FRANKLIN HOUSE EXHIBITION

In my Geelong class...

... Anne's exercise was to make a horizontal ikebana arrangement. She used two large leaves of Bird's nest fern, Asplenium nidus, placed stretching to each side. Then yellow Ranunculus flowers were added amid a central mass of curved Dietes leaves.

The senior students' exercise was to make an ikebana with disassembled and re-arranged materials.

Maureen used Strelitzia leaves, which she cut into shapes that changed their appearance. She added a single flower and bud. The small footed suiban with horizontal ribbing contrasted with the upward movement of the ikebana.

Christine used the roots, stems and leaf tips from an epiphytic Orchid. She cut the leaves so that they appear to be wrapped around the vessel. The cut ends of the stems are protruding through a hole in the back wall of the vessel, while the roots project up and forward from within the vessel.

Ellie used Balloon plant Gomphocarpus physocarpus, for her material. She has arranged a single inverted stem at a dramatic angle with one follicle attached. Two other follicles are placed on top of one of the vessel's openings. A small number of narrow leaves have been folded and inserted into another of the openings toward the back.

Maree used an unidentified Banksia flower, which she cut to show a cross-section through the middle of the flower spike. Several sections were then placed underwater in a box-shaped glass vase. She then set a stem, stripped of leaves and flowers, horizontally across the vessel and aligned with another section of stem in a second, smaller glass vessel.

Jo stripped Ornamental kale Brassica oleracea, into its constituent elements of leaves and stems. The new arrangement uses the stems to elevate one, of the two colour-matched vessels, above the other. Although there is water in each of the vessels two small leaves are placed on the table surface.

Earlier this week, I joined Eleanor Button and other Victorian Sogetsu Branch members for a series of events in Launceston, Tasmania. The events were in conjunction with the third annual  exhibition being held this week at Franklin House. The house is a National Trust property that was built in 1838 at Youngtown on the southern outskirts of Launceston. 

The first public event I participated in was held in the entrance foyer of the Cumulus Studio at the University of Tasmania Inveresk Campus. I decided, as I did last year, to make a "found object" sculpture with the very colourfully upholstered, steel- framed chairs. This time I wanted to make the structure a bit narrower than in the previous year. I was assisted by Eleanor who found two bright yellow wooden stools that we added to the structure. We also added 6 strongly-coloured vegetables to contrast with the manufactured fabrics of the chairs.

In Franklin House I made a late winter ikebana in a large hand-made ceramic vessel which I borrowed. I used a bare branch from an unidentified deciduous tree as well as fresh material including Camellia and a Cypress branch. The bare branch was visually balanced by the smaller curving branch of Cypress. The two stems of white flowering Camellia reached both forward and to the back. In fact, the ikebana was able to be viewed from all around, as it was on a table in the middle of the room.

Greetings from Christopher

6th September 2026.
 

TWO STYLES

Last weekend we had the pleasure of sharing some delights of our neighbourhood with visitors who stayed with us at Torquay. 

This Kookaburra, on one of the bridges across the creek, was rather nearer to our house than is usual - a tribute to the maturing of the trees planted in private gardens and along the creek over the last 40 years.The land where our house is built, was a treeless sheep paddock in my childhood. Further up the creek there is a larger expanse of remnant bushland, and these birds usually prefer that habitat. I have only sighted Kookaburras in our garden twice, and then only in the last 6 years.

We also took our guests to the Iron Bark Basin in part of the Great Otway National Park and were rewarded with the sight of a small 'colony' of Nodding Greenhood Pterostylis nutans terresterial orchids. It is one of the earliest-flowering orchids in this area.

In Torquay I gave my students the exercise I wrote about a month ago; that is: "Disassembling and Rearranging of Materials".

Pamela used a common sedge as her principal material. She removed the flowering part and placed it at the base of the tall straight stems. The purple flower may be a cultivar of Rhododendron alabamense, and the single leaf is a Nasturtium Tropaeolum.

Lyn used Banksia marginata which she set in a shallow bronze suiban. The nature of this material enables it to be deconstructed into at least four discrete elements.

