IKEBANA - A MOMENT IN TIME

Hello all,

Well, we made it! Our exhibition is on and, as immodest as this sounds, I'm proud of it. I can tick it off the bucket list. I have been wanting to hold an exhibition for my students for a very long time and had been held back by the inability to find a venue. Until now. I spoke to the curator of Artspace at Box Hill Town Hall, who was friendly and accommodating and offered me the All Nations Foyer for our exhibition. This was last year and a couple of postponements later, here we are. Everyone who took part has done so with enthusiasm and cooperation, making my job that much easier.

Above is a photograph of my wall piece. The doughnut shaped metal piece is approximately 80 cm in diameter and quite heavy. I decided to make the bamboo structure to go over it because I wanted to reuse the lovely green bamboo, which I, originally, used in my exhibit at MIFGS last month.

I invited advanced ikebanists, who have attended my Masterclasses to also take part in this exhibition and, happily, they did. Below is Christopher's arrangement in a magnificent, large, Shigaraki container. It sits in front of a mirrored pillar, which reflects two, white phalaenopsis orchids placed at the back of the arrangement. It is best viewed standing right in front of it.The heavy driftwood has a wide sweep forward, which is lost in this image. Lets face it, the photographs do not do it justice, you'll just have to come and see it.

Below is a photograph without the pillar and you have to imagine the phalaenopsis orchids at the back.

I  made my second arrangement using a technique I developed, decades ago, of joining the stems of umbrella grass to create surfaces. I used two ceramic containers in a muted colour and two crucifix orchids.

Those of you who have been following my blog since its inception in 2014, may remember that I used the same technique for my exhibit at the Sogetsu exhibition at the Shinjuku Takashimaya Department Store. The theme we were given was 'Green' and 'Line'. I thought I'd nailed it.

The making of that arrangement is quite an interesting story and, if you can be bothered going back to my post dated 11th June, 2014, you can read all about it. It's an exhibition and an experience I will, certainly, never forget.

Vicky's arrangement is made up of these strange looking seed pods of a creeper, the name of which we've not been able to find. She also used nandina domestica nana in two matching metal containers.

Mary Sutherland, who is still on the curriculum made an arrangement with the theme ' Paying Attention to the Shape of the Container'. However, it can also fit the theme 'Repeating Similar Shapes and Forms'. Mary used umbrella grass stems for the shapes and lisianthus in a ceramic container.

These are all the photos I have so far but, I promise, I'll share more with you in the coming weeks. Now I'm going to go out and try to plant some of my spring flowering bulbs, which are already growing shoots in the storeroom. Poor, neglected things!

Bye for now,

Emily

18th April, 2022

Hello all,

Preparations for our exhibition are in full swing and are occupying most of my time. So, I'm afraid I'm a little short on content for this week's post. I hope to make up for it in the next couple of weeks.

I was removing some dead leaves from my strelitzia reginae and couldn't resist these two, partially dried leaves. And, as Lucy and I were looking through the garden for materials, she noticed a single, yellow kniphofia. Thus, my arrangement came together. I wanted to emphasise the clean lines of the stems, especially at the base of this simple arrangement.

A few days later, when the kniphofia died, I replaced it with a strelitzia reginae, which flowered out of season.

In my arrangement, below, I used the leaves from Iris Japonica and the berries of the stinking iris, Iris Foetidissima. The flowers of this iris are small and rather insignificant. I rarely use them in ikebana. I grow them for the berries which burst out of their seed heads in a bright orangey red colour. I have to be quick to cut them when they do before the birds get to them. They are highly poisonous to humans but not to birds.

The fern in this next arrangement had self seeded next to the water tank and I have to keep cutting it back because it will take over the whole area if left unchecked. I keep looking for different ways to use it. The fronds are quite large, so by stripping most of the leaves, I created a longer stem and an interesting, diamond shape at the tip of the fronds. The crucifix orchids complemented the lightness of the ferns.

I mentioned on a previous post that the generous people at the store called Tombo had let me borrow an antique, Japanese table and large ceramic urn for my exhibit at MIFGS. As a thank you, I offered to make an ikebana  arrangement, using one of the containers they have for sale. That's the arrangement, below.

The possums have been particularly troublesome this year. Not only do they eat any fruit that is not protected but they've also been denuding a number of our trees by eating the leaves. It's incredibly frustrating especially since there is nothing we can do about it. I managed to save one tomarillo from our little tree to use in this wall arrangement.

