MASTERCLASS #30

 

Hello all,

I must confess, after so many years involved in ikebana, it's rare that I get excited about some material not previously seen but that's exactly what happened when I walked up my daughter's driveway on mother's day. In her garden I saw what appears to be agave attenuata with a flower spike. The flowers attached to the spike had dropped off, leaving the leafy bits on the end. Of course, I had to have it and couldn't wait to get home and play with it. I managed to secure it upright in this heavy, self made container and looked around the garden for other material to use with it. I tried and rejected a couple of them and then settled on the small agave leaves.

For our recent masterclass, as always, students had no idea which materials they would have to work with. After studying their materials, they were able to choose a container.

Lei had three protea flowers in different stages of opening, three NZ flax leaves and a branch of eucalyptus that I was not able to identify. She chose a tall, rectangular container, placed sideways and created a sharp, modern design with the flax. She, painstakingly, worked on the stem of the protea to make it curve downwards and placed it to peek out behind the flax. The soft, eucalyptus material created a contrast against the sharp lines of the rest of the arrangement.

Akemi had two tall, pomegranate branches and a large branch of orange cotoneaster berries (Cotoneaster franchetii). The container with the split down the middle presented some challenges but Akemi managed it quite well.

Bredenia had two, tall branches of the orange cotoneaster with a lot of leaves. She thinned out the leaves considerably, then snapped the tall stems, bending them downwards. She, then, placed the three proteas in a naturalistic style, close to the lip of the ceramic vase.

Vicky used two of her flax leaves, creating a single line and placed the proteas extending forward, something that's lost in the photograph. At the very back Vicky placed the eucalyptus material.

Cymbie had fig branches from which she removed all the leaves and placed them over a retro, purple, glass container. She added one of her three hydrangeas to the side.

Lucy was absent from class but she came and picked up the materials I had for her and made an arrangement at home. She used only two of the four materials - spear grass (xanthorrhoea) and cumquats in a large, glass container.

And now for this week's camellia arrangement.

Bye for now,

Emily