Coralie used red stemmed Silverbeet Beta vulgaris, which had a large yellow root. It was placed upside down and the base of the leaves were cut producing an orange rosette form. Coralie also added a leaf and the sepals of a Camellia flower.

Last week I attended the monthly workshop of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, which was led by Lara Telford. She had set rhe interesting theme of making two different styles of ikebana. One arrangement was to be "naturalistic" and the other to be "contemporary". In each case we were to use the same materials.

I chose to use Umbrella grass Cyperus alternifolius, and Cape honeysuckle Tecomaria capensis...

For my first ikebana I arranged both materials according to their natural growth patterns. These stems are ideal for a tall arrangement in a narrow space. Unfortunately, this is a little too tall for the vase, by about 25%.

I used a rectangular glass vase for the contemporary ikebana. In this case the radiating leaves have been cut short and held firmly against the flat front surface of the vase. I then bent the straight stems into irregular angular shapes at one side of the vase. Water was added to about one third the depth of the vase and a single orange Cape honeysuckle flower was floated on the surface.

More photos from the workshop can be found through this link to the Sogetsu Victoria Branch website.

Yesterday I assisted Aileen Clarke, the Director of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch, to make a large ikebana representing the Branch at the Wa Ikebana Festival exhibition. This is taking place at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. Two photos below.

Vessel by Graeme Wilkie.

Greetings from Christopher
29th August 2026

RE-USED BANKSIA PRAEMORSA

In a recent Geelong class...

Anne made an ikebana arrangement "Using Vine"; in this case Hardenbergia comptoniana and Sea Holly Eryngium. Unfortunately, the vine was too weak to support its own weight for the intended exercise of a horizontal ikebana. However, it was a great opportunity to learn how to get this material to be sufficiently self-supporting to create a looped line with two small masses of the Sea Holly.

The senior students were tasked with making an ikebana using "Pine and any other material". 

Maureen used two branches of Casuarina, sometimes called Australian pine, which has needle-like fine branchlets and cone-like fruit. The branch on the left was set to accentuate its curving line contrasting with the mouth of the vessel that leans to the right. Three scarlet Grevillea inflorescences draw the eye back to the centre of the ikebana.

 

Christine used Cypress branches arranged obliquely across the top of her vessel. White Iris flowers contrasted with the deep green of the Cypress foliage.

Maree arranged a mass of pine needles in an irregularly-shaped piece of wood. She added a line with a dried stem of an ornamental Allium.

Jo arranged the end of a pine stem upside down in a rectangular glass vessel. The majority of the materials were place below the water line. A vertical row of Cherry tomatoes was set on the left side.

My ikebana this week is made with materials re-used from last week's ikebana. It is a "One Material Only" arrangement of Banksia praemorsa. This view is side-on to show that the large flower spike extends forward of the rim of the vessel. At the lower right side of the arrangement from this angle you can see a smaller, less developed flower spike. I placed this spike toward the rear because it is visible when walking across the room.

 

Here is the front-on view. I used some additional branch material that I had not used last week to create a space between two tall lines. This seemed a good way to present the single large spike in what is essentially a vertical ikebana arrangement.

The unusual black ceramic vessel comes from Seto City, a famous old pottery town east of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture.

Greetings from Christopher

23rd August 2023

BARK and BANKSIA PRAEMORSA

This week, I gave my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana using pine and any other material.

Coralie used two of the Three Friends of Winter; in this case Bamboo and Pine, no Plum Blossom. The red artificial material (plastic-coated wire) had a structural as well as decorative function, as it helped secure the pine in position.

Lyn arranged curving stems of African flag Chasmanthe floribunda, in a suiban. She then added a small mass of Radiata pine Pinus radiata, at the base of the ikebana.

Pamela used pine, possibly Himalayan cedar Cedrus deodara. The dead branch on the right front is the same material, but was encrusted with pale green lichen. For colour contrast Pamela added an unidentified Acacia.

