Bamboo culm sheath and bromeliad flower

Hello all,

I think I was always meant to study ikebana as is evidenced by a number of vases suited to ikebana that I bought long before I knew anything about this art form. I bought the little vase, above, in 1988 in Athens, three years before I started ikebana.

My grandchildren usually pay no attention to my arrangements. They seem to have accepted them as part of the furniture. Except for the arrangement, above, which is more that a metre tall, requiring 15 stems of Green Goddess lilies and which caught the eye of my granddaughter, Hermione. She said she liked it because it looked like a water fountain.

I made this arrangement because my rhododendron demanded it.

And now for some class work. The two arrangements, below have the theme - 'Keeping in Mind the View from Below'

I used flowering elm branch and rhododendron
flowers in this wall arrangement. 

Aurelia used freesias and alstroemeria leaves

I set the senior girls the theme from book 5 - 'Composing with Branches - A Two-step Approach'. First we created a composition using cut branches that could stand alone. Then, we introduced an appropriate container and fresh materials to complete the arrangement.

The two photographs, below, are my attempts at this exercise. I found a rather large elm branch on the ground and used it by cutting the thicker parts, creating a base and adding the finer branches at the top.  Thereby creating a type of mass. I tried many containers before I settled on this one. Most of them looked too heavy, whereas this one, with the opening in the middle seemed to fit the bill best. The clivias just finished it off.

Bredenia used thick contorted hazel branches with clivias and
alstroemeria leaves

Lucy used dried pine branches with flowering elm

In my absence my stachyurus came into full flower and I almost missed it. However, I managed to get this one arrangement from it.

I leave you with this arrangement which epitomizes  spring.

Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum and Dutch iris

Bye for now,
Emily

This photograph was taken with my phone through the bus window, so the quality is
poor. You can find much better on the internet.

Hello all,

Sam and I have just returned from a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock). This trip was in our bucket list for more than 20 years and, finally, we can tick it off.

I've seen pictures of Uluru many times and I knew it was majestic but I was unprepared for the emotions I felt as I stood at its base. I hope it doesn't sound corny but it was almost spiritual. I consider myself a pragmatist and not given to such sentimentality but I was truly moved by the majesty and history, both geological and human of this natural wonder. My limited vocabulary cannot do justice to it.

For my non-Australian readers, the Rock is a giant monolith the second largest in the world, surpassed only by Mount Augustus in Western Australia". Its dimensions are : 348 m above ground, with most of its bulk lying underground, 3.6 km long and 2.4 km wide. It is situated almost in the centre of Australia, in the desert. It is a deeply spiritual place for the Indigenous Australians.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has a number of attractions such as Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), King's Canyon, Uluru/Ayers Rock and at present there is a light installation by artist Bruce Munro called Field of Light. He used 50,000 individually crafted delicate 'light stems'. The area that it covers has been described as equal to seven football fields.

This photograph is from a great distance of the light installation in the foreground
and Uluru in the background

We walked through this surreal installation after having enjoyed a sumptuous dinner under the stars in the desert. We only had candle light on our tables and, after the meal, the lights were turned off so that we could appreciate the night sky. Without the usual light pollution, the stars were brilliant. I've never seen the Milky Way so clearly before. It was magical!

Again, I don't want to turn this into a travelogue, so I leave it to those of you who are interested to find out more about this place. I can honestly say that it is well worth the effort and cost involved to get there. The only down side, for me, was the heat - high thirties every day. Perhaps we should have gone in winter.

One more thing, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of vegetation in the desert. I did not expect to see so many trees and bushes that have evolved in this very harsh environment  but, we were told, that there have been unusually good rains in the last 18 months. There were even lawn areas around the resort we stayed in.

Among the many fascinating plants, this Grevillea Bush Lemons was the first plant to catch my eye as we drove into the resort. From a distance it looks like little parrots sitting on the tips of branches. We were told that the flowers have nectar which the Aborigines suck without removing the flowers from the bush. They also use the nectar to mix with water to make a sweet drink. 

Oh, and I had to include this iconic Sturt's Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa), a favourite of mine. 

And now back to ikebana.

At our last Ikebana International meeting, our guest speaker was Dr Peter Haeusler, an expert on clivias, whose talk on the subject was most informative.

I volunteered to do the demonstration using clivias. Unfortunately, I had no actual flowers in my garden though I had plenty of buds and leaves. Under the circumstances, I decided I would do something creative with the leaves. This proved to be more difficult than I imagined. The leaves are not very versatile, as they snap when bent near the base. They don't split very well and have the tendency to look quite boring when used naturalistically. I did, however, discover that they can last, very well, without water for at least two weeks.

