MASTERCLASS # 30

 

Hello all,

For our Masterclass on Saturday I provided each of the students with the same, key material - pomegranates from my tree. I've been watching the progress of the fruit, holding my breath that they would survive until our class. Well, they did, up to a point. About a week before the class, Sam had to shoo away a pair of Australian King Parrots, who had started feasting on  the fruit. So, I covered each of the fruit with a plastic bag to protect them until I needed them.

In my arrangement, above, I used two stems with a fruit in each, which I joined by wiring at the bottom and near the fruit. I added hydrangeas and nandina domestica berries.

My instructions to the students was to select a container very carefully because the fruit are very heavy and can easily topple a container. There were, also, other materials and the instruction for those was to use as much or as little as they chose.

Lei chose two, matching containers and, having removed almost all the leaves from the pomegranate stems, she directed them sideways. She added the dahlias to complete the arrangement.

Jenny placed her Manchurian pear branches, in their autumnal glory, through the holes in the doughnut shaped container. She secured the heavy fruit, then added two proteas to complete the arrangement.

Vicky had variegated cumquat branches and amaranthus as well as the pomegranates. It took some effort to secure the fruit as the container has a relatively wide opening and has a slippery glaze inside.

Lucy had three, somewhat smaller fruit, which she placed in a container with a split down the middle. She decided to use only a small amount of her other materials - a hydrangea and a sprig of pomegranate with leaves.

The evolution of an arrangement

When the flowers on my wall arrangement died, I was loathe to discard it altogether because it took some doing to secure the hoop in just the right position. A quick look around the garden and I selected two, large strelitzia reginae leaves and a flower.

Walking past the arrangement a couple of times, I wasn't quite happy with it so I channeled the teacher in me and looked at it critically. The answer came quickly - the leaves were too big for the rest of the arrangement. So I removed half of each leaf, vertically, leaving the spine intact and placed one in front of the hoop and one behind.

Now the leaves were narrower and had space between them. I was a little bit happier but not enough. On closer scrutiny, I decided I didn't like the position of the flower. So I moved it.

Am I happy? Well, not entirely. I think the addition of another flower would improve the arrangement even more but I don't have one.

Mary's theme was 'Disassembling and Rearranging the Material'. She used agapanthus flower stems with seedpods. Having taken apart the material, Mary created an interesting shape with the curved stems and placed the needle-like parts of the agapanthus in the middle of the triangular, glass container. Floating at the top of the water were the seedpods.

This time next week I will be in Japan. I hope to be posting my blog from there.

Bye for now,

Emily