Hello all,

In my last post I included the photograph below and mentioned the difficulty with the mechanics. I've had a couple of inquiries about how I managed to balance the stems through that small opening without resting them on the sides.


As I was dismantling my arrangement, I took a photo which I've included here to show the mechanics. I wired the two agapanthus stems together at the bottom, then I wired a stick to the stems, at right angles, going towards the back of the container. The length of the stick is critical and I cut it longer than I needed initially and kept cutting until it was just the right length so that the stems stood upright. The stick pushing on to the back of the container counterbalanced the weight of the heavy flowers coming forward. I hope my explanation makes sense.

And so, on to some new work. For our first class for the year, the brief for the senior students was to work in pairs. Each person in the pair was to make an arrangement that related in some way to the other. One arrangement was to be on the wall or hanging from the ceiling with the corresponding one to be on the floor or table.

 Helen Novic did the table arrangement and Janette Fonda the one on the wall. They both used a lightweight metal that's pleated and they used with it setaria palmifolia, which is a grass with leaves that are pleated.

Margaret Wilson did an arrangement hanging from the ceiling to complement Robyn Unglik's free standing one. Because it was suspended by only one fishing line, it moved freely creating added interest. They both used weeping mulberry branches but Margaret used agapanthus seed pods whilst Robyn used a number of hydrangeas and some Dietes leaves in a container made by her clever husband.

I made this large wall arrangement using a ceramic container and a dried branch which was rescued from my neighbour's rubbish pile, so I don't know what plant it is. I also used large, white and blue agapanthus flowers, green crab apples and flax leaves that I curled.

Lucy Papas' arrangement was placed under the staircase opposite mine so they cannot be photographed together. She used a wild apple branch heavily laden with lichen and small apples, placed in a sweeping line to follow the curve of the staircase. She also used watsonias and blue and white agapanthus.

Some of the other arrangements around the house:

These apple and hawthorn branches were cut from trees growing wild along the side of the road on our way to Trentham The container is one I made many years ago.

Young gyamea leaves, Altisimo rose and metal strips

Agave and clivia

Some broken branches from my persimon tree

Wisteria, green persimons and hydrangeas

The seed pods in this simple little arrangement are from the gloriosa lilies. I think they're fascinating. I also used clivia flower and its seed pods

This was my piece for my class with my teacher, Elizabeth. The brief was to use materials that we 'found'.
The apple branch and bull rushes were found growing by the side of the road and the wire was a coil that was partially rusted and was lying on the footpath

Until next time
Emily

Hello all,

I'm happy to report that things are slowly getting back to normal. My surgeon is very happy with my progress and I have now discarded my clunky footwear, which was reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster. I am now wearing my husbands's oversized thongs (flip flops for my American readers). It will be some time before I will be able to wear the pretty shoes that I have been imagining at the end of this ordeal but, now that I am mobile, I don't mind the wait.

I will be starting classes next week, which means my work will be mainly restricted to the class themes, so I'm making the most of this time of playing with freestyles using whatever I can find around me.

There is a carob tree in my sister's street that I've been admiring for some time. I love the way the long, bean-like pods hang below the branches which grow almost horizontally. Driving past recently, I noticed a large branch had broken and was hanging by a little bit of bark. It had to be rescued and, with the help of the trusty saw in my car boot, I did just that.

Below are the two arrangements that were created, using the carob branches for the first and just the pods for the second.

And speaking of finding, I came across fennel growing wild and Osage oranges near by. I thought I'd use them together as shown below.

Inside and out this glass container

One Osage orange and one agapnthus

Two days later, the fennel had died, since it was not in water, so I removed it and replaced it with other material.

 

Now with agave

I went into the garden at night to cut the agave and I found this
dear little frog that measures only 3 cm in length.

Now with clivias

This time of year the agapanthus in my garden are flowering profusely and I love to use them. I'm including a photo of the garden bed  in which they grow. I had tried growing all sorts of annuals in this spot before the agapanthus but nothing survived because there were two mature pine trees growing there. My sister in law, Toula had initially given me a number of agapanthus plants and later I added to them, thus filling the whole bed.

Fresh and dry agapanthus

The difficulty in this simple arrangement was working out the mechanics that
would allow the stems with the heavy flowers to come out of the small
 opening without resting on the sides.

There is a small casuarina tree near my house that produces interesting hanging stems that lend themselves well to ikebana.

In this wall arrangement I used sunflowers, crab apples
and the casuarina that comes forward as well as
cascading down

Here I used two cascading materials - the casuarina and the amaranthus,
which I grow in my garden

Until next time,
Emily

Hello all and a very happy new year to each and every one of you!

As I mentioned in my last post, not much ikebana was done during my recuperation period. This was due to my limited mobility and the restrictions imposed on me by my loving but somewhat overzealous carers, namely my husband, Sam and my sister, Lucy, both of whom hovered over me like a couple of mother hens. All kidding aside, I am very grateful to them as well as the rest of the family for taking such excellent care of me.

My garden, oblivious to my plight, continued to produce beautiful, seasonal material that was crying out to me to cut it and arrange it. It took a great deal of self control to resist the temptation.

