MASTERCLASS #38

Hello all,

At our recent Ikebana International meeting our guest speaker was Chieko Hesta, who is an expert on all things origami. She kindly brought along materials and instructions for all of us to create our own origami tulips. As for the members, we were asked to bring arrangements inspired by origami. 

The arrangement, above, is mine. Origami comprises bending and folding of paper, so I created an arrangement with bends. I joined together a number of umbrella grass stems to create a kind of ribbon, which I, then, bent into a shape that reflected the facets of the ceramic container. I repeated the shape using two variegated, NZ flax leaves and added two nerines as the floral element.

The arrangement, below, was made by our Jenny. It's had to see in the photograph but the curculigo leaves she used are pleated naturally and she bent them to reflect the origami technique. 

And now for our Masterclass. I provided each participant with materials that comprised a large branch, flowers and two black canes. My instructions to them was to use as much or as little of the provided materials and, after studying the materials, to select a container from the shelf. They had no choice in the materials they received.

Jenny had an interesting but, rather, difficult blue juniper branch. I say difficult because it was almost horizontal and quite challenging to place in a container with the stem in water. Haviing secured it in one triangular container, she used one of the two, curved stemmed agapanthus in a separate one behind, having it coming forward. There was some discussion about the naturalistic look of the branch and the modern look of the agapanthus but, the general consensus was that it worked.

Vicky had a large mahonia stem with two side shoots. She trimmed them back and placed the remaining one, with its long stem in this donut shaped container with three openings. The short stem outside the container adds the illusion of the stem continuing beyond the container. She did not use flowers, as she felt they would have been superfluous. 
 

Having finished early and having materials left over, Vicky made a second arrangement. She used another of her mahonia side shoots and her hydrangeas in a yellow, ceramic vase. And, if you look very closely, you will see the two black canes going through the arrangement. She was the only one of the group to use the canes. 

Lei had two pieces of nandina domestica, which she trimmed very heavily, leaving a very light and lacy effect. She used two matching containers. In the back one she placed the two hydrangeas to be seen through the leafy 'curtain'.

Swann had a large viburnum opulus branch, which she trimmed heavily to reveal  the movement in the branch. It looks as though she just placed it in the container but there was considerable work in making it look that way. The massed roses made the floral focus.

Lucy, also, had a viburnum opulus branch, although it was quite different to Swann's. In this case the stem was long and thin and had been growing downwards. It required a degree of skill and expertise to make it balance the way she did. She had a number of leukadendron flowers but chose to use only one.

Bye for now,

Emily