Last Tuesday the AGM of Ikebana International Melbourne was held. As is customary practice, the Heads of various Ikebana Schools in Victoria gave a simultaneous demonstration of their work. Each Head of School then spoke about the significance of their ikebana.

As the Director of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, Victorian Branch, Aileen Clarke made an ikebana using Mountain Pine Pinus mugo and Camellia "Brushfields yellow".

This is Aileen's completed arrangement. When talking about her ikebana, for which she used three black metal vessels, Aileen told the members that next year is the 100th anniversary of the Sogetsu School's founding by Sofu Teshigahara. There is a coded message here!

The members attending the meeting were asked to complete an "ikebana of your own choice".

This is my ikebana, for which I had chosen bark as my principal material. Over some months I had noticed this large single piece of bark caught up in a tree, on our regular walk along the creek to the cricket oval. During the previous week, I realised that the bark had flattened out following some heavy rain. This change revealed more of the inner surface, which is a warm brown. The upper surface of the bark is a light mottled grey with a fairly smooth texture. These characteristics particularly appealed to me. I bought some yellow Banksia praemorsa to contrast with the bark and add the freshness of living material. The sweeping curve of the bark when arranged in this curving vessel was able to produce an overall continuous "S" curve.  

I reset the ikebana when I came home and found, in the process, that it worked better in this opposite orientation. It is the angle that is seen when coming into the living room from the front entrance.

This is the view straight on. 

Recently, I had the wide shelf made for the wall where our gas heater used to stand prior to the replacement of our colourbond roof in July (winter!) last year.

I am really pleased to now have a blank wall against which I will be able to place more spreading ikebana arrangements.

Greetings from Christopher

15th August 2026

JAPONICA (CHAENOMELES) and NARCISSUS

Last weekend, Hiroshima Peace Day was commemorated by the annual service held at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. This year it was the turn of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School to create a large scale ikebana arrangement for the service.

The design and installation of the ikebana was by Aileen Clarke, the Director of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch, assisted by Karen Thode.

As I made my way to the cathedral, my attention was caught by these two Rainbow Lorrikeets. At first I thought that they were feeding chicks. However, after a short while, it was apparent that they were enlarging a shallow hole where a large branch had been removed some years before. Presumably, the birds were doing this to use the enlarged hollow for nesting. 

In my Melbourne class I had set the exercise of making an ikebana using bare, woody branches and Camellias. 

Aileen used Coastal Tea Tree as the principal material from which she had stripped off the many finer side branches to reveal its twisting lines. In a large black vessel she set some stems of pink Camellias as a fresh flower contrast.

Marcia arranged some thick rough bark as her woody material and added stems of white Camellias projecting through the holes in the side and top of the cylindrical vase.

Jacqueline arranged a long piece of dry branching wood with a sinuous curving line. It was fixed around the outside of the disk-shaped black vase into which she arranged long stems of Camellia with pink flowers.

My ikebana this week is a return to the winter-flowering red Japonica, Chaenomeles, which is still looking beautiful in the garden.

I have arranged two branching stems of the material, which I found surprisingly hard to photograph because the branches radiated in all directions. As a result I have taken the photograph from a rather high angle. Low in the middle of the ikebana are two small masses of white Narcissus nestling between two Arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica, leaves.

The vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Owen Rye.

Click on the following link to the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch workshop I mentioned last week on the theme,  "A Composition Expressing Movement"

Greetings from Christopher
9th August 2026 

EXPLODING FIREWORKS

Last week I set my Torquay and Geelong students the task of making an ikebana "Incorporating Narcissus".

Coralie arranged Jonquils Narcissus jonquilla from her garden in a naturalistic style, adding small shield-shaped leaves at their base. The Narcissus were set in two groups with a space between and the narrow suiban oriented away from the viewer to provide depth.

Kerryn arranged her materials in a contemporary style using reeds to create three large triangular shapes with a small bunch of cut-off reeds radiating upward. Her Narcissus were set to create an elevated curving line of flowers.

Pamela arranged her Narcissus rising up through a horizontal mass of dark, Broad hop bush leaves Dodonaea viscosa.

In my Geelong class...

...Maureen arranged her Daffodils asymmetrically between two branches of an unidentified, narrow-leafed Acacia.

Ellie created a mass using a variety of Narcissus flowers which were set between two large bare branches with lichen, that were set in a spherical vessel.

Maree created a mass of Narcissus flowers rising in an irregular form from a slate vessel. The vertical form was emphasised by the addition of two Narcissus leaves that were bent into triangular shapes on the right side.

My ikebana was made for the Victorian Sogetsu Branch workshop that was held last Monday. It is a re-working of an arrangement I made early last year. The theme of the workshop was to make an ikebana "Expressing a movement". I cut a number of stems from the Umbrella grass I have growing in a large tub in the conservatory. The colour of the stems varied from green through yellow to a dry brown, and they were cut to different lengths. The stems are arranged radially in an asymmetric design set in a tapering white vase. I then have added bright red Carnations in the centre of the design, most of which were still in bud. The movement I was wanting to capture was the 'exploding' movement of fireworks in the night sky.

The vessel is by the Victorian ceramic artist Arnaud Barraud

Greetings from Christopher
2nd August 2026

 

DISASSEMBLING and REARRANGING (BANKSIA)

Winter is definitely making itself felt with some rather low overnight temperatures. However, it is also the time for winter flowering plants to bloom, which lifts my spirit. 

I recently set my students the exercise of making ikebana using some strong dried branches and combining them with Camellias. Unfortunately, Pamela did not have access to the requested woody material. However, she decided to improvise with some dried twigs that she found.

She also wisely chose this glass vase that allowed the fine material to show well and not be overwhelmed by the vessel. The tall fine line is visible within the vase as well as above. It has been strengthened by the placement of an inverted branching stem that sits outside the vase. A single pale pink camellia provides a focal point that harmonises with the vase.

In the Geelong class...

...Maureen had a very large dried branch with a highly textured surface, and which was stable on the table surface. Some stems of Camellia including two flowers, leaves and some buds were placed tightly against the bulk of the wood. Their small vase was almost completely obscured behind the wood.

Christine set a small thick piece of a very contorted woody branch in a footed vessel. She then placed Camellia branches with small delicate pink flowers around the branch.

Ellie used a pair of matching cylindrical vessels across which she placed a branching piece of dried woody material. The wood was suspended showing its line and creating spaces within and around the ikebana. Although it is hard to tell from the photo the branch was arranged so that it did not actually touch the table. Two open flowers and two small buds provided a floral focus.

Maree also used two vessels that were connected by the woody material. The positioning of the wood allowed the space between the two vessels to be increased making the ikebana feel light in spite of the large vessels and woody material. Three stems of Camellia created a highlight in the middle of the arrangement.

My ikebana is the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of "Disassembling and Rearranging the Materials". This means cutting the material to separate the stems, flowers, leaves, seed pods, etc, from each other. I wanted the challenge of practising the exercise in a Nageire (tall) vessel. 

It is helpful when the material has some very distinctive components, as is the case with the Banksia marginata branch I cut from the garden.

This photo shows part of step one. I have stripped all the leaves from branches and removed some flowering inflorescences. I maintained their small stems for fixing purposes.

I also separated these two small inflorescence buds. 

When I looked at all the separated materials I decided to not use the leaves on this occasion and then considered how I might use the geometric forms that actually make up the  Banksia branches.

The vessel I chose has three openings. One at the top that I did not use, plus a small one high on the left side and a large one on the right side. My starting point for the structure was to invert two of the branches and interlock their finer side branches. The curves of the branches created a lens shape with their main branch extending below and above the lens. I stabilised the form by inserting an additional branch horizontally through both openings in the vase. The two small inflorescence buds were joined and placed on the left and three flowers were set on the right side against the vessel.

When such sculptural ikebana forms are made in this exercise, it is said that the nature of the original material should not immediately be obvious.

Greetings from Christopher.

26th July 2026