot provided again. Hopefully the problem will be corrected. Thank you.
Emily

View from our balcony of our elm trees.

Autumn in Melbourne.

Hello all,

We are lucky to have four distinct seasons in Melbourne, which suit ikebanists very well and right now we are enjoying a glorious Autumn.

The Sogetsu Annual Exhibition, with the theme 'Autumn', is now over and you can see photographs of the arrangements on our website. However, I'm including here photos of three of my students, who took part.

This hanging arrangement was done by Lucy Papas. She used
wisteria vines and loquat leaves, some of which she lightly
sprayed with copper.

Vicky Kalokathis used thick wisteria vine with
chrysanthemums and alstroemeria leaves

Nicole Mcdonald used nandina domestica nana
stems and russet coloured sedum

When surrounded with so much autumn foliage, it's hard to resist and, despite having very limited use of my left hand, I had to make some arrangements as per the photos below.

I use my Gingko very sparingly and here I have it with mahonia flowers. Arrangement
to be viewed from above.

Crepe Myrtle with oriental lilies in antique Japanese basket. This is placed under the
staircase and, even though the branches look like they are touching at the top, they
are not.

Wall arrangement of persimon branches and Chrysanthemums.
Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the depth. the stems 
extend 60 cm  forward. 

In our last class we had the theme 'Composition of Surfaces Made by the Massing  of lines. I made two examples.

Book Leaf Pine (Thuja occidentalis) stripped of leaves with
strelitzias, nandina flowers and berries

Spear grass sprayed silver and hydrangeas

Last week my very good friend Olga came to visit and brought me, among other things, some very tall gyamea leaves from her garden. Below is the result. It's a large arrangement placed under the stairs where it is viewed from the front and the side. Hence the two views. Unfortunately, it's hard to photograph with the stairs as background.

Front view

Side view.

That's all from me for now.
Emily

Happy Easter to all Orthodox Christians celebrating today.
4 years ago we lost a beloved aunt and before her house was sold I took a
small root of her strelitzia plant. This is the first flower.

I wanted to announce the exhibition that the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch will be holding:

East & West Art Gallery

665 High Street, East Kew

Dates: 2/5/16 to 15/5/16

Hours:

Monday - Friday 11.00 am to 5.00 pm

Saturday 11.00 am to 4.30 pm

Official opening 2/5/16, 6.30 - 7.30 pm

The theme is 'Autumn' and promises to be quite interesting, so we would love to see as many people as possible.

This is my exhibit photographed at home as it will be behind glass and difficult
to photograph in situ

At the moment I have my left hand in a cast after it was operated on a couple of days ago and am typing with just my right index finger. It's a bit cumbersome but I'm persevering since I have a lot of time, due to my inability to do many other things.

You may remember, in a previous post, I included a photo of a possum that has made our window sill her home. I thought she was a Common Brush tail but on closer inspection, she is a Common Ring tail possum and, if you look very closely, you will see that she is suckling two babies. I had a lot of difficulty photographing them in this tight and dark space. Where is David Attenborough when you need him?

On the 9th and 10th April, three days after we returned from Japan, Yoshiro Umemura was here to run workshops with our group. I, very hastily, managed to prepare four arrangements but I was not able to take many good photographs, so I direct you to our website where Christopher James has, once again, done a wonderful job of taking, editing and posting our photos.

My example of 'Mass Focusing on Water'
I used massed pine needles and one leucodendron flower

Lucy Papas' example of the same theme. To be viewed from above.
She used Eucaliptus Seed pods and begonia leaves

And now some photos from class:

'Composition of  Surfaces by using Leaves'

'Shape of the Container'

The above, delicious looking cakes were made by two students - Vicky Kalokathis, from the evening class, made the passionfruit congratulatory one. And Nicole McDonald, from the afternoon class, made the cranberry cake to celebrate both my promotion and Helen Novic's 90th birthday. It was a delightful surprise for us all to enjoy.

That's all from me for now,

Until next time,

Emily

A big feature of travel in Japan this time of year is Sakura (prunus serrulata), flowering cherry blossom trees.

When we arrived in Tokyo, the trees were full of buds ready to burst into flower but the cold weather kept delaying them. There was the odd flowering tree here and there and much fuss was made over each one, however, the big spectacle was yet to come.

