It has been a very busy time in the ikebana world lately. Last weekend we had two days of workshops with Mr Yoshiro Umemura * from Sydney. On the Victorian Sogetsu website you can see photos from the first workshop *, other photos will be posted over the next week or so. On Monday afternoon the Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter 29 annual exhibition, which I am curating, will be opened. It is open for two weeks. If you are in Melbourne do come along.
At a recent class, with Elizabeth Angell, we were set the exercise of making a simplified arrangement. In the Sogetsu text book the student is advised to study the material carefully and remove all that is superfluous or extraneous to the design. The challenge is to not go too far, so that the material becomes unrecognisable. Before the class I found a dead ivy branch still clinging to the trunk of a tree by the river. The branch had interesting lines and character.
The photograph above shows the branch before I began trimming. My goal, of course, was to preserve the character of the material and its interesting lines, both the fine and strong lines.
To provide a foil for the branch I contrasted it with a flowering camellia stem, from which I removed most of the leaves. It is not easy to see, but I have created a support for the principal branch so that it does not rest on the left-hand side of the vase opening.
Greetings from Christopher
30th August 2015
* Click on the blue text for further information.
Beautiful, Christopher!
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