MASTERCLASS #32

 

Hello all,

For our recent Masterclass I provided the students with unconventional materials. I instructed them to study the material and decide on whether to use a container and, if so, which one. I provided a number of fresh materials in buckets from which they could select two each.

Mine is the arrangement, above. The blue material is a rather stiff felt and the yellow are thin, plastic straws. Piercing the holes in the felt was a little difficult because it's quite stiff but I managed it and threaded the straws. The choice of vase was easy as was the choice of flowers, leucadendrons.

Lei had three cylinders and the yellow straws. She balanced the cylinders by using the straws beneath and above the cylinder, then added a NZ flax leaf and a camellia stem.

Swann had the same unconventional materials as me and it's interesting to  see her take on it. She used a flat plate with holes in it. She placed it over a suiban that could hold water for the clivia flowers. Swann cut the felt, shaped it and fed it through the hole in the plate. The straws added some colour as well as lines.

Lucy's unconventional material was a wide ribbon of something synthetic. Because it was light, she was able to secure it onto the NZ flax leaf. The flowers, which are difficult to see, were from an aloe plant, although I don't know which one.

Bredenia had straws, which she did not use and a very floppy ribbon of white plastic with holes in it. She bunched it up over a tall vase and let parts of it hang down. She added the proteas and a branch of cotoneaster berries, from which she had removed all the leaves.

Vicky had two rings made of some sort of thick cardboard. She sprayed them black and balanced them over two, matching, metal containers. She added an aspidistra leaf and two aloe flowers.

And now to my garden.

My favourite, native plant is the acacia aphylla, commonly known as leafless rock wattle. It has an interesting form when not in flower and can be used dried and sprayed but it it at its absolutely stunning form when in flower. Unlike other wattles, the flowers are not clustered together but are scattered like little jewels through the branches. 

I made two arrangements using this material. The first one is loosely based on Variation no. 3 slanting style. For the hikai I used leucadendrons.

For the second, I used two containers and, again, leucadendrons for the flowers.

And for this week's camellia arrangement, I cheated a little bit. Camellias have the frustrating tendency for the flowers to grow underneath the leaves, which means when you place them with the flower facing the front we see the backs of the leaves. An ikebana no no!! One way to deal with this is to remove all the leaves and make a contemporary arrangement rather than a naturalistic one.

Bye for now,

Emily