I'm including the flyer for our exhibition again, just in case some of you have missed it.

Bye for now,

Emily

11th April, 2022

 

Hello all,

At the International Flower and Garden Show last week, one of the exhibitors was the Gloriosa Nursery, from whom I had bought my original tubers many years ago. They have a wonderful habit of multiplying and, over the years, I have shared them with students, friends and neighbours. 

At bump out time, a kind gentleman at the gloriosa display gave me a bunch of the flowers, which would otherwise have been dumped. I looked for material to use with them and the vibrant colour of the golden elm struck me as a perfect contrast to the vibrant pink of the flowers. Hence, the arrangement, above.

And below is the same arrangement on a plinth under the stairs.

It was Lucy's turn to pick the theme for the advanced students at last week's class. She gave us one word 'Cascading' and instructed us to interpret it any way we chose.

Below is Lucy's arrangement. She used two bamboo, nagaire containers, once owned by Norman Sparnon and cascading golden ash. For colour contrast and floral accent, she used cosmos.

Vicky used a vine draping down from her ceramic, nageire container and bougainvilleas. We had a discussion as to whether it was, strictly speaking, cascading. However, Lucy did say we were to interpret the theme as we saw it, so, Vicky's lovely arrangement stands.

Nicole used a rather large branch of silver birch, which cascaded beyond the table top. With it she used a bluey-mauve hydrangea and nandina domestica nana in autumnal colours.

For my cascading arrangement I used the willow that was in my MIFGS display. I had to shorten it but, otherwise, it was ideal for the wall arrangement, as it allowed the space necessary for such a large stem. I also used disbud chrysanthemums, hydrangeas and amaranthus.

Lei's curriculum theme was 'Only one kind of material'. She used umbrella grass in a vase she bought from an op-shop on her way to class. 

Wendy's curriculum theme was 'Mass and Line'. She used tulips and agapanthus in a ceramic suiban.

Shaneen's theme was 'To be Viewed from Above'. She used pittosporum with some sort of mutation, rendering the leaves white, sedum, society garlic and some small,white flowering material.

I leave you with an award winning Easter bonnet, gracing the head of my youngest granddaughter. Aria. It is her own creation with only a little help from mum.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

Bye for now,

Emily

Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show

Hello all,

The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show has been and gone.We dismantled everything last night. As I have done since 2007, I took part in the Shop Window Competition. This is an area of 2.5 metres wide by 2.00 metres deep by 2.4 metres high. 

The theme this year was 'A Celebration'. After considering all types of celebrations, such as birthdays, New Years Eve, etc, I settled  on a Japanese wedding celebration. I felt this would suit my aesthetic very well. I did some research on line and spoke to my friend Emiko Chishima in Tokyo to find out what the customs of a traditional Japanese wedding are. I then proceeded to create a scene as per the photograph, below.

I'm aware that I sound like a broken record when I complain about the difficulty of a two dimensional medium capturing a three dimensional scene but, damn it, it continues to frustrate me. I did take a short video but I don't know how to upload it to this blog.

The arrangement, above was one that sat on the table in my exhibit. You have to look closely to see it against the busy background of the kimono.

The three special little cups are called sakazuki and are used in the wedding ceremony by the bride and groom who sip sake from them. The bride usually writes a letter of thanks to her mother, which is meant to be quite emotional and tugs at the heart strings. Emiko, very kindly, wrote such a letter and emailed it to me. I was able to print it on a pretty parchment paper. Of course, being in Kanji, very few visitors could read it but those few that did were impressed.

The wedding kimono in the background was given to me by my friends Gary and Margaret Eidem some years ago. They were scaling down and needed to reduce their possessions, so they gave the kimono to me, knowing just how much I would treasure it.

The Japanese, antique table and large, ceramic urn were lent to me by the generous people of 'Tombo - Japan - China' . I found way too many things in their shop that I wanted to buy but I managed to restrict myself to one (for now).

The wall of bamboo required a large number of fresh, green bamboo. Enter Diane and Alf Ottrey. Two very generous people, who, not only gave us as much bamboo as we wanted but helped cut it and load it into the car.

And the lovely scroll in the tokonoma was lent to me by my student, Shaneen Garbutt. So, my display was made possible with the help of a number of kind and generous people.

And speaking of kind and generous people, my family are right up there. My sisters, Lucy and Vicky, my brothers in law Peter and George, my son, Dennis, and son-in-law Warren. But first and foremost and always my rock is Sam. In just about everything I do, I rely on my family and they have never failed me.

Ikebana was very well represented at the show this year. There were three other Sogetsu ikebanists participating in the Shop Window Competition, The Ikenobo group had a stand on their own and Ikebana International took part in the Visual Display competition, and.... wait for it... they were awarded a very well deserved, silver medal! Congratulations to all the participants and organisers. The common thread between the arrangements was a reference to a Haiku poem by Matsuo Basho - Bright Red, The pitiless sun, Autumn winds.

Below is Lucy' contribution to the display. It was placed on a high pedestal as it was at the back of the display area.

So, no sooner have I finished with one exhibition than I'm working on another. It has been in my bucket list for some years to have a solo exhibition. When I say solo, I mean my own work and that of my students. My only stumbling block has been finding an exhibition space and finally, last year, I did. Like so many things, this was supposed to have taken place late last year but the delay is probably to our advantage, as it has afforded us more time to prepare. The details are in the flyer, below. Feel free to share it with your friends.

Just one thing - if you wish to attend one of the demonstrations, you will need to book.

I leave you now, as I'm utterly exhausted,

Emily

 

27th March, 2022

 

Hello all

Last Monday the Sogetsu group had its AGM followed by a workshop run by Lara Telford. Lara chose the theme 'Creating Space in Ikebana'. Lara's presentation was quite informative and I recommend you visit our blog Sogetsu Victoria and click on Recent Workshops, to see Lara's demonstration photographs and read her explanation of the theme.

Below is my arrangement. I used a structure which I constructed from the dried stems of New Zealand flax flowers, creating a number of spaces, both closed and open. I placed a mass of hydrangeas low in the stainless steel, trough container and two crucifix orchids coming forward from the back into the space created. I chose these flowers for their fine stems and relatively small flower heads so that they did not take away from the spaces created. Because it's not possible to capture depth in the photograph, I included a side view below it.

Lucy was keen to use her new container, and who could blame her. She kept her arrangement uncluttered and her space clearly defined by using just two umbrella grass stems and one crucifix orchid.

Nicole used a branch sweeping forward creating a wide, open space in a ceramic container, the shape of which has its own space. Her flowers were wild sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani sunflower).

In our regular class Shaneen's curriculum lesson was 'An arrangement to be viewed from below'. She used three small, white vases and a number of colourful materials. They were placed on a high window sill for viewing from below before moving them to a more appropriate place for photography.

Wendy' lesson was 'A mass arrangement'. She created a mass with crepe myrtle flowers and another, smaller mass with the leaves of the crepe myrtle. The colour of the ceramic vase toned in very nicely.

Mary's lesson was 'Mass and Line'. She massed together Murraya Paniculata in bud and some roses in a black tsubo vase. Her line was made using two curved agapanthus stems.

Dianne was doing Variation No. 8. In this case two nageire arrangements placed together to create one. She chose Variation No 4 slanting stile and Variation No. 4 horizontal.

You may have noticed that I'm publishing this post a day early. That's because I'll be extremely busy the next couple of days preparing my exhibit at The Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (MIFGS). For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it is the largest such show in the southern hemisphere, very similar to the famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

We had two years without the show, so, those of us who are regular participants, are quite excited to be back at the Royal Exhibition Buildings (REB). I recently found that the REB is the first building in Australia to be awarded World Heritage status.

Anyway, the show will open on Wednesday 30th March and will run until Sunday 3rd April. I'm taking part in the Shop Window competition, as I have done many, many times before. I. also, have two large sculptures in the Victorian Sculptors Association exhibition, which is in the middle of the gardens. I will be on duty at the Sculpture Walk on Wednesday afternoon. If any of you are coming to the show, I hope you'll stop by and say hello.

Bye for now,

Emily

21st March, 2022

Hello all,

My haemanthus lily produced 2 flowers that had to be cut and used. Their short stems are somewhat limiting, so I chose this self-made container in which to display them. Because I don't use this container very often, I had forgotten about it but re-discovered it during some tidying up of the store room. I, also, used dietes leaves and Murraya Paniculata in bud.

It was Vicky's turn to choose a theme for the advanced students and she chose from Book 5, Lesson 14 - 'Composing with Branches - A Two Step Approach'. In this exercise a free standing structure is to be created using cut branches that are joined together. This structure should be interesting enough to stand alone. Then we introduce a container and fresh materials. The branch structure can be used either in its original standing position, or turned in any direction that best fits the container and fresh materials.

