Ornithogalum, acacia aphylla and mizuhiki

Hello all,

I made the arrangement, above, for our last Ikebana International meeting. Usually, the mizuhiki is used as a final accent on a celebratory arrangement. However, I wanted to make more of a feature of it, using it as an unconventional material. The glass vases are such a striking red colour that I only use them for Christmas arrangements. For more photographs of that meeting please go to melbourneikebana.blogspot.com.

In my last post I wrote about the training for Book 5 and workshops in Sydney. Misei Ishikawa Sensei demonstrated the correct way to arrange Japanese iris (Hanashobu, Iris ensata) and explained that in Japan the leaves of this iris are more expensive to buy than the flowers. And now I know why. I have a number of pots with this iris growing very successfully and, when I returned from Sydney, they were in full bloom. One of my first tasks was to cut and arrange them but, when it came to cutting the leaves, I found that most of them grow curved sideways or are quite floppy. In my arrangement, below I wanted to create a pond-like arrangement using three kenzans and three different groups of iris with leaves. As you can see, the leaves are not standing as vertically as they should.

Last Tuesday, was the last meeting of our Sogetsu chapter, after which, I ran a workshop with the theme - 'Ikebana using Fabric.' I had suggested to the members to treat this as the theme 'Fresh and unconventional material' using the fabric as the unconventional material. It was a day of great weather extremes with the Bureau of Meteorology warning people to avoid unnecessary travel for fear of possible flooding. I was quite relieved to see the 13 members who braved the elements to attend. Once there, we had fun exploring this new material and the feedback I got was all positive.

I had set up the three arrangements, below, as examples and I demonstrated  the fourth. For more photographs of the workshop please go to our Sogetsu blog.

Thai silk, cymbidium orchids and alstroemeria leaves
In ceramic vase

Sculptural aluminium stand with two different
obi fabrics and one gymea leaf

Silk chiffon, strelitzzia nicolai and kiwi vine in two glass vases

Red silk velvet, gold pleated fabric and mahonia leaves in two ceramic suibans

Recently I agreed to make an arrangement for an exhibition by artist, Beau Emmett. His exhibition ran for five weeks and I was to maintain the arrangement for the duration. However, after replacing the original material in the first week, I felt it would be more interesting to make different arrangements each week.

'Xanadu, an installation by Beau Emmett, explores the idea of the home and the tensions implicit in the universal quest and desire for comfort and stability in amongst shifting, precarious and at times volatile circumstances.  Emmetts collection of found images, soundscapes and obsession with ghost houses and a particular volcano come together to reiterate the concept that the home is a psychic space where consideration must be given to spirit of all things—animate and inanimate.'

The exhibition space with the ikebana arrangement in front of the screen and the
foam sculpture representing volcano

Japanese maple, roses and ornithogalum. Of course, when in situ, the maple draped
over the edge of the pedestal, unlike in this photo, where it touches the floor

Nandina domestica and strelitzia reginae flowers in ceramic vase

Dogwood, hippeastrum flowers and red coloued wisteria vine in ceramic container

New Zealnd flax and strelitzia reginae flowers

I leave you with this fun arrangement made last night by my student, Guy Pascoe, who is only in Book one of the curriculum but, who has studied fine arts and works as a florist for a large hotel.

Stems from unknown succulent and my first gloriosa
lily with vividly coloured plastic.

Bye for now,
Emily

Misei Ishikawa sensei with her Celebratory arrangement

Hello all,

Last weekend Lucy and I, together with another 6 Victorian members, flew to  Sydney to attend Textbook #5 training plus workshops run by Master Instructor Ishikawa Sensei . It was an intense couple of days with lectures, demonstrations by Sensei and workshops.

The NSW members worked tirelessly for months, resulting in the very smooth running of this event. We, visitors, were very well looked after. Containers, kenzans and materials were all provided, so we just had to pack our hasamis and go. Lunches were provided to all who had pre-ordered them and there was an unlimited supply of cakes and baked goods provided by the members. On the Saturday night we all went to dinner, where we relaxed and socialized.

