When selecting recent photographs for this week's blog posting, I was struck by the coincidence of line dominating the ikebana works. They are from two different classes and are examples of four separate exercises from the Sogetsu curriculum.
The first class was in Geelong with my students who are working at a variety of levels within the curriculum.
Helen made two ikebana arrangements on the theme of 'mass and line', in which these two design elements are contrasted. In the first instance she has used a single arum lily contrasted with the mass of three camellias and their leaves. I encouraged Helen to exaggerate the already existing slight curve in the lily stem.
In her second example, Helen has used a dried palm leaf base. It has been contrasted with a mass composed of autumn-coloured oak leaves. The colour and texture of the leaves are sufficiently robust to work well with the strong appearance of the dried palm.
Alana's exercise was to 'make a surface using lines'. She has stripped leucadendron stems and inserted them in a kenzan. They start as a column and then flatten out becoming parallel lines that form a flat surface toward the top of the arrangement. She finished off the arrangement with a naturally curving line, creating a low space on the left side that helps balance the work.
Tess was set the exercise of 'taking into account the shape of the vessel'. Her principal lines are placed at an acute angle creating tension with the vase, a souvenir from Ethiopia. Tess has curled some of the leaves echoing the lines on the neck of the vase.
The second class was with my own teacher Elizabeth.
We were given the exercise of creating an ikebana arrangement expressing movement. This photo shows my ikebana re-set at home. I have used Sword Sedge (lepidosperma gladiatum) leaves in a modern stainless steel vase. The curving lines sweep toward the right creating a sense of movement in that direction.
Greetings from Christopher,
posting late on Sunday 27th May 2018
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