One Kind of Material

 

Hello all,

The arrangement, above, is made up of two stems of Banksia Lemanniana, which I had used at my demonstration for the Vermont Floral Art group.

I had some left over materials from the Ikebana International workshop last week and simply had to use them before they died. It was only after I finished that I realised they fell into the theme 'One kind of Material. The protea, below, is from my son's neighbours' garden. I had removed all the side shoots and leaves, leaving only the one stem with flower and revealing the curved stem. This is, also, a 'Simplified Arrangement'.

The tulips from 'Mr Fresh' were excellent and lasted very well. I made the arrangement, below, exactly one week after the demonstration.

And, whilst we're on the subject of one kind of material, Mary's class theme was 'Japanese Narcissus'. In this exercise, the flower stem and leaves are removed from the sheath (Hakama), which is just above the bulb and rearranged, then the sheath is fitted over the bottom of the stems, holding them together. The flaw in this process is that it destroys the bulb. I was able to provide Mary with two plants to practice this technique. She then made a simple arrangement in an unusual trough container. 

Mary made a second arrangement with narcissus and aspidistra leaves in a triangular suiban.

Shaneen's class theme was 'Arrangements for Celebrations'. She used cypress, kniphofia, leukadendron and mizuhiki (paper strings) in a ceramic container.

Lei's class theme was 'Arrangements on the Table'. She created bamboo structures which she placed over two, art deco, ceramic containers. She, then, added friesas and ivy.

Wendy's class theme was 'Vines'. She used wisteria vine, wattle and camellias in a tall, ceramic vase.

Dianne's class theme was 'Shape of the Container'. She started with a circular but narrow container with curved ridges running across it. She used brown cordyline leaves and dietes leaves to reflect those lines and miniature iris as a focal point. The arrangement was to be placed on a pedestal.

I leave you with this reworking of my arrangement from last week. I had used Japanese flowering quince branches with my prunus mume and salvias. Within a week the prunus and salvias had died but the flowering quince was fuller with the buds having opened. I removed the dead materials and replaced them with red and white camellias.

Reworked

Original

 

Bye for now, Emily