We came away feeling inspired and much more confident about teaching the lessons in Book #5. We, also, enjoyed the social aspect of the event. Meeting up with old acquaintances and forming new ones was an added bonus. For me, it was a particular pleasure to see Ishikawa Sensei again. I first met her at Headquarters in 2016 where she worked in the classroom and, with her excellent English, was very helpful to me and the other students.

On the Saturday Sensei conducted lectures using a power point presentation and demonstrated 9 arrangements, an exhausting day's work! On Sunday, some more demonstrations and then it was our turn. In the morning the theme was 'Two approaches to branches' and, for this each participant was given a bunch of dry branches. Also Sensei requested that we all use some camellia branches in whichever quantity we wanted. Once we created a structure with the branches, Sensei critiqued it and then we selected containers, flowers and leaves provided by the committee to complete the arrangement. For photographs of Sensei's work, I recommend you go to www.sogetsu-ikebana.org.au because it was difficult for me to take good photographs in that environment.

My arrangement using hydrangeas, Asiatic
lilies and aspidistra leaves

Lucy's Arrangement using hydrangeas and strelitzia
leaves

For the Celebratory arrangements sensei wanted to know which event each one of us intended to celebrate with our arrangement. There were a surprising number of different and interesting ideas. Mine was going to be a simple Christmas arrangement for which I had bought an unusual white sheet of some synthetic material, which had glitter on one side. Unfortunately this doesn't show in the photograph, below. As the arrangement 'evolved' it took a shape of its own and I decided that it was a ' Christmas Celebration on a Sailing boat on Sydney Harbour'

Asiatic lilies, aspidistra, sprigs of camellia and mizuhiki, provided
by Ishikawa sensei

Lucy's arrangement, in her own words, was the celebration of a non-gay person of the success of the 'Yes' vote for marriage equality.

Camellia branches, hydrangeas and gold paper

Ishikawa sensei was also able to demonstrate Japanese iris thanks to Yoshiro Umemura, who provided the iris and leaves.

Ishikawa Sensei with assistant, Sandy Marker demonstrating
Japanese iris arrangement.

Finally, I would like to thank Margaret Hall, Sandy Marker and all the other Sydney members for hosting this event so successfully and for their warmth and generosity.

Bye for now,
Emily

Lucy with George, both dressed in the style 'Steam Punk'.
If, like me, you don't know what that is, I recommend
google

Hello all,

As this is an ikebana blog, I keep posts of personal events to a minimum. However, I would like to share with you some photos of a recent, somewhat significant event. Lucy, pictured above, is my sister and most senior student and has recently had a milestone birthday. And, as with the previous two milestone birthdays, she celebrated it with a fancy dress party.

A great deal of preparation was required by the whole family for the party that turned out to be a resounding success. The venue was large and well appointed so that we had ample room for dancing. We Greeks love to dance and we danced our shoes off that night. The caterers did a great job and the friends and family members, who provided cakes for the dessert part of the meal, outdid themselves. But it was the effort that everybody put into their costumes that created the most fun. Here are some photos.


 Lucy, mum as Judge Judy, me as Queen Nefertiti and Vicky as Maleficent.

Sam as King Henri VIII and I

My granddaughter Hermione

My grandson Xavier, as Michael Jackson in 'Thriller"

Xavier with his father, Warren the zombie 

Granddaughter, Aria as 'Pebbles'

My son, Dennis as 'The Green Lantern' with daughter, Hermione
and wife, Jeannine as Carrie Bradshaw from 'Sex and the City'

Peter as Sultan and Vicky

My daughter, Madeline as Uhura from 'Star Trek'

A great number of amazing costumes were worn on the night, which I can't include here but the photo, below, is of the five of us from my ikebana class that were in attendance.

