MASTERCLASS #34

 Hello all,

For our recent Masterclass I had given the students large bunches of bare branches plus two NZ flax leaves and two agapanthus flower inflorescences. I instructed them to create a composition without a container or kenzan.

As always, I challenge myself with the same exercise and I made the piece, above, using fig branches and the other, green materials.

Vicky had apple branches, which she intertwined to create similar shapes. She used only one of her leaves and agapanthus. Photo, below.

Lei, also, had apple ranches. Hers was a more contemporary design. She reduced the size of the branches considerably and bent some of them to create the desired effect. She, too, used only one of each of her fresh materials.

Angie's branches were from the persimmon tree. She cut down 2 very big branches and secured them in a naturalistic style, using all of her green materials.

Bredenia, a little uncharacteristically, kept her branches long. She chose not to use the NZ flax but did use the agapanthus.

Lucy's long, curved, fig branches were quite challenging but she managed to balance them, adding all of her green materials.

I made the arrangement, below, three weeks ago. The bent pelargonium stem happened naturally and I placed it in a round container to create a contrast. The aloe flower was, also, naturally curved.  

After a week the aloe flower died but the pelargonium was still fresh, so I replaced the flower with a camellia stem.

Another week later and another flower replacement. This time it's a salvia flower.

For this week's camellia arrangement I'm using the photo of Mary's workshopping camellias arrangement. This material is considerably challenging to arrange correctly, so it's important to practice using it as much as possible.

Mary used a trough container and added hellebores, leaves and flowers, over the kenzan.

Bye for now,

Emily

GREEN PLANT MATERIALS

 

Hello all,

For our recent, regular class I had set the theme 'Green Plant Materials' for the advanced students.

I made the arrangement, above, using haemanthus lily leaves, green goddess lilies, clivia berries and spear grass (xanthorrhoea).

And the one, below, is a wall arrangement made with a monstera deliciosa leaf cut in half, aeoniums and red hot poker leaves (kniphofia).

Mary used aspidistra leaves, some of which she folded, clivia berries, carnations and xanthorrheoa.

Vicky used a large piece of yacca, whose leaves she turned down. She added xanthorrhoea and agapanthus.

Lei used a delightful double suiban container and her materials were fishbone ferns (nephrolepis exaltata), elk horn fern, palm inflorescence and alstroemeria psittacina leaves.

Lucy made two arrangements, the first contemporary, using the heart of agave which she separated, giving her many pieces, green goddess lilies and an arum lily leaf.

The second, naturalistic. Her materials were aspidistra leaves, arum lily leaves and a succulent, kalanchoe blossfeldiana in an elevated, ceramic suiban.

Wendy's exercise was a freestyle arrangement. She placed her two containers in such a way as to work as one. She used arum lilies plus one leaf and wattle.

For this week's camellia arrangement I was inspired by the two, hanging stems with buds. I based the arrangement on the Variation no. 4, Hanging style. 

Bye for now,

Emily

LUCY'S DEMO

 

Hello all,

Our recent Sogetsu workshop was presented by our Lucy. She had selected one of the most challenging themes of our curriculum - 'Composition Expressing a Movement'. She did a very accomplished demonstration. I would be more effusive in my praise but, as her sister and her teacher, I feel I have to be more restrained.

The arrangement, above, representing 'Bouncing' was made by Lucy prior to the workshop. The materials are Siberian dogwood (cornus Siberica Alba), which she joined using 'V' shaped wires to create sharp points, dietes leaves and Queens's tears bromeliad (Billbergia nutans)

Lucy's next arrangement clearly represents 'Rolling'. She used wisteria to create the rings, which she sprayed black. She used a sprig of an unknown shrub and a stem of cymbidium orchid. This arrangement also fits the theme 'The shape of the container'.

Lucy's third arrangement was quite large and represented the movement 'Blowing in the Wind'. Lucy used a large branch from her weeping cherry tree and branches of Japanese flowering quince. She, also, added dietes leaves following the same direction as the branches simulating a wind swept look. 

For my arrangement, below, I wanted to express 'Twirling'. I wired jonquil leaves vertically, which allowed me to shape them. I added the anthurium and clivia berries to complete the arrangement.

Jenny's arrangement represented 'Flowing'. She used a bare branch, fishbone ferns (Nephrolepis cardifolia), NZ flax and alstroemeria. The container's shape added to the intended movement.

I've been doing some winter pruning. Some of the cuttings were too good to throw away. I made the arrangement, below, with hydrangea prunings.

At our last class Lucy, having finished early, started another arrangement, for which she did not have the right materials to finish. So, she left it in the studio. Photo, below.

Naturally, I had to finish it. I looked around the garden for materials and tried a couple different ones but was not quite happy with either. In the first I used matchstick bromeliad flowers (Aechmea gamosepala). In the second I used leucadendrons.

First attempt

Second attempt.

Finally, I settled on the one, below, using a camellia..... 

At least I thought I did until I found this other camellia. You may well ask why is the second camellia better than the first. Well, I'll tell you. The stem of the second follows the line of the cut in the leaf.

Bye for now,

Emily

CYMBIE'S DEMO

 

Hello all,

At our most recent Ikebana International workshop we had Phillip Rhodes as our guest speaker. Phillip is a milliner of great renown and vast experience, who provided us with a glimpse into his very creative world. 

We were asked to bring arrangements inspired by millinery. Our Cymbie Reeves was the demonstrator, who created three hat arrangements. The photograph, above, is of Cymbie, left and her model, Vicky, wearing one of the hats. Cymbie used wisteria sprayed white and wound red mizuhiki around it, intermittently, then added two anthuriums. All the materials were attached onto a head band, making the piece wearable.

