MAZE-ZASHI (A variety of materials)

 

 Hello all,

The theme for the advanced students at our last class was Maze-Zashi, A variety of Materials. In my example, above, I used two pieces of wisteria vine, which were cutoffs from my large exhibit at our recent exhibition. I had cut them on 20th September when the whole vine was completely bare of leaves. I put some stems in a bucket of water and watched as, with time, they produced leaves and I was able to use them here. I used, also, strelitzia reginae, spuria iris, Easter daisies and Nigella (Love in the Mist).

Bredenia impressed us with her yellow strelitzias (Mandela's Gold). They added height and strength to her arrangement, whilst the subordinate materials were much softer and smaller. They were nandina domestica, alstroemeria, Easter daisies, spent cottage gladioli and Phlomis fruticosa (Jerusalem sage).

Vicky used a large, round, ceramic container, into which she placed Cotinus grace (smoke bush), bougainvillea, Imperial geranium- Regal Elegance and one, double strelitzia reginae.

Jenny used Louisiana iris, parsley flowers, sweet williams, Marguerite daisy, Veronica and verbena vervain. Despite the large number of materials, she was able to create space both at the opening of the container and between the materials themselves, giving the arrangement an uncluttered look.

Shaneen's class theme was 'Complimenting an Art Piece'. Her art piece was an antique, Chinese, wooden box and for a container she used a ceramic trough, similar in shape and size to the box. Her materials were bamboo, nandina domestica nana and day lilies in a colour that perfectly matched the box.

Lei's class theme was 'Tsubo Vases'. She used prunus branches which she secured by the method of 'crossing and nailing'. The pale apricot roses toned in beautifully with her ceramic vase.

Dianne's class theme was 'Composition of Surfaces Made by the Massing of Lines'. She used umbrella grass stems for the 'surfaces' and Dutch iris for colour accent in a ceramic suiban.

Mary was quite prolific at last class, making two freestyle arrangements. In the one below she used some squiggly material, simulating a bird's nest and completed the look with the addition of one, double strelitzia flower.

In her second arrangement Mary used a large, bent flax leaf and one stem of Canterbury bells.

I leave you with this next arrangement using my one and only cymbidium orchid in my self made container. I added the palm inflorescence and some alstroemeria psittacina leaves.

Bye for now,

Emily

GOODBYE NORTHCOTE

 

This is not the way it looked when mum and dad lived there

Hello all,

My parents bought the family home in Northcote over 50 years ago. I, being the eldest, only lived there for a short time until I married and left home. My sisters, however, did most of their growing up in that home until, they too, married and left. 

It is an unremarkable, semi-detached home, built for returned servicemen but which was full of warmth and boundless love. Mum used to prepare dinners for all of us once a week and my children often spent holidays and weekends there. We never referred to it as mum and dad's home but, rather, 'Northcote'.

Mum kept an immaculate home. To her it was not a case of 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' but 'Cleanliness IS Godliness'. Her garden was a profusion of colour and vibrancy. She had no qualms about spending copious amounts of water on her garden. So much so, that we had to buy her a large rain water tank to stop her from overusing mains water. There was no particular design to her garden except to make sure that every square inch of ground was planted with brightly coloured flowers. All her plants were so healthy, they looked like they were on steroids. In the shady spot in the patio she had hydrangeas as big as soccer balls.

We lost dad in 2000 and mum was on her own until 2007, when she had a major stroke and could, no longer, live alone. She moved in with us and the house was rented. 

We recently had to make the very difficult decision of having mum go into care. This necessitated the selling of her home.16 years of neglect by tenants left the house and garden in an appalling state. We went there all together on Saturday to clear up what was left of the tenant's mess before settlement. Having done that we sat in the back yard, under the peppercorn tree, on some makeshift benches and enjoyed a little picnic of tea and coffee and our favourite, freshly baked muffins. It was a lovely, sunny day and, despite the fact that we had not been there as a family for 16 years, we felt very comfortable. We reminisced, we joked and enjoyed being there one last time. And yes, there was the odd tear as well. A fitting farewell to our beloved family home.

Now on to ikebana,

The flag iris are the fist irises to flower in my garden and their arrival is a true herald of spring. I love arranging them in the traditional way. Below is an arrangement using the blue and the white iris in a large, rectangular suiban. I used two long kenzans, arranged lengthwise, on which I placed the weeping willow at the back cascading over the irises plus their leaves and two, small sprigs of Japanese maple.

Below is a vertical arrangement made with flowering, crabapple branches. They were so full of flowers that I had to remove some of them to reveal the stems and create space.

You may remember the arrangement, below, which I made on 18th September with hydrangea stems that were just bringing out leaves. I had chosen them for their interesting curves and the colour of the stems. Seven weeks later, still in the same container, they produced flowers.

The wall arrangement, below, is made with fresh, spring materials - roses, smoke bush (kotinus) and Portugal laurel flowers.

The lower part of a large, palm leaf was left over from an exhibition piece and was too interesting to throw away. I used it in a large, glass vase and added a crucifix orchid, sweeping forward. 

And speaking of leftovers, the green bamboo, below, were remnants from a different exhibit. I had treated them by placing them in boiling, salted water for about 10 minutes and then into the arrangement. This preserved the leaves for more that a week. The flower is curculigo capitulata.

Mary's class theme was 'The Fifty Principles of Sogetsu' from which she chose number 45 - 'If the flowers are the main feature, the container should be subordinate to the flowers. Likewise, if the container is the main focus, then the flowers should be secondary to it'. Mary chose the latter.

Bye for now,

Emily

30th October, 2023

 

Hello all,

Earlier this month our Sogetsu group had a guest presenter at our workshop. Sandy Marker from Sydney had set two themes for an all day workshop. The first was a double theme - 'Using two or more Containers' and 'A Massed Arrangement'.

Above is the front and back view of my arrangement. I used viburnum opulus flowers and callistemon firebrand in two stainless steel containers.

The second theme that Sandy set was 'An Arrangement Expressing a Feeling/Emotion'.

I chose to express Anger/Rage. I used bamboo sprayed black, acacia aphylla, with its spiky look and altissimo roses in a laquered, asymmetrical suiban, red on the inside and black on the outside.

The first of my hippeastrum to flower had a rather longer stem than most and I wanted to take advantage of its full length. Because the stem is so soft and hollow it would not hold its weight when placed on a kenzan. So, I used a straight stick the length of the stem and pushed it firmly into the kenzan, then fed the flower stem over the top of it. The hippeastrum is such a large, strong flower that, I felt, the accompanying material had to be equally strong. However, the arrangement had to be kept simple.

I'm particularly fond of the flowers from the Portugal laurel, especially before they are fully open and the buds look like little beads on the end of the flower stem. They, also, have an intoxicating fragrance, which I wish I could share with you. In the arrangement, below, I teamed them with a pale blue, flag iris, which had grown in a slanting position.

The palm inflorescence, below, took some effort on the part of my cousin, Nick to cut it from his palm tree. Then, it took some serious effort on my part to split it. The split stem became weak and would not attach to the kenzan successfully. I had to hammer two, stout sticks into the kenzan and then wire the two inflorescences onto the stick. The single strelitzia was all that was needed to complete the arrangement.

Ornithogalum  arabicum is another plant I like to play with. I bend the young flower stems and secure them by tieing with their leaves and, as they continue to grow, they create interesting, fun shapes. Below are a couple of photographs of arrangements that I made using these plants. They are quite self explanatory.

In the next arrangement, I had reused a stem of pink dogwood (Cornus Florida rubra). In its original incarnation it had flowers but when they died the leaves on the branch were still very green and fresh. So, I just added the arum lily for a very simple arrangement.

Mary's curriculum theme was 'Complementing an Art Piece'. She chose a small calligraphy on a board as her art piece. In a ceramic container she placed 2 arum lilies, 2 stripped aspidistra leaves and wisteria vine.

Bye for now,

Emily

MASTERCLASS # 19

 

Hello all,

At Saturday's masterclass I provided each participant with a large glass container (70 cm high) in the shape of a martini glass. I had bought 25 of these vases 13 years ago to use as centrepieces for my son's wedding. With the help of my sisters and sisters-in-law, we created arrangements using a monstera deliciosa leaf with a long stem placed inside the vase, so that the veins of the leaf were visible to the guests and the long stem rose upwards. We filled the cavity that was created by the leaf with masses of white alstroemeria. The effect was of giant martinis.

Unfortunately, the only photo taken by the photographer is the one below. I apologise for the quality but it is a photo of a photo.

I also provided each participant with two different materials and asked them to make a table centrepiece arrangement for a function.

This exercise comprised three themes - 'To be viewed from below', 'Glass Containers' and 'To be Viewed all Round'. It occured to me, albeit too late, that I should have photographed the arrangements from below, from which we could see better inside the glass container.

I make a point of making an arrangement of whichever theme I set my senior students. I feel it's important to challenge myself as well as the students.

I made the arrangement above using umbrella grass and aloe flowers that I found growing by the roadside. At first glance one might think that I bent the umbrella grass but I didn't. I cut them and wired each group, diagonally creating interesting lines at eye level of the guests. Also, if I had just bent them, the stems would have been out of water.

Christine used Kashmir Cypress (Cupressus cashmeriana) along the rim of the container like a lacy curtain and massed the aloe flowers just above.

Cym, also, used Kashmir cypress around the rim of the container but created some height  with a couple of the stems. Her flowers were bottle brush (Callistemon citrinus), which she massed to one side and, because it was to be viewed all round, she placed a small number on the opposite side.

Lei opted for a more minimalist look, using only the aloe flowers, whose stems created interesting angles inside the container. She added accent with one umbrella grass which she trimmed into the shape of a pin wheel.

Lucy, as is often the case, decided to go high but she paid particular attention to the placement of the roses inside the container to make sure they were not 'squashed' together and that the stems and leaves were pleasantly arranged.

This was not an easy exercise, one of the difficulties being the dropping of bits of materials at the bottom of the conical vase. As this would have been at the guests' eye level it was important to keep it pristine. We employed a number of tools to retrieve them. I produced tongs, Lucy suggested piercing with wire and Cym produced a mini vacuum cleaner with a thin nozzle, photo, below.

At Wednesday's class Shaneen's theme was 'Relief Works'. On a pale green board, she attached dried elk horn, which she sprayed copper, dried cycad leaves and one dried leucadendron.

Lei made an iris arrangement using Louisiana iris, the only ones she had available. She had to use leaves from flag iris to arrange in the traditional way. She placed a small sprig of Japanese maple to finish the arrangement.

I found this large monstera deliciosa flower in the garden, that had to be plucked and arranged. Not an easy thing as it is heavy and has a short stem. It, also, doesn't penetrate the kenzan very well. So, I decided to create interest with the leaves, cutting away half of each and then trimming them into triangles. The arrangement looks rather flat in the photo but it isn't in reality. The lower leaf extends forward.

Bye for now,

Emily

16th October, 2023

Arrangement of Mass and Line
Viburnum opulus and callistemon viminalis

At last class, for the advanced students, I had set a double theme - 'Paying Attention to the shape of the Container' and 'Intertwining Plant Materials'. The arrangement, below, was mine. Firstly, I used fine, yellow bamboo to create a shape called parallelepiped (yes, I had to look it up) to mirror the shape of the ceramic container. I, then, used variegated New Zealand flax, stripped in half and intertwined them through the bamboo shape and through each other. I placed 2 red roses and one bud at the centre back.

Nicole used fine silver birch branches and intertwined dietes leaves through them creating movement and curves, which related to the container. Her flowers are cottage gladioli.

Vicky intertwined horsetails (equisetum) creating angles around and through her unusual, ceramic container. The yellow clivia was placed at the back to be viewed through the tangle of horsetail.

Jenny's container was also unusual and rather striking. She used flax in earthy colours, which she wove together, very loosely to create a ball like shape and added one viburnum opulus flower to the back. Both the shape of the flax and the flower reflected the shape of the container.

Lucy used one of my self made containers and used dietes leaves intertwined and cascading over the container, into which she placed one clivia flower. The curves of the dietes mirrored the curves of the container.

Front view

Side view

Mary's curriculum theme was 'Relief Work'. On a thick piece of black cardboard she attached skeletonized leaves and dried lotus pods.

Shaneen's lesson was "Tsuribana' - Hanging arrangement. In a bamboo  container she placed elk horn fern (platycerium bifurcatum), cymbidium orchid and smoke bush (Cotinus grace).

Bye for now,

Emily