Lucy, Bredenia, Vicky, Aurelia and I

Apart from making my costume, my daughter's and granddaughter's, I also made four table arrangements and the cake with Lucy's assistance.

This, too, is in the Steam Punk style. I apologize for the poor quality
of the photo. It didn't occur to any of us to photograph the cake. This is
an enlargement from a larger photograph which I cropped

Lucy, Vicky and I made four table arrangements each, all of them different. Unfortunately, I was the only one to photograph mine before placing on the tables. The variety of ikebana arrangements created interest, even among people who would not normally notice the flowers on the table. Below are just a couple.

Hippeastrum, Canna lily leaves and mizuhiki

Umbrella grass stems and strelitzias

I leave you now to rush to the airport. Lucy and I are flying to Sydney to attend workshops and a training session on Book 5 of our curriculum, run by Misei Ishikawa sensei from headquarters. More about this later.

Bye for now,
Emily

A spring arrangement to lift the spirits.
Using five materials - clematis, wisteria, viburnum
opulus, cottage gladioli and alstroemeria leaves

Hello all,

The ikebana highlight of the past fortnight has been the annual Sogetsu exhibition at the Malvern Arts Society, which is still on and will end on Tuesday.

For my exhibit, below, I used a large, doughnut-shaped metal piece, the front of which I painted in this greeny-yellow colour. The branch material is a weeping mulberry and it measures 1.7 metres in length. I used a vivid blue paint colour to contrast with the green. The strength and colour of the green goddess lilies finishes this large, wall arrangement.There will be photos of the whole exhibition in our Sogetsu website in due course.

With the off cuts from the mulberry, I put together this arrangement using a flower from a strelitzia plant that came from my dear aunt's garden. You will notice that the flower has grown with an unusual bend to it.

An example of two themes - 'Colour of the Container' and 'Shape
of the Container'

At the moment my garden so prolific in materials for ikebana that I don't have the time to arrange them all, nor the places to put them. Basically, I'm suffering the embarrassment of riches, a condition for which I expect no sympathy.

My flag irises have all bloomed at once. Here are a couple of the arrangements I made with them.

A pond arrangement in a container I made using
 crushed coloured glass, which, after 
firing, becomes a glaze.

A close up of the flower, whose colour is such a
deep purple that it is almost black

White flag iris with weeping willow and
Japanese maple

My spuria irises are also flowering now. These grow very tall and are a challenge to arrange, so I bent them to point downwards in this modern wall arrangement. I used stainless steel strips to create an interesting balance.

The flower stems in this next arrangement were almost two metres tall and belong to a plant I thought is curculigo. It was given to me by my generous coleague, Pat Hetrel, who is a very knowledgeable gardener. I wanted it for its leaves, which are pleated vertically. I did not expect flowers and was absolutely delighted when I saw the spikes coming through. I waited to see what they would look like when fully opened and then I cut and arranged them. I had to remove some of the length to make them fit under the staircase. The sad thing is that after two days the lovely yellow flowers turned brown and the tips of the spikes drooped. Clearly, not great as a cut flower.

Here is the plant growing in a corner of the garden
next to the rain water tank

I leave you with this little arrangement using what I believe are arisaema flowers. I consulted google to find the correct name for them but had no success. If any one knows it, I would be very grateful if you would email me.  I have them growing in deep shade in a pot. Their flower is very interesting with this long thin 'toungue' as are the leaves.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

The rhizome for the iris, above, was given to me by Lyn Thomas, a former student. When she offered it to me she referred to it as 'flesh coloured', to which Lucy and I screwed up our faces. When it flowered, however, we were delighted. Lyn doesn't know the name of the iris but I looked up my iris book and found one that looks very much like it called 'Smoke Rings'. I arranged it in the traditional ikebana style, finished off with Japanese maple.

It's been a particularly busy fortnight, ikebana-wise, with Ikebana Intenational meeting on the 10th, two days of workshops with Yoshiro Umemura last weekend, classes on Wednesday and now preparing for a Sogetsu Exhibition in early November. More about that later.

The theme for the Ikebana International meeting was Japanese Day, so we were asked to make arrangements with the theme 'Memories of Japan'. I used in my arrangement Viburnum Opulus while still green, as I had first used it that way in class at Headquarters in 2014. I loved the vivid green of the flowers. The instructor on the day told me that this material is part of the Hydrangea family and I should dip the stem in burnt alum to help it last longer. A number of our Japanese members demonstrated the use of mizuhiki for gift wrapping and, also made origami bags with a mizuhiki 'knot'inside for everyone. And the light lunch that was provided at the end was delicious. For all the photographs please go to melbourneikebana.blogspot.com.au

 

The themes for Yoshiro's workshops were all from Book 5. The first was Lesson 3 - Arrangements on the Table' Mine was for a coffee table, so the view from above was important.

Dietes leaves, strelitzias and alstroemeria leaves

The second workshop was Lesson 9 - 'Floor Position Arrangements'. Apart from the description in English in the book, Yoshiro explained that the arrangement was meant to appear to be rising out of the ground.

Green Goddess lilies and stem of palm leaf

The third workshop was Lesson 20 - 'Complementing an Art Work'. In this theme we were to incorporate the art work in our arrangement. I picked a print, which I treasure because it was given to me by my friend Akiko Takahira. I made my arrangement to continue 'the story'.

Close-up of the print

I

I used bamboo and lilac in ceramic container

And the final workshop was Lesson 24 -  'Using Various Locations'. I chose this storeroom door in a dull blue colour. Yoshiro explained that if we were to make an arrangement on a wall we needed to incorporate the space around it and not to just make a 'Wall Arrangement'. I tried to do this by using the door handle, on to which I attached some of the material, continuing the line towards the circle. The door frame acted as a frame for the arrangement.

I have to give credit to our members, as the work produced in all four of the workshops was quite impressive. Please go to our blog www.sogetsuikebanavic.weebly.com for Yoshiro's arangements as well as our members'.

For class last week, Vicky, after cutting back her agave, provided us with ample material for a workshop on this very strong but also versatile material. It is a favourite of mine and I have used it in so many different ways in the past, that coming up with something new was challenging.Below is my arrangement. After creating the structure and placing it with this heavy container, I looked around my garden for complementary material to use as a mass but nothing satisfied me. I used the calla lilies as the best of a bad lot. A few days later, my yellow mollis azalea flowered and I replaced the lilies with it. For the green mass at the back I used my trusty alstroemeria leaves.

Aurelia Dong

Nicole McDonald

Lucy Papas

Bredenia Raquel

Vicky Kalokathis

Today is a cold and wet Melbourne day but we recently had some very warm weather, which was appreciated by all, including some of the fauna inhabiting our garden. I almost stepped on this blue toungued lizard when I turned the corner to go to the back garden. It had a companion, that scurried away at my approach but this one seemed quite comfortable in my presence. Later that day, Sam saw a juvenile lizard walking across the path. We feel privileged to be living in an area where we can have wildlife such as these lizards, the occasional tawny frogmouth, a family of cookaburras, frogs and dozens and dozens of birds. There are, however, some drawbacks such as the possums that eat all our fruit and the one that has made our windowsill its home. It cuts branches from my conifer and carries them to the window sill, making its bed with them. when the branches dry, it drops them in to my garden and goes and cuts new ones. Every single day! Then there was the Crow with a megaphone that sat on the pittosporum  outside my window at some ungodly hour of the morning and who had a great deal to say. The expression 'Stone the Crows!' came vividly to mind.

Our Sogetsu group's annual exhibition will be held at the Malvern Artist's Society Gallery (1297-99 High St. Malvern) from Thursday 2nd November until Tuesday 7th, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. I will be on duty there on Tuesday afternoon.

Bye for now,
Emily