MASTERCLASS # 27

 

Hello all,

Nature never ceases to amaze and delight me. The double headed strelitzia reginae, above, has so much 'attitude', that it only required me to place it in an appropriate container. Admittedly, it did require some skill to have the heavy stem sitting upright without resting on the rim of the container. The single leaf, continues the clean, vertical line.

For Saturday's masterclass, the last for the year, the attendees were given three different types of materials each and were asked to study them carefully for a few minutes before selecting a container from the shelves. They were instructed to use as much or as little of their materials as they wanted.

Vicky had a large weeping willow branch, from which she, painstakingly, removed most of the leaves to reveal the lines of the stems. She used a second container for the agapanthus and roses, which she kept up high emphasizing lines at the base.

Akemi chose a tall, glass vase, which she concealed with a New Zealand flax leaf coming from the vase and folding over the front of it. She used a single umbrella grass stem to create asymmetrical, geometric shapes and a small sprig of philadelphus flowers peaking from the back.

One of Cymbie's materials was weeping elm branches and, because she removed all the leaves, she did not have to have the stems in water. She then chose the two glass vases and threaded the stems through the holes. She stripped the leaves from her stem of philadelphus and placed it through one of the holes but, this time, making sure that the stem was in water.

Jenny had a large piece of Japanese maple, which had a slanting form. She removed a great number of the leaves and trimmed away one side stem. She placed the large stem in a heavy, ceramic container with a split down the middle. On the opposite side she placed the smaller stem, creating a continuous, sweeping line of maple. For the floral focus, she used yellow alstroemeria to one side.

Midori had monstera deliciosa leaves which she cut away from the stems and pushed into the container, creating a ruffled effect. She used the stems for lines and alstroemeria for colour. The arrangement was a nod to the lesson 'Mass and Line'.

Julie had a heavy bunch of loquats which she placed into a large container, turned sideways. She placed the loquat leaves sweeping forward over the fruit and one strelitzia reginae peaking from the back. This arrangement reminds me of the nasty birds that come and eat all my fruit.

Lucy took some pains to place the agapanthus 'just so'. The buds on the agapanthus inflorescence look like tear drops as they hang down in front of the black container. I find this particularly charming. The loquat stem creates the line and the fruit at the back add contrast to colour and form.

At our last, regular class Dianne, very generously, brought a large bucket full of waratah branches with flowers for us all to share. My stem had three flowers and an interesting curve to the stem. I wanted to emphasize the stem so I went searching for complementing branches in the garden and, sure enough, I found it. I was so keen to cut the mahonia and arrange it that I didn't bother getting gloves. For those unfamiliar with this material, it is just about the most prickly one I have ever used. Every tip of the leaves is as sharp as a needle and I have the scratches to prove it. I trimmed all the superfluous leaves from the mahonia, revealing the lovely curve of the stem. Then, when I was done, I went and rubbed antiseptic all over my hands and arms. But, you know what, it was worth it!

Bye for now,

Emily

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

WORKSHOPS WITH NISHIYAMA SENSE

 

Hello all,

Well, the demonstration by Kosa Nishiyama sense on Thursday went very well. I'm sure those of you who attended will agree. Her expertise and talent were surpassed only by her elegance and grace. From the distance of my seat I was not able to take good photographs. However, my student Lei, a budding photographer, has taken hundreds of photos, the best of which will be featured on the Sogetsu Victoria blog in due course.

I was asked to make a welcoming arrangement, which was to be placed at the entrance of the theatre. It was the arrangement, above, which I photographed after I brought it home because the background was too busy. However, I designed it to reflect that very same, busy background with its geometric patterns of glass and metal. 

The structure is made with the dried stems of the New Zealand flax flowers. This material is quite soft and light, making it relatively easy to create interesting structures. For the flowers I raided my strelitzia reginae clump, which is flowering prolifically and filled the large, ceramic container with smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria).

On Saturday Nishiyama sense conducted two workshops. The theme for the morning workshop was 'A Freestyle Arrangement Incorporating Paper'. Nishiyama sense demonstrated two arrangements on the theme.

