Japanese maple, crepe myrtle and nerines

Hello all,

The arrangement, above, was done by Aurelia Dong. It is the last lesson in Book 4 of our curriculum and is called 'You in Ikebana'. I was very proud of this work but, I fear, the photograph doesn't do it justice.

At last month's Ikebana International meeting Lara Telford ran a workshop on colour. The members were divided into five groups, with each group assigned a colour. We were to use blue, brown, green, purple and gold and/or silver. I was in the unenviable, brown group. My first instinct was to refuse to take part but I gave myself a good talking to and got on with the job. Then, as luck would have it, I found in my work room a piece of bamboo blind that I had cut away from the blind I used in my exhibit at the Flower and Garden show. It was, certainly, brown and I was able to twist it into an interesting shape. My sedum, which was turning brown came in very handy and I finished the arrangement with some Begonia Erythrophylla leaves in a tall stainless steel vase.

 Please click on II Melbourne for all the photographs of the workshop.

And now for the latest Sogetsu workshop, which was run by Betty and Toula Karanikolopoulos, my sisters in law. We were to workshop dry palm materials, and use fresh materials to complete our arrangements. The girls had prepared three varied and interesting arrangements each. I've only included one of each but you can see them all as well as the work of the members on Sogetsu Ikebana Victoria.

Betty used the part of the palm leaf that attaches to
the trunk with strelitzia leaves and celosias

Toula's arrangement using the 'inflorecence' on which the fruit
are grown with a fatsia leaf and flowers

I used a palm spathe over a large ceramic vase, with nandina
domestica nana, leucodendrons and strands of inflorecence

In my previous post I included the photograph on the left as an example of the lesson 'In a Suiban without a kenzan'. Once the leaves of the Siberian dogwood dropped, I reworked the piece by adding more dogwood stems and two New Zealand flax leaves.

After

Before

Spreading Arrangements:

Shaneen Garbutt used a bird's nest fern, aspidistra leaves, Singapore orchids and
berries

I used canna lily leaves,New Zealand flax, fishbone ferns and Hawthorn berries

Morimonos:

Shaneen's woven tray with what looks like an Autumn harvest

I used carrots, persimmons and a bull rush plant
with the roots attached on a lacquered board

I leave you with this cute, little arrangement, in which I used squiggly grass and alstroemeria psittacina flowers.

Bye for now,
Emily