After nine very busy days in Tokyo, we left to travel South West.  We visited Nagano, Kanazawa, Nara and stopped for a day in Kyoto. We wanted to revisit the Philosopher's Walk, a pedestrian path along a canal, which is planted on either side with cherry trees. We first visited this famous path in Autumn and were really looking forward to seeing it in spring.

Sadly, the hoards of tourists, both Japanese and other, created such a traffic jam that our taxi was stationary for 20 minutes and we abandoned our plans and got out of the taxi. We walked back and enjoyed the Sakura along the banks of the river near the station.

 

Sam, blending in with the lanterns that are put there to light up
the cherry trees at night

 

On our way back to Tokyo we spent one day at Hakone, a magnificent mountainous area and a favourite tourist destination for so many reasons, including views of Mt Fuji, Lake Ashi, hot springs (onsen) etc.  But for us, it was the Open Air Museum that drew us there. I had visited it in 2014 and was so impressed that I wanted to see it again. I also wanted Sam to see it. He loved it too.

It features over a thousand sculptures and art works by many artists including Picasso and Henry Moore, who is heavily represented. Below are a few pieces

'Family group' by Henry Moore

A tribute to my Greek heritage 

'Close' by Anthony Gormly

A little fun with photography

'Miss Black Power' by Niki De Saint Phalle
This statue is huge

'Spheric Theme' by Naum Gabo

When we returned to Tokyo for our departure, we were greeted with cherry blossoms galore. I think one of the features that makes this such a spectacle is that the trees are all the same, they are mass planted, usually along river banks and they flower all at the same time.

On our last day we visited the Royal Palace moat which is surrounded by cherry trees with their branches, some more than 10 metres long, draping down towards the water.

We waited in a queue for half an hour to hire a row boat and enjoy the sakura from the water.

The view from underneath the branches. What you don't see is the way we got stuck
and struggled to row ourselves out of the very low branches.

Bye for now,

Emily

I have long wanted to visit the Snow Monkey Park (Jigokudani Hot Springs) in Nagano to see the Macaque monkeys. We were probably a little late in the season as there was no snow but it was an opportunity that might not arise again any time soon. So we took the Shinkansen from Tokyo, then a bus then a 45 minute walk up a muddy mountain path to reach the hot springs and the monkeys. It was worth the effort, however, because we were rewarded with scenes of these adorable animals playing together, grooming each other and soaking in the hot water.

And now for our Fukui experience. We arrived there mid morning, dropped off our luggage at the hotel and took a taxi to drive us to the Sogetsu kiln, about a 45 minutes trip.

At the kiln, we were welcomed by Masumi Kishimoto San. She asked me what kind of container I wanted to make but I only had a vague idea. So I explained using a lot of hand gestures and Kishimoto San asked me to draw my ideas. One of my designs was very geometric and required an accurate template to be made out of cardboard before cutting it out of clay.  This is where my dressmaking skills came in very handy.

My second container was less structured but I was grateful for Kishimoto san's expertise and guidance because I was too hesitant to squash my clay to achieve the desired effect.

At the kiln I felt that I was walking on Sogetsu hallowed ground.  There is a small garden, still in its winter bareness between the kiln and the residence and when I commented on how pretty it was, Kishimoto San told us that it was designed by former Iemoto Hiroshi Teshigahara. And the residence is used by current Iemoto when she visits the kiln.

The photograph below is of Hiroshi's kiln.

The bronze sculpture, below, nestled in the font garden is one of Sofu's.

Masumi Kishimoto San, who is in charge of the kiln, had been Hiroshi's assistant for 16 years and, very proudly, showed me one of his picture books. She also pointed out that the table I was working on was Hiroshi's table.


I worked happily for over three hours. I made two containers with Kishimoto San's patient and knowledgeable assistance, which made the experience a truly enjoyable one.

Once my containers have dried, they will be fired and glazed, in the Echizan style, then fired again, then sent to me. It will take about three months but I'm prepared to wait.

Sam, who waited very patiently, and I were offered tea and biscuits and left there, in the drizzling rain, feeling quite elated. I could easily have spent a week in that kiln playing with clay.

This is the last post from Japan because, sadly, we are leaving tomorrow morning for home.

Sayonara until next time,

Emily