The attendees were to bring only a container, tools and paper. The materials were provided by the organizers, so we had no idea what to expect. 

My bunch of materials comprised of two cycad fronds, three aspidistra leaves  and a branch of callistemon. The heavy paper I had brought was two sided with a mottled green on one side and blue on the other. By folding it at the two ends, both colours were visible. I used only one flower of the callistemon at the back for a little bit of colour contrast.

By the time I brought the arrangement home the callistemon had wilted so I replaced it with a heliconia.

Lucy used a thick, textured paper with monstera deliciosa leaves and pin cushion flowers (leucospermum).

Vicky made a very cheeky arrangement using her palm leaves, placed up-side-down in her container with squares of white paper attached to the stems. The heliconias added both colour and height. 

The theme for the afternoon workshop was 'Disassembling and Rearranging the Material'. Nishiyama sense stressed the point that the material must be taken apart and then reassembled in a completely different way. In the bunch of materials that I was given I had three stems of Pleomele Song of India and some heliconias. I removed all the leaves from the stem and threaded them together with wire. I then attached the 'skirt' along half of the opening of the container. I added two of the now denuded stems into the arrangement to create lines.

Vicky used only one heliconia from her allocated materials, which she separated into its basic elements and reassembled them as per the photograph, below.

Lucy's container was too large for her materials so she decided to keep the arrangement small and to allow the container to be the main feature. She separated the leaves of the palm and rejoined them vertically. She, also. separated the heliconia petals and rearranged them and added them to the front.

My family and I had the honour of hosting Nishiyama sense and her assistant, Ms Tomoyo Koiwai to dinner on Friday. It was a most enjoyable evening for all of us, so much so, that we forgot to take any photos. Below is the arrangement I had prepared for the dinner table. I used Louisiana iris and smoke bush in a self made container.

I had left over materials after the workshops and could not bear to let them go to waste. When I got home I quickly made a couple of arrangements with them. Below is the photo of an arrangement using tortuous willow which I loosely intertwined and two stunningly beautiful peonies. 

A very simple use of aspidistra leaves and heliconias.

On Saturday evening we all had dinner at the Kew Golf Club. Again, a very enjoyable evening except that this time some members took photos and I can share one with you.

Bye for now,

Emily

SOGETSU VICTORIA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

 

Photograph by Lei Wang

Hello all,

Well, our exhibition is in full swing and the gallery is looking quite impressive with the great variety of Sogetsu arrangements. We had the official opening yesterday and this, being the first of a four week long exhibition, will be changed on 6th November. There will be subsequent changes each week thereafter.

In the first week many of us had the privilege of using ceramic containers, which are part of the Council's collection. In the arrangement, above, I used a container by the artist, Brian KEYTE - Baluster Vase Copper Red, Wheel thrown, stoneware clay. It measures 40cm in height.

I wanted to make a larger arrangement than the container would allow, so I built a bamboo structure around part of the plinth and the container. I had the measurements of the plinths that are owned by the gallery from previous exhibitions of mine and my students' work in 2022 and May 2024. This meant that I could prepare the structure to fit snuggly around the plinth. 

I'd been watching the flowers on my strelitzia nicolai for weeks, hoping they would open in time. And they did. To reach them, I enlisted Lucy's help to bring out a table, on which I stood and, using the extendable cutter with a saw attachment, I was able to cut them down. The only other material I used was nandina domestica with its inflorescence in bud.

For my second arrangement I made a sculptural piece as per our lesson in Book 5 'Composition Using Unconventional Materials'. I had the bent wood in my storeroom for many years and was happy to finally put it to use. It's quite self explanatory but I should point out that the piece has movement. The top part can pivot over the vertical dowel.

This photograph of me by Lei gives a
sense of proportion 

I will feature more photographs in due course but, you would enjoy the exhibition much more if you were to visit it.

Venue:
Whitehorse Artspace

Box Hill Town Hall                                                                                                        1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill 

Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm                                                                                    Saturday 12pm - 4pm

And now to ikebana at home. My strelitzia reginae has been quite prolific, with some of them reaching two metres in height. I was loathe to cut such lovely, long stems so I figured a way to use them using this rather large container full of holes. The difficulty was in bending the strong stems without snapping them. 

