VARIATION NUMBER 3

This week marked the return to Ikebana activities for 2025. 

My Geelong students returned to class last Thursday. Jo's exercise was to make an ikebana using direct fixing. This means not using any mechanics to hold the materials in the desired position. It is particularly difficult when the branch is heavy and is prone to rotate or lean at a not-desired angle.

In this particular instance, Jo had brought two branches of fig with fruit attached. The two shorter branches on the left side are actually a single forking branch. It was heavier on one side and kept rotating until she learnt a new technique of placement that stabilised the branch. The second branch has been passed through the fork in the branch on the left side.

Anne's exercise was Variation No. 3, to be set in a suiban. This variation requires the shin and soe stems to be placed on either side of the hikae and all the materials to be set in the middle of the vessel.

Anne used mauve Zinnias in the centre of the ikebana. Her branch material was not identified.

Because it was the first class for the year I set the senior students the same Variation No. 3 task, as a practise exercise. However, after that exercise, they were then required to make a freestyle arrangement in the same vessel using only the material from the first exercise.

This example is step one of the exercise I had set. It was made by Ellie. She used two Roseberry branches and some yellow Zinnia flowers. 

 

For step two, her freestyle ikebana, Ellie took an abstract approach and disassembled the materials. She placed the flowers and leaves on one side of a length of the Roseberry stem and on the other side, scattered some of the berries, which had not yet turned red.

Unfortunately, I did not photograph all of the ikebana the students made in step one of the exercise. Below are the freestyle ikebana arrangement by the other students.

 

Maureen made a vertical arrangement with two branches of Cherry plum Prunus cerasifera, and Plumed cockscomb Celosia argentea, flowers.

Christine also took a partial disassembling and re-arranging approach, having taken the berries from her branches, but preserving the Hydrangea.

Helen's freestyle retained some of the form of Variation No 3. However, the proportions have been made smaller and the Cockscomb Celosia argentea var. cristata, have been placed to one side and across the vessel rather than toward the front.

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In the garden the Hydrangeas have survived the few extremely hot days. However, they produced few flowers this year. I think this is because I pruned them rather hard this last winter.

The morning before one of the hot days I picked the only pink flower. Before I brought it inside I looked underneath to check for large spiders (none there!). I was startled when the sun came through the sepals and I noticed the beautiful pink of the pedicles (stems) of each individual flower. I thought I should take this photograph as it is not the angle from which we usually look at these wonderful flowers.

 

When I arranged the Hydrangea I added the only other one available, slightly smaller and pale green. To balance the mass of the flowers I added a leaf from the Strelitzia nicolai.

The Bizen-style vase is by the Australian ceramicist Ian Jones.

On Monday last week the first meeting for 2025 of Ikebana International Melbourne was held. Click on the link to the new 

II Melbourne website.

Greetings from Christopher

16th February 2025

LIFE IMITATES ART

Recently, Laurie and I attended a National Gallery of Victoria members' after hours viewing of the current Yayoi Kusama exhibition. It is an extraordinarily comprehensive survey of her life's work. There are examples of her creative expression from as early as 10 years old, through to the present. This overview of her creative output has been years in the making and is a great credit to the NGV, and especially to Wayne Crothers the Senior Curator, Asian Art.

I was particularly drawn to the examples of her 1960's Infinity Net paintings, which she started creating after moving to New York in the late 1950's. Above is a small detail from a very large painting. It seems to me that her preoccupation is about opening oneself to infinity and in the process losing the sense of self. An experience that occurs in deep meditation.

In the current exhibition are a number of 'Infinity rooms' that explore this idea, and indeed create the illusion of being suspended in an infinite space.

Here is Laurie floating among an infinity of coloured spheres dotted with points of light.

This is the best view I could manage of the room with the minimal inclusion of people. 

When we left the Gallery Laurie pointed out this unexpected rainbow effect sparkling on the surface of the Yarra River. It was caused by light from the setting sun being refracted through glass panels on the Queen St. bridge. An interesting example of life imitating art.

Two weeks ago I posted a photo of an ikebana I made using the yellowing stems of Umbrella Grass Cyperus alternifolius. I had cut quite a lot and saved the un-used stems, which this last week I used to create a new ikebana.

I arranged the Umbrella grass in a rough asymmetric fan. Some of the stems had become bright yellow so they are graduated from left to right to where one of them retains a mostly green colouring. To me it looks like a burst of joy with red at its heart. The red Nandina leaves are also dried. 

The tapering porcelain vase is by the Victorian ceramicist, Arnaud Barraud.

 

Greetings from Christopher

9th February 2025

CROSSING LINES

My apologies to subscribers, for not noticing that I had inadvertently published the photos a few hours ago, before I had started to write the text. 

As I stepped out of the back door last Monday a pair of King Parrots suddenly flew toward me, settling on a curving pole and a line. 

They were quite unafraid and seemed interested in me. Probably hoping to be fed. I went back indoors and fetched my camera taking the photo above through the glass door. The adult male, on the left in the photo, has a red head and breast. I am fairly sure the mostly green bird on the right is a juvenile male. It was also behaving like a juvenile, hanging upside down and swinging on the line while looking at me. 

When I stepped outside again I managed to take this photo of the adult who was clearly curious about what I was doing, or not doing, (feeding them). Their behaviour really surprised me, because they usually seem to be a bit timid.

A couple of days later we were delighted to see a Kookaburra while we were walking along the track along the rim of Iron Bark Basin. 

This view is of an area above the Basin that was burnt in the Ash Wednesday Bushfires on 16th February 1983. All of the Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea are the same height, having grown from seed after the fire. The grey-trunked trees are Messmate stringybark Eucalyptus obliqua. I have a vivid memory of visiting the adjacent Jarosite mine valley in the weeks after the fires. All of the standing tree trunks were black and the ground was covered in very fine light grey ash. In the following Spring all of the Xanthorrhoea flowered at once.

To Ikebana:

This week I returned to the creek to gather some more stems of Crocosmia aurea as they were still flowering prolifically. The bright orange of the flowers being hard to resist. I had used these flowers two weeks ago, on 19th January. This time, I arranged four stems in a 'mid-century' Japanese Ikebana vessel. I began by choosing the tallest stem for the principal line, then cut the three other stems progressively shorter. Probably half of the leaves have been removed to emphasise the crossing lines.

Greetings from Christopher

1st February 2025

 

UMBRELLA GRASS: CYPERUS ALTERNIFOLIUS

Last week I noticed that a number of stems of the umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius in the conservatory were yellowing. I think from insufficient water. I have them growing in a small plastic pond which is filled with potting mix. In the recent warm days more evaporation had occurred than I had realised. I remedied the situation, adding extra water, and removed the dying stems. 

This resulted in a fair number of stems that I could not allow to go into the compost without first serving sometime as an ikebana subject. I went to the vase shelves and realised that a pair of recently acquired tall narrow resin vases would provide a sufficient height. Being a pair meant that I could set them apart and use the space between the vases.

I secured a number of stems to a vertical fixture, then bent them to create narrow scalene triangular forms. These have been bunched together so that the long tapering points are directed toward the other vase. Four bright red geranium flower heads provide focal points in each vase.

Greetings from Christopher
26th January 2025

A SLANTING ARRANGEMENT of CROCOSMIA

At the beginning of the week, as I was preparing for bed, I noticed this small lizard, a Marbled Gecko, on the outside glass of the living room window. The grey lines behind the lizard are external louvers. This is a great spot for the little creature to catch insects that are drawn to the light inside the house. Many small flying insects land on the window and just stop there. It would seem that they cannot fly away from the bright light.

Today, several days later, the weather was warm with a strong easterly wind.

This was the view today from the west end of the Torquay Surf Beach looking toward Point Danger at the eastern end.

Looking west from the same place is Jan Juc Beach, which was closed because of the very strong cross-currents caused by the easterly winds. In the distance is Sunny Side Beach, with Point Addis beyond and very faint in the photo.

When we later went for a walk along the creek I noticed the brilliant orange of a flowering mass of Crocosmia aurea, an African grassland plant which is in the iris family.

It is  a garden escapee that is doing rather too well in the moist environment of the creek. The colour is striking, and I did not have to wrestle with my conscience about gathering some of this weed for this week's ikebana.

I have arranged three stems, with their leaves attached. Because of the forward curve of the tip of the inflorescence, I set them at an angle to better show the fully opened flowers. The shorter second and third stems are on opposite sides of the main, Shin line. The angle of the stems also gives the ikebana a more dramatic look in the Japanese ikebana vase. Three leaves at the front are set in the traditional style for arranging irises; that is, each leaf is of a different length and the central leaf is shorter than the two on each side. This configuration is not apparent in the photograph.

Greetings from Christopher,

19th January 2025

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MELALEUCA LANCEOLATA and VALERIANA RUBER

On Thursday afternoon last week... 

...Laurie and I were surprised that we did not notice this Echidna until we were only about three metres away. It was very preoccupied fossicking for ants in the gravel mulch of the nearby garden. We were down-wind and stood quite still for a few minutes watching this wonderful example of Australian wildlife going quietly about its business.

 

The warm summer weather has brought on the flowering of the Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata trees and shrubs. Those in the photo above are by a beach carpark and exposed to prevailing winds. As a result they are only a couple of metres tall. In sheltered areas by the creek even newly-planted ones reach four metres and more. I had been watching these blossoms and thinking to use them as an ikebana subject.