Anyway, I'm a little more mobile now, although I have to allow for frequent rest periods, as my feet are still swollen and will be for another two months. So, I've been able to make some arrangements to satisfy my cravings and to share with you.

These dancing ladies orchids were given to me by my friend Olga, the asiatics by my sister in law, Toula and the weeping mulberry branches were in my ikebana room, so the whole thing came together without too much exertion.

The next two arrangements are in my newly acquired containers that just had to be used immediately. At the time I could only manage these simple arrangements but with a Christmas feel.

  

Here I used red hot pokers and alstroemarias with gold and silver mizuhiki.

I bent these agapanthus stems by pushing them down whilst still buds and they developed this shape. I used with them some pine and pine cones, which I sprayed gold plus some red and silver beads.

My gloriosa lilies are quite prolific at the moment and I'm able to keep this arrangement going by replacing each flower as it dies.

Hydrangea and dried date palm piece

The sunflowers in this arrangement were planted by my two grandchildren (with assistance) and were watered by them at each visit. I didn't have the heart to cut them when in full flower but the kids have since lost interest so I can use them with a clear conscience. I also used a gyamea leaf, red hot pokers and watsonias.

I hope you'll forgive the doting grandmother for including this photograph of Xavier and Hermione in the garden with the sunflowers in the background.

A close up of the unfurling leaf and flowers

This arrangement is 2.5m tall and, thus, a little difficult to photograph. I used a strelitzia nicolai leaf that is just unfurling and some flowers from my neighbour's creeper, with his permission, of course. Neither he nor I know the name of the creeper.

From my balcony I could see a tantalizing vivid pink colour at the bottom of my garden. When I finally made it down there to investigate, I remembered the bromeliads I had planted there. I had fun using the leaves and with them I used calla lily seed heads.

Yellow calla lilies with a spent strelitzia flower

In the two arrangements below I used the dead flowers from strelitzia nicolai that were to be thrown out after having been used previously but they have such a sculptural look that I enjoyed playing with them.

 

I'm a long way from getting back to normal activity but it's a great feeling to be doing even the few things that I can.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

Today I'm writing from my sick bed, or rather, 'sick couch' where I'm reclining, with feet elevated, whilst recuperating from surgery to my feet. This will be the status quo for several weeks, which means I will be very limited in what I can do, including ikebana. However, I have photos of some work I did in the past two weeks that I can share with you.

Below are two views of a Christmas table arrangement using gold wire, mahonia leaves, a rose and two dogwood flowers.

My stelitzias are in full bloom and had to be used. This is a case of 'The embarrassment of riches'.

Wall arrangement using strelitzias, young gyamea lily leaves and the mitsumata I used in Japan and then sent to my self by mail.

This arrangement using strelitzias and New Zealand flax is 1.5metres in height. However, the flowers were much taller and had to be cut down for the proportions with the container.

In this Christmas arrangement, I also used strelitzias with pine, gold wire and baubles.

Here I used the superfluous pine needles that I removed from the pine branch in the previous arrangement with two agapanthus buds that I 'encouraged' to bend.

Because I hate throwing away anything potentially useful, I had to find a new way to use the rest of pine needles from the previous arrangement and I came up with this weird 'UFO' creation.

And speaking of 'the embarrassment of riches', my agapanthus, of which I have many, are bursting into flower. I've been out in the garden tying down many of the buds whilst they are soft and pliable, which then grow with curved and twisted stems. I used 3 twisted buds together with 2 fully open flowers and a piece of weeping mulberry for the above arrangement.

Bye for now,
Emily

Hello all,

I can't believe that two weeks have passed already since my last posting. It seems time is accelerating at such a pace that I can hardly keep up, especially heading towards Christmas.

We recently had an interesting theme for class. My student Aurelia Dong brought in four paintings made by her mother, Shijing Zhao, an accomplished artist, who worked with calligraphy brushes.  Some of my senior students and I made an arrangement each referencing one of the paintings. Unfortunately, because of the glass on the frames, the photographs do not show the true beauty of the work. 

Working with such beautiful works of art was an enjoyable and inspirational experience and we are all grateful to Aurelia for making her treasures available to us.

                   Vicky Kalokathis

                                                                                         Lucy Papas

 

Bredenia Raquel

Margaret Wilson

                                                                                                                                                   Emily Karanikolopoulos                       

Lucy Papas













                                                                                                                                                                                   Emily Karanikolopoulos                                                                                                                  

For my lesson with Elizabeth last week, our theme was 'Roses'. I made this arrangement using two glass containers. In the lower bowl I placed red roses in a circle and in the upper decanter I placed stems with leaves up-side-down. I call it the 'Morticia' arrangement.

Last Monday I ran a workshop for our sogetsu group with the theme 'Ikebana for gift giving'. I made six different arrangements, as examples, using a variety of different containers. For the workshop we all used Oasis (florists' foam) in small, ceramic bowls. We tried to create works that would travel well with materials that would last. Below are my six pieces, which passed the 'portability' test because they traveled safely to the workshop and then back home again. 

You can see more photos from the workshop in a slide-show if you click on our Sogetsu link.

I leave you with a couple of miniature arrangements that I enjoyed playing with.

Bye for now,

Emily