A CHANGE IN PLANS

This week I am continuing the previous theme of 'a variety of summer materials'. I had originally asked the students in my Melbourne class to make an arrangement with grasses, but then broadened it to include materials not strictly in the grasses category. In my own arrangement, shown last week, I had included rose-hips. 

At the class the students worked quite quickly to produce three attractive naturalistic arrangements. I was a bit surprised with their speed, and that these students usually make ikebana with a more contemporary feel. It made me think that the materials themselves, and the tradition of using summer or autumn grasses, had unconsciously influenced them into working naturalistically. I also realised that we still had plenty of class time left, so I asked them to photograph their ikebana and then re-work the materials into a modern-styled ikebana.

Re-working the materials was an exercise that my first Sogetsu teacher, Carlyne Patterson, sometimes unexpectedly asked of the class. It is a good challenge as the student does not have the opportunity to plan or over-think the work.

Robyn first made this ikebana using three grassy materials plus some Kiwi vine and crucifix orchid. Her second arrangement is below.

As she had brought a large amount of materials, I lent her a larger vase in which she made this arrangement without using the feathery grasses.

Eugenia arranged three grasses plus New Zealand Flax and a mauve crucifix orchid in a contemporary ikebana vessel.

When she re-worked her materials she also reduced their number and reversed the vessel so that its opening faced away from the viewer. Doing that better emphasised the lines at the base of the ikebana.

Margaret's first ikebana had strong autumnal colouring and included a dried stem with an attractive seed-head. The shape of her vessel restricted the kenzan placement to the centre.

I therefore suggested that she use a suiban for her re-working of the materials. Using two kenzans allowed her to have two strong lines that crossed. 

At the end of our discussions during the critique, Eugenia made the observation that Margaret's work would look stronger with only one long cascading line. We all liked this final version of Margaret's ikebana.

I was interested that the re-working of the initial materials freed up the students and resulted in much bolder arrangements. Of course they no longer conformed to the idea of a 'variety of materials' arrangement, which requires a minimum of five materials. 

Greetings from Christopher
10th March 2019

MIFGS