REPEATING SHAPES

Spring weather has brought out a number of native flowers in our garden, here are two. A richly orange coloured banksia... 

..and a pink calistemon. 

The new growth on this eucalypt is also a beautiful rich pink.

I bought some red Waratahs this week and have taken a close-up picture so that you can see each head is composed of many small flowers, surrounded by a row of bracts of the same colour. The Waratah is the state floral emblem of New South Wales. It is a really beautiful flower and lasts well when cut. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waratah)

The exercise my teacher set was: using two or more containers make a work that incorporates repeated shapes. I have used 'black willow' to create some narrow triangles. There are two flowers in the front suiban, a smaller one behind and to the right, but only leaves in the suiban at the back. The surface of the water is a strong feature of the arrangement.

Yesterday I attended a workshop of the Sogetsu Branch Victoria. The theme was ‘Ways with Agave’ taken by Mrs Toula Karanikolopoulos. She focussed on techniques of working with Agave and other succulent materials. I was impressed with the variety of techniques and in particular Toula’s insight regarding the working of nature on the material over time. Next week I will include an example of an ikebana I created after the workshop. You can see images of the workshop on the Sogetsu website under the ‘News’ page, or clicking on:   http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php .

Greetings from Christopher
14th October 2012