All the photographs of the workshop were taken by our photographer, Lei Wang.

The 'hat', below, was made using a dried strelitzia nicolai leaf, which Cymbie painstakingly coloured blue on the outside and silver on the inside. The line was made with a bunch of mizuhiki. The Singapore orchid was chosen for its colour.

The 'hat', below, was made with three fan palms, which were trimmed back and gypsophila coming from behind the palms.

Cymbie made me proud. This was her first such demonstration on an unusually difficult theme. I look forward to seeing more from her.

Much fun was had by the members making ikebana hats and then modelling them.

Below, is me wearing my 'hat'. I made it using a small, fascinator cap, onto which I attached Siberian dogwood (cornus Siberica alba) creating the brim and red nandina domestica nana at the top. I added green nandina at the back, underneath the brim.

Lucy is modeling her hat in the photograph, below. She used an existing, straw hat, onto which she added aspidistra leaves, crucifix orchids and a white line.

Jenny is also modelling her hat. She used a beret-like hat, onto which she attached  a bare branch and an Oriental lily flower and bud.

And now for this week's camellia arrangement. I used a small magnolia branch and the two different coloured camellias,

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTERCLASS #32

 

Hello all,

For our recent Masterclass I provided the students with unconventional materials. I instructed them to study the material and decide on whether to use a container and, if so, which one. I provided a number of fresh materials in buckets from which they could select two each.

Mine is the arrangement, above. The blue material is a rather stiff felt and the yellow are thin, plastic straws. Piercing the holes in the felt was a little difficult because it's quite stiff but I managed it and threaded the straws. The choice of vase was easy as was the choice of flowers, leucadendrons.

Lei had three cylinders and the yellow straws. She balanced the cylinders by using the straws beneath and above the cylinder, then added a NZ flax leaf and a camellia stem.

Swann had the same unconventional materials as me and it's interesting to  see her take on it. She used a flat plate with holes in it. She placed it over a suiban that could hold water for the clivia flowers. Swann cut the felt, shaped it and fed it through the hole in the plate. The straws added some colour as well as lines.

Lucy's unconventional material was a wide ribbon of something synthetic. Because it was light, she was able to secure it onto the NZ flax leaf. The flowers, which are difficult to see, were from an aloe plant, although I don't know which one.

Bredenia had straws, which she did not use and a very floppy ribbon of white plastic with holes in it. She bunched it up over a tall vase and let parts of it hang down. She added the proteas and a branch of cotoneaster berries, from which she had removed all the leaves.

Vicky had two rings made of some sort of thick cardboard. She sprayed them black and balanced them over two, matching, metal containers. She added an aspidistra leaf and two aloe flowers.

And now to my garden.

My favourite, native plant is the acacia aphylla, commonly known as leafless rock wattle. It has an interesting form when not in flower and can be used dried and sprayed but it it at its absolutely stunning form when in flower. Unlike other wattles, the flowers are not clustered together but are scattered like little jewels through the branches. 

I made two arrangements using this material. The first one is loosely based on Variation no. 3 slanting style. For the hikai I used leucadendrons.

For the second, I used two containers and, again, leucadendrons for the flowers.

And for this week's camellia arrangement, I cheated a little bit. Camellias have the frustrating tendency for the flowers to grow underneath the leaves, which means when you place them with the flower facing the front we see the backs of the leaves. An ikebana no no!! One way to deal with this is to remove all the leaves and make a contemporary arrangement rather than a naturalistic one.

Bye for now,

Emily

20TH JULY, 2026

 

Hello all,

I set the theme for the advanced students last week of 'Bare Branches'. This is subtly different to the 'Fresh and Dry Materials' theme in our curriculum. Here the branches, although bare, are alive and can be placed in a container with water. But, because they are bare, they can also be placed outside of the container.

In my example, above, I used branches from my apple tree chosen for the unusual curve of the main one. The vase is a gift from my cousin, Nieves, who, although not an ikebanist, has excellent taste in the containers she has gifted me over the years. In this arrangement the challenge was to secure the heavy strelitzia without it resting on the rim of the vase.

Later, with the sun shining onto the Siberian dogwood with its deep red stems, I couldn't resist making another arrangement on the same theme. I, initially, created the structure with the branches and let it sit in the studio until I pruned my hydrangeas yesterday and was able to create a mass with the flowers. 

Below is Vicky's arrangement made in an ikenobo style container, using nectarine branches, small chrysanthemums and wattle.

The branches that Nicole and Lucy used are from a photinia, which is an evergreen tree and, therefore, should not have been bare. This particular tree belongs to our next door neighbour and it has fallen onto the fence during some extreme weather. It now rests there, most likely dying, with few leaves but covered in luminous lichen.

Nicole secured her branch over a low suiban, without it resting on the table, then added two camellias to complete the arrangement.

Lucy chose a tall, nageire container for her arrangement and, like Nicole, used variegated, camellias with her branch.

Jenny's branch was prunus elvins, which she placed in a tsubo vase and added monstera deliciosa leaves, cut in half. She, also, added a couple of camellia buds, peaking out from behind the leaves.

Vicky, having finished early and with extra materials, made another arrangement.

Wendy's class theme was 'Using Various Locations'. She made an arrangement in a tall vase using camellias and wattle.

She, then, took it home and placed in her tokonoma to the side of the framed picture, thus avoiding obstructing the view of the picture.

My leucadendron shrub is at its best at the moment and I wanted to use some of it here. The little, bamboo, wall container seemed ideal for my small sized materials. The berries are clivia seed heads.

I used cuttings from my only reticulata camellia, the name of which I don't know. I use this camellia infrequently because it produces few flowers and those flowers are heavy and likely to drop. I was pleased to find two flowers that I could use for this week's camellia arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily