FLOWERS FOR A WEDDING

This morning I was greeted in the garden by the arrival of a single Sulphur-crested cockatoo. I think I startled the cockatoo while it was drinking at the birdbath. These birds usually appear in flocks but have not been around so much over the winter months. Perhaps there will be more arriving soon.

The weather turned chilly in the middle of the week and I needed to wear a windproof jacket and gloves when we went out for a walk. It was windy, wet and 14 degrees Celsius. Then I received an email from Leonora in Ottawa who said it was '...minus 14 and already lots of snow...'. Chilly is a such a subjective experience.

A few weeks ago I was asked to make some ikebana arrangements for a wedding taking place in a friend's house. The ceremony is tomorrow and today I put my plans into action to create a table-centre ikebana and a larger work on an antique sideboard.

For the table centre I arranged some prostrate banksias in a ceramic holder made by an ikebanist friend, Kid-Ching Ong. The vessel looks rather like a log or piece of curled bark which harmonises well with the banksia. As the leaves of the banksia are stiff and stand upright I have softened their appearance by curving them and catching the ends in the slits in the vessel.

The second work is a massed arrangement in a very large bowl by Graeme Wilkie that Laurie bought some years ago. I have used some branching driftwood within the bowl to fix the King protea Protea cynaroides, and arranged it with branches of Cootamundra wattle Acacia baileyana. In the photograph I have covered the mirror with a white cloth to better show the arrangement.

I chose a massed form of the ikebana  because it was to be placed on a large sideboard with a mirrored back. This meant that any lines would appear to be doubled by the reflection and the back of the arrangement also had to look good in the mirror. 

I want  to advise regular readers of this blog that since I was overseas in September/October I have not been notified when people have written comments at the bottom of the page. I have since fixed this problem, however I cannot reply directly to the writer of comments as the system protects your address. I can be contacted directly at: roadsideikebana@bigpond.com 

Greetings from Christopher
2t5h November 2018