As WINTER PASSES we WELCOME SPRING

Over the period of the Ikebana International Exhibition mentioned in last weeks posting, I spent a number of days in Melbourne. When I finally returned home and had time to walk around the garden at Torquay I notice that the apricot tree was in bud...

       

   

  

...and Joan's white Japanese flowering quince was at its peak. The red flowering quince is now covered with leaves and only a few flowers can be seen.

I thought the two quince flowers would make a good ikebana subject, to reflect this time of transition. The ceramic vase is by the Castlemaine artist Barry Singleton.

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The exercise I gave my Torquay students this week was to make an arrangement using green materials only. It is something of a challenge to create ikebana without any flowers and it causes the ikebanist to pay close attention to form and texture. I thought the results were interestingly varied and quite delightful.

This first work was by Val.

Leonie

Kim

and lastly Fran.

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This weekend my colleague from Melbourne, Lara Telford, arrives in Tokyo to spend three months studying at the Sogetsu Headquarters. She is the sixth recipient of the Norman and Mary Sparnon Endowment Scholarship. It is her intention to publish an internet blog each week about her activities. 

Click here for Lara's website blog. I will also provide a link to her posting each week. If you have a Facebook account you should be able to connect directly with her blog and share it with your friends.

Greetings from Christopher
9th September 2017