Below are the  photographs of my two attempts.

I used the split in the container to wedge the leaves
creating the curves. The flowers are not going
sideways but coming forward

This was a little bit of fun. I twisted the leaves together
and pushed them into each 'cone' of the container 
and added one berry

For more photographs from our meeting, please go to melbourneikebana.blogspot.com.au



Vicky recently pruned her kiwi vine and kindly offered some cuttings to me. So I went to town with them -

Original wall arrangement with calla lilies and
alstroemeria leaves

After the lilies died I replaced them with a
cymbidium orchid stem and flowering broom

The original arrangement in a container I made myself. I used
monstera deliciosa flowers with the kiwi vine

And after the monstera flowers died I replaced them with two
cymbidium orchid stems. If you look closely, you'll see that 
there are leaves growing on the vine.

'Arrangements on the Table':

Vicky used clivias, alstroemeria leaves and wisteria vine in this very shiny
stainless steel container

Bredenia used Bird's nest fern and clivias

I used only calla lilies in another self made container

I think this is probably enough.
Bye for now,
Emily

My piece at the recent Ikebana International exhibition.
Copper piping and leucadendron 

Photography and ikebana.

I wanted to share with you some of my experiences with photographing my arrangements.

I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. I have a digital camera which I point and click. In my ikebana room I have had installed a cream coloured roller blind that I roll down and on which I place arrangements to photograph. Mostly this works quite well except when I have white vases or pale material which does not show up against the pale background. Also, large arrangements can protrude past the perimeter of the blind. I do some very basic editing on the computer and that's the extent of my photographic skills.

I take photographs of almost all my arrangements but I don't include them all in the blog because, often, the photograph cannot capture the beauty of the arrangement. I am reminded of some wise words uttered by Yoshiro Umemura a long time ago when he said that flat arrangements photograph best. That has, certainly, been my observation, as I try to capture a three dimensional piece in a two dimensional medium. So, I often leave out arrangements that are beautiful but photograph badly.

Having said all that, I have to, also, point out the advantages of photography in ikebana. Quite often, after photographing a piece and seeing it in the view finder, I see imperfections that I hadn't noticed before. Many is the time that I have gone back and made adjustments to my arrangement and photographed it again. Below is one example that I kept for the purpose of illustrating this point. Limited memory space in my camera means that I delete all unwanted photos.

As you can see, the adjustment of moving the small container to the right is a minor one, yet, I feel, makes a big difference to the arrangement by filling in the large gap in the centre.

Every year, at about this time, I indulge myself by making really large spring arrangements on my kitchen bench. This type of arrangement makes everyone who sees it stand and stare as it brings spring into the house when it is still very cold outside and its sheer size means it cannot be ignored. It is, however, messy and time consuming work, firstly to set up and later to maintain as it keeps dropping petals constantly.

The vase I used is as old as my marriage, as it was a wedding present from work colleagues and it housed a terrarium. In those days, I absolutely no gardening knowledge and the terrarium failed but the vase, which takes 60 litres of water, works very well for this type of arrangement. I should point out that the water was carried from the rainwater tank outside by my beloved. Below are the before and after pictures.

And now to class - "Fresh and Unconventional Materials'

Emily - Net and Aspidistra leaves

Aurelia - Rubber and banksia spinulosa (I think)

Guy Pasco's very first free style arrangement.
Bark and magnolia 'Black Tulip' ( I think)

'Featuring the uses of Water'

Here I wanted to feature the shadow cast by the leaf over the water

Here I wanted to feature the magnification
of the water in the cylindrical glass vase
and the buoyancy of the water.

Aurelia used two glass bowls with different levels of water with a New Zealand flax
leaf and camellia

I leave you with this last arrangement - 'In a Tsubo Vase' from Book 5.

'Strelitzia, clivia and Geralton wax. The branch material was found
by the roadside, so I don't know its name

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

The arrangement above, with its combination of prunus blossoms and camellias in an antique basket  represents, for me, quintessential ikebana.

Last Monday’s Sogetsu workshop was run by Christopher James, for which he set the theme ‘An arrangement incorporating text’. Christopher added-'I invite your free interpretation of the theme. In this regard the theme is meant to be nothing less than springboard for your artistic imaginations’.

It was very interesting to see how each member interpreted this theme. Many used actual paper with some text on it in their arrangement. As for me, I thought I should find an excerpt from literature and reference it in my ikebana. After much consideration of the various books I read since childhood, I settled on one of my favourite modern writers – Douglas Adams and his series of books ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’. I chose an excerpt which I felt is very relevant in today’s tumultuous political landscape. 