In the next arrangement, the flowers have so much character that no other material or manipulation was needed. I merely placed them in my self-made container.

Lei's class arrangement was a freestyle. She used a container which is split in half and placed two fatsia leaves and a cymbidium orchid on one side. She, then, brought two horsetail reeds (equisetum hyemale) delineating the left from the right side of the container.

In her freestyle arrangement, Mary used Japanese maple, Altissimo roses and inflorescence from nandina domestica in a ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTRCLASS #26

 

Hello all,

My spring garden is continuing to delight me. My pink dogwood (Cornus Florida rubra) was in full flower for the first time this year and I dared to cut two stems to bring inside. Apart from some trimming and securing the branches in the container, I did not need to do anything else.

Also, my mollis azalea avocet is pure perfection. The contrast of the delicate, white and yellow flowers against the lime green leaves is quite charming.

Last Saturday's Masterclass was particularly challenging. I had provided each participant with only one, rather large branch of red callistemon and two containers. I asked them to be creative and to think outside the square. Having only one material to work with to create an interesting arrangement is not easy but the girls rose to the challenge and made me proud.

As always, I too, took the challenge with an arrangement but forgot to photograph it. 

Lei cut down her branch and selected two side shoots with interesting shapes. She removed almost all of the leaves allowing the stems to be featured.

Christine, needing extra height, placed one vase on top of the other, then draped two stems of the callistemon over them.

Lucy separated the side shoots which had only buds and draped them over one vase then placed four flowers, vertically, through a slit in the second container.

Cymbie placed her branches up side down and, then, proceeded to wire flowers and buds giving them a rather unnatural but interesting direction.

Vicky's arrangement was reminiscent of the lesson 'Disassembling and Rearranging the Material'. She removed flowers, buds and leaves from the branch and placed the flowers in her two containers. She then used the 'stick' to add a line.

I leave you with this arrangement that I took to my friend, Merryl's place on Friday, when I went there for lunch. We are a group of four friends who met at our children's high school, helping out at the tuck shop. We call ourselves 'The Tuck Shop Girls'. (We sound like a girl band!) We have maintained our friendship ever since by meeting 3 or 4 times a year for lunch at alternating houses. These are marathon lunches which last a minimum of seven hours. Surprisingly, we never run out of things to say.

I chose the green goddess lilies for this arrangement for their longevity and, wired the way I had them, they are easy to transport. The wisteria vine is fresh, so in about a week or so, it should sprout leaves. To cover my mechanics, I used baby tears (soleirolia).

Bye for now'

Emily

DEMONSTRATION AND EXHIBITION

 

Hello all,

The time is quickly approaching for our exhibition and the demonstration by Master Instructor, Kosa Nishiyama, in celebration of our 60th anniversary. We're quite excited and are working very hard preparing for it all. We'd love to see as many of you as possible to both events. To my interstate readers, Melbourne is glorious this time of year and might act as an added incentive to visit.

Our exhibition will be held at Whitehorse Artspace  over four consecutive weeks with changes to the exhibits each week.

It will run from 26th October to 23rd November.          

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm (Saturdays 12.00 to 4.pm)

And now to our regular ikebana. For last lesson the advanced students were asked to make a spring arrangement. In my wall arrangement, below, I used a large wisteria vine and added pink roses and purple flag iris.

Lucy used a metal stand on which she placed a glass vase, then added jasmine, clivias and cymbidium orchid.

Jenny used apple blossoms and mauve lilacs in a ceramic, curved container.

Nicole used branches of hawthorn in bloom and rhododendron in a curved, ceramic container.

Shaneen came with swathes of materials but used only four - Japanese maple, clivia, day lily and freesias in a ceramic suiban.

Mary used crab apple branches in bloom and three arum lilies in a ceramic vase.

 

The following week Mary made a freestyle arrangement in a tsubo vase, using nandina domestica and arum lilies.

Lei made a freestyle arrangement using viburnum opulus, blushing bride (Serruria florida) and a prunus stem in a gorgeous, ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily