My magnificent Magnolia X soulangeana

Hello all,

It's been a long time since my last post and I won't bore you with the details as to why. But I am playing catch up, so please bear with me.

The class theme for two lessons ago was 'In a tsubo vase'. That's a pot shaped vase with small opening used without a kenzan. This requires the students to find appropriate mechanics to support their work.

Below are three examples of mine:

 

Green Goddess lilies and New Zealand flax

Spent ginger lilies and aspidistra 

Rosemary and cymbidium orchids

And the work of some of the students:

Nicole McDonald
Bark, bird's nest fern and leucodendron

 

Helen Novic
Long leaf pine and bird's nest fern

Bredenia Raquel
Dried branch, gypsophila and carnations

                             Bredenia Raquel

                    Strelitzia with dried material

                           

Margaret Wilson
Spirea,Bromiliad flowers and Carex Trifida leaves

Janette Fonda
Book Leaf pine and wattle

At last class we had some fun with miniature ikebana. We all did several arrangements each and presented them on some sort of board. A friend of mine, whilst admiring my display, referred to them as little ikebana hors d'oeuvres.

Miniatures appear to be easy but to do them correctly, we must not lose sight of the principles of Sogetsu ikebana. There is, also, the difficulty of mechanics. With tiny vases we cannot fit our usual horizontal or vertical fixtures or even kenzans, as we do with the larger vases, so we had to be a little bit more creative.

I made seven arrangements and I could, quite happily, have done many more.

Below are two examples of the theme 'Using two or ore containers':

Pine and calla lilies

Green Goddess lilies and Japanese flowering quince

I leave you with this simple but striking arrangement I made using a piece of agave that has been sitting in my garage for many weeks without water yet still looks fresh. With it I used some clivia berries.

Bye for now,

Emily