'“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. 

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Here is my arrangement in reference to the above quote. The strelitzia representing the ruler governing the people who voted him into power.

For class last week, the senior girls were given the lesson 'A floor arrangement'. I apologize for the poor quality of the photographs but the arrangements are very difficult to capture when they are so tall and thin.

Bredenia - Siberian dogwood and magnolia x soulangana

Lucy  - Dried strelitzia Nicolai leaf, Alstroemeria
leaves and chrysanthemums

Emily - Palm spathe and alstroemeria leaves

Nicole's last arrangement of Book 4 - 'Me in Ikebana'
Calla lilies and wisteria

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES IN IKEBANA

Aurelia - bananas, capsicums and egg plant

Emily - mushrooms and spring onions

Emily- fennel and chili

I leave you with this next arrangement, which came about because I was given  this citrus fruit called 'Buddha's hand' (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis) by my colleague Lara Telford. When I first received it, I was very excited. However, after struggling for some time trying to find a way to arrange such a heavy fruit my excitement began to wane. That's when my stubbornness kicked in and I persevered until I managed to balance it in this brightly coloured tsubo vase. I like the contrast of the blue against the yellow.

Before I leave you, I'd like to let you know that there is, currently, an exhibition by Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter in the lobby of Sofitel Melbourne on Collins. It will continue until Wednesday 30th.

Also, I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. If you would like to email me, please don't send it through the blog. Google doesn't seem to work, so most emails don't come through to me. Please use my email address - emilykara@optusnet.com.au and be assured that I reply to all emails. If you haven't received a reply from me it's because I have not received your communication.

Bye for now,
Emily

Siberian dogwood bare branch, camellias and conifer

Hello all,

At our Ikebana International meeting last month, we had the pleasure of meeting the new patrons of the Melbourne Chapter, The Consul General of Japan, Mr Matsunaga and Mrs Matsunaga.

Also, Christopher James conducted a workshop with the theme 'Working with bare branches'. The photograph, above, is of my arrangement. I used a container by Graham Wilke, which has a small opening and required some serious mechanics to secure the branch above the container. For photographs of arrangements by all members and, especially, Christopher's, please go to our blog - melbourneikebana.blogspot.com.au.

Our group met again this morning for our AGM, when we welcomed the new committee, headed by Patricia Ward as President. Afterwards, there was a demonstration by the Heads of five schools. Arrangements below -

Christopher James - Sogetsu

Yukako Braun - Ikenobo

Aiko Nakada - Ohara

Chieko Yazaki - Shogetsudokoryu

Eliasha Zhang - Ichiyo

We also had a number of arrangements by members, mine below, fits two themes - 'Shape of the container' and 'Colour of the container'. It is difficult to see the latter in the photo but the interior of the container has a dull mauve hue which is picked up by the hellebores. And on the subject of hellebores, I found that one day after they were cut and arranged, they wilted and looked quite sad. I plunged them in a bucket of water for a couple of hours, which seemed to revive them beautifully. They lasted for about two days before drooping again, when I repeated the plunging exercise with the same results.

For class last week the senior students were set the theme 'Jika Dome' - Direct Fixing, which is in Book 5. This seemingly simple fixing method can be quite challenging, especially with heavy branches, as it requires bending and balancing. In my arrangement, below, I struggled a little to balance the ginger seed heads facing inwards when gravity kept insisting on pulling them downwards.

Ginger seed heads, cordelines and hydrangeas

Vicky Kalokathis - magnolia branch and oriental
lilies

Bredenia Raquel - geranium and leucadendron salignum

The arrangement, below, has the theme 'Specific Scenes, Occasions or Spaces'. I chose to celebrate my husband's Name Day, a Greek tradition that we use as an excuse to get the family together and which falls on the 6th August (last Sunday). The dry material I used came from my bamboo, which sheds them as it grows. (If anyone knows what they're called, please let me know). These jonquils are the earliest to flower in my garden and I chose them for this arrangement because they are Sam's favourite flowers. He has fond memories of collecting wild jonquils when he was a boy in a little village in Greece and selling them to passing motorists for pocket money. While they're in season, I keep a little vase of jonquils always on his office desk.

Aurelia Dong - 'Disassembling and Rearranging the Materials
Lilly pilly

The black pine in this next arrangement was donated by some kind member of II a month ago and which looks every bit as fresh today as it did then. The kamo hon ami camellia, however, has to be replaced every few days but it's well worth the effort.

Bye for now,
Emily