A couple of days ago I made this vertical ikebana in a suiban. I was very interested in the tallest stem that has a lovely S-bend curving line. When I put that branch in place it reminded me of the traditional Seika ikebana form. It is so interesting to realise that traditional naturalistic ikebana reveals forms that occur naturally. I remember my first teacher pointing out that the ikebana masters of the past were great observers of nature.

To make it clear that I was making a Sogetu School ikebana I added a single supporting line to the right of the first line; thus creating a space between the two lines that more or less follows the curves. In this instance, once I had placed the main stems, I did additional trimming to emphasise the lines and the space. Then, to create a contrasting focal point, I added a single stem of Red Valerian Valeriana ruber. If I have an opportunity to re-photograph this material I will use a black backdrop to emphasise the white of the Moonah flowers.

Greetings from Christopher,

who has been busy this weekend entertaining his cousin from Darwin. My cousin travelled 3,124 kilometres to attend a family celebration.

12th January 2025

RED CORYMBIA FICIFOLIA

The corymbia in the garden has started to bloom again this summer. This particular one has bright red flowers. Others have pink, white or orange flowers.

I climbed the fence to photograph the top of the tree. It is not very tall yet! This is a section of the top which shows the small pink buds before opening on the left side, a fully open inflorescence on the top right, and some seedpods (gumnuts) at the bottom.

Here is a small group of open flowers in close-up. There were quite a number of bees gathering nectar from these flowers. I am surprised that none are visible in the photograph. 

Ever since it started flowering a number of weeks ago I had been thinking of using this lovely blossom as an ikebana subject.  

A couple of days ago I arranged two clusters of blossom in a dark Bizen vase, adding the tall curving lines of a bare Apricot branch. The side branch on the lower right, curves forward almost embracing the flower mass, unfortunately lost with the flattening effect of the photograph. The other branches seem to open up the space above the flowers.

Today being in the mid-thirties Celsius, I was certainly going to be spending most of my time indoors. In the relative cool of the early morning I had picked some flowers lest they wilt. Later, I decided to make another ikebana. Having started without a particular plan, the ikebana developed a summer look. In my mind the beach was being invoked because the principal element was a dried piece of Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata driftwood.

I chose a curving, square-section, rectangular vessel and found a way to secure it within the embrace of the driftwood. This position gave height to the ikebana and helped to support two upright flower stems of Dietes Grandiflora. On the left side I set several flowering stems of Crassula arborescens at an angle. The curving bottom of the vessel kept the ikebana stable even though the right side was elevated.

The maker of the vessel is the Victorian ceramicist Paul Davis. The photo below shows the curved shape of the vessel.

Greetings and best wishes 

for the New Year from,

Christopher.

5th January 2025

MAKING SOMETHING OLD, NEW AND FRESH

The theme set by one of the students for the second-last Geelong class, was to make "a table arrangement without using flowers"; an interesting and slightly counter-intuitive theme given the lead up to Christmas time.

Maureen's arrangement included red Eucalyptus stems that were stripped of their leaves to show the colour and the small clusters of green flower buds. The other materials are Smoke bush Cotinus and Nandina berries.

Helen arranged Lime Citrus fruit in small wine glasses with bunches of Rosemary Salvia rosemarinum. She had wired the Rosemary together with copper giving a subtle sparkle to the green masses.

 

Christine used red=painted dry New Zealand Flax  Phormium leaves with fresh leaves and a mass of blue-painted fine vine-like stems. 

Helen also arranged a single stem of Grape vine Vitis that floated horizontally above the table surface. A bunch of red grapes sits among the leaves and two Plums Prunus subg. Prunus sit on the table.

Using a unique moulded-glass vessel, Ellie arranged coloured Dracaena leaves, shredded Aspidistra and some branches with small maroon leaves.

Maree's exercise was to make an ikebana "in a suiban without using a kenzan". She used three Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis branches and an unidentified branch with green leaves. A single large pink Hydrangea sat low within the suiban.

At the beginning of December I attended a Sogetsu meeting where the presenter set the theme with the following instruction: Find something old and make it fresh with your ikebana. Where to start? After thinking of many possibilities I remembered that in the bottom of the sideboard was a silver epergne. It is an art nouveau table-centre designed to hold flowers, that was a wedding present of my father's parents who were married in 1910. 

In my childhood it occasionally held Geraniums. I remember them looking like a series of posies. Thanks to my ikebana lessons I now know that there are other possibilities. Ikebana has given me the knowledge that I do not have be limited by the vessel.

This is the ikebana I made at the workshop. I found it quite exciting that I could make a more expansive arrangement. I have used three stems of Umbrella grass and some Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota flowers. The Umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius stems both extend and unify the arrangement. 

Three weeks later I re-created the ikebana on the dining table at home as my Christmas table centre.

This link will take you to other photos from the last workshop for 2024. 

Wishing you a happy and safe New Year for 2025.

Greetings from Christopher

29th December 2024