Below is my branch structure. I used dried pine branches that were attached to the lower part of the trunk of the tree. I used screws to join the pieces together, then glued some bark over the screw heads to conceal them.

And here it is with a ceramic container, hydrangeas and nerines.

Jenny's dried branches were rhododendron. She wirred her pieces together.

And here is the final arrangement in a ceramic vase with hydrangeas.

Nicole used fine Manchurian pear and apple branches.

She, also, used hydrangeas in a ceramic container to complete her arrangement.

Vicky likes tall arrangements and this was no exception. She used long,silver birch branches, creating contrast between the strong, white stems and the finer, darker ones.

She used a tall, ceramic vase and oriental lilies to complete the piece.

Lucy's material was tall but quite fine. She found it in my store room but I don't remember from which tree it came. She created a delicate balance.

She retained the delicate feeling by using a horizontal elm branch and one crucifix orchid.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTERCLASS No. 9

Hello all,

As there were only four attendees to last Saturday's Masterclass, I did not dedicate a blog post to it. Instead, I have incorporated it into my regular, weekly post.

I've been intending to workshop hawthorn branches and was waiting for the berries to be at their best. Unfortunately, between last month's class and now, the birds discovered the berries were ripe and stripped most trees of them. The few that still had berries were not easily accessible but I managed to cut enough branches with the help of my trusty, extendable cutter.

I provided the students with hawthorn branches and accompanying materials but I allowed them, after studying their material carefully, to choose their own container. Once the container was chosen, they were not allowed to change it.

In my arrangement, above, I used red hawthorn berries and black, Portugal laurel berries. I removed the berries from their branches by cutting them with scissors and not pulling them out. This, together with a teaspoon of bleach, keeps them going for a few days. I used a single anthurium and squiggly grass to complete the piece.

Jenny made a large, naturalistic arrangement in one of my self made containers that she has been wanting to use for some time. Since she was given a choice, she was not going to miss out on the opportunity. She used hydrangea leaves and flowers to complete her arrangement.

Christine stripped the leaves from the hawthorn branches, leaving only the berries. She also used amaranthus and cosmos flowers and one calla lily leaf for depth at the back. She emphasised the split in this strong container by leaving it free of materials.

Vicky made a very tall, vertical arrangement using two triangular containers. She created a mass by cutting sprigs of the berries and putting them together. She also massed the sedum flowers tightly, creating a very dramatic effect.

Cym wanted to float the berries in a glass container. She used two rectangular, glass vases. Into one, she put water half way up the vase and floated the berries. She, also, scrunched a newly unfurled, monstera leaf into an informal mass at the top. In the second, smaller vase, she used pieces of the stem of the monstera leaf to create lines at the top and finished it with a belladonna lily, which she reduced in size.

I, also, wanted to use the hawthorn berries in a naturalistic arrangement. I, painstakingly, removed all the leaves from the branches and chose a strong container with two openings. In one I placed the branches and in the other, some Japanese anemones. The end result is a simple arrangement, however, the mechanics required to stop the heavy branches from falling forward, were not. The openings of the container only allow for a narrow kenzan, which is not heavy enough to hold the branches. So, I wedged a stick between the kenzan and the 'roof' of the container, stopping the kenzan from tipping forward with the weight of the branches.

At last week's Ikebana International meeting, our workshop theme was 'Late Summer grasses'. Our demonstrator was Angeline Lo. Please click II Melbourne to see Angeline's demonstration piece as well as the work by the attending members. 

As for me, I took the exercise quite literally and used only grasses whereas other members used other materials as well. Apart from the miscanthus, which I grow, the rest are wild grasses, the names of which I do not know.

When I was searching for interesting grasses, I came across some really big bull rushes, which, of course, I cut and brought home. It took me a couple of days of looking at them in the bucket before deciding how to use them. They were more than 1.5 metres tall, so the first thing I did was to cut them shorter. I like the look of them in this container with many holes. However, because it can only hold water up to the first hole, there was the danger of the container tipping over. I kept shortening the bull rushes until an equilibrium was reached. The wooden structure is one I've used before.

And now for an announcement. Please see the flyer, below. I was asked to take part in this exhibition and I sent my photograph.

The instructions were to make a colourful arrangement. Here is my contribution. I used Cornus Siberica alba branch, bromeliad (Neoregelia carolinae), and Portugal laurel berries. Ceramic container.

Bye for now,

Emily