GREEN BAMBOO and AUTUMN

As I mentioned in last week's posting, Ikebana International Melbourne was given three adjacent sites at this year's Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. This was in recognition of the 60th anniversary of our Chapter and allowed each school to create a large installation on the theme of 'Green Bamboo and Autumn'. The Ichiyo School had an 8 metre width in the centre of the site and the other four schools had 3 x 3 metres.

This photo shows the length of the whole site when almost everyone had finished working on the last set-up day. Because the site was 20 metres long it is impossible to take a front on photo. In order from the left the schools are: Sogetsu, Ikenobo, Ichiyo, Ohara and Shogetsudo Koryu.

The photo above taken in the transept also gives some idea of the magnificent structure that is the Great Hall of the 1880 Royal Exhibition Building.

At the right-hand end of the site was the Shogetsudo Koryu installation. Six long bamboo poles were arranged at an angle creating a dynamic sense of movement. Fine strips of bamboo cascade from the tops of the bamboo with flowers cascading on the right-hand side.

Next was the Ohara School with bamboo radiating from a central mass of chrysanthemums, maple branches and arching branches of rose-hips. 

The Ichiyo installation was a progression of torii gates in unpainted wood in a long 'S' curve across the site. These were adorned with a variety of branches and autumn materials. At the centre was a large basin of still water across the top of which sat a large piece of gnarled wood and a branch of deep green camellia leaves.

The Ikenobo School was to the left of the torii gates. Their installation used strong vertical lines of green bamboo. Two stands were clustered together with pine and maple the main elements. 

A two-tier bamboo vase at the front of the space held two shoka arrangements of dutch iris.

At the far left of the site was the Sogetsu School installation. Added to the structure I showed last week are branches of hawthorn berries and two masses of red dwarf nandina, a larger one at the front and smaller at the right rear. 

Our installation was at the end of the site and able to be seen from the left side as well. This left an open space toward the left rear that was emphasised by having a single curve of split bamboo passing through. The photo above was taken while standing on a ladder to 'silhouette' the work against the back wall. 


Greetings from Christopher
31st March 2019

IKEBANA ON ANOTHER SCALE

Over the past few months, along with other members of the Ikebana International (I.I.) Melbourne Committee, I have been preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of our organisation. Planning for this event began in the middle of 2017. 

Early discussions lead to an invitation being extended to the then Iemoto (headmaster) designate of the Ichiyo School of Ikebana to be our special guest at these celebrations. It is also the 30th anniversary of the Melbourne Branch of the Ichiyo School. Our guest, Mr Naohiro KASUYA, is now the Iemoto of the Ichiyo School.

Since 2003 the Melbourne Chapter of I.I. has participated in the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, held in the World Heritage Site-listed building, the Royal Melbourne Exhibition Building. This year I am the team leader for the Sogetsu School at this event. 

As it is a significant birthday for I.I. Melbourne, we have been able to secure three continuous sites for our installations that represent the five active schools of ikebana in Melbourne. The Ichiyo School has been given the main central site, and the four other schools share the sites on either side - two to a site. 

This is the first model of what could be achieved with eight 3 metre lengths of bamboo. I thought I would share with you the evolution of the Sogetsu School's design. All schools are using bamboo with a maximum length of 3 metres and which is about 10cm in diameter. We are also using fresh materials to reflect the Autumn season. 

Above is the first design to scale from the model, with seasonal materials indicated.

We were given three bamboo poles to test our design ideas and fixing techniques.

This was the next design sketch. However, because of the requirement to avoid damage to the wooden floor of  the heritage-listed building, we realised that the supporting poles had to be vertical rather than slightly slanted. 

This is the third model, which was taken to the site when we began the set up today.

It took about four hours to get to this stage.

But finally we were confident that it was sufficiently stable...

...that it could stand alone. 

Thanks to the rest of the team, Lara, Gauri, Julie and Margaret. More photos next week of the completed installation .

Belated greetings from Christopher.
24th March 2019

SOME SEDUM

In the garden a few weeks ago I noticed that the Sedum, given to me by my student Christine, was just starting to open its flowers. I was delighted because this year the flower seemed large enough to pick, whereas in its first year the flowers were quite small.

The slightly open flowers seemed to glow in the late afternoon sunlight.

Three weeks later the flowers had opened along the whole stem. Fortunately, I picked this stem before the recent hot weather occurred and it has kept well in a vase for a couple of weeks. The remaining flowers on the plant have now browned a little.

My student Val, who also grows rather beautiful sedum, was recently trimming the rather large strelitzia in her garden and I managed to save a few leaves from the green waste bin. It occurred to me that the rather matt surface of the strelitzia would complement the pale pink sedum.

I have arranged them both here in a black vase so that part of the paler underside of the leaf is visible. The strelitzia leaf which has a beautiful 'S' curve and projects quite a way forward as does the long stem of sedum that makes a  contrasting mass on the left side. The vase is by Cor and Jan de Veth who worked in Cairns in the mid 1970's. 

I subsequently made a second arrangement contrasting the sedum with a naturally angular line of acacia baileyana. The classical bottle-shaped vase is by Barry Singleton from Castlemaine.  

On researching Sedum I was interested to note in the Wikipedia article that the original genus has been divided into three genera. Keeping track of these details must be a major challenge for serious Botanists.

On Tuesday last, Ikebana International Melbourne, Chapter No 29, celebrated its 60th anniversary; a very considerable accomplishment. Follow this link to photos from the Birthday Meeting.

Greetings from Christopher
17th March 2019

A CHANGE IN PLANS

This week I am continuing the previous theme of 'a variety of summer materials'. I had originally asked the students in my Melbourne class to make an arrangement with grasses, but then broadened it to include materials not strictly in the grasses category. In my own arrangement, shown last week, I had included rose-hips. 

At the class the students worked quite quickly to produce three attractive naturalistic arrangements. I was a bit surprised with their speed, and that these students usually make ikebana with a more contemporary feel. It made me think that the materials themselves, and the tradition of using summer or autumn grasses, had unconsciously influenced them into working naturalistically. I also realised that we still had plenty of class time left, so I asked them to photograph their ikebana and then re-work the materials into a modern-styled ikebana.

Re-working the materials was an exercise that my first Sogetsu teacher, Carlyne Patterson, sometimes unexpectedly asked of the class. It is a good challenge as the student does not have the opportunity to plan or over-think the work.

Robyn first made this ikebana using three grassy materials plus some Kiwi vine and crucifix orchid. Her second arrangement is below.

As she had brought a large amount of materials, I lent her a larger vase in which she made this arrangement without using the feathery grasses.

Eugenia arranged three grasses plus New Zealand Flax and a mauve crucifix orchid in a contemporary ikebana vessel.

When she re-worked her materials she also reduced their number and reversed the vessel so that its opening faced away from the viewer. Doing that better emphasised the lines at the base of the ikebana.

Margaret's first ikebana had strong autumnal colouring and included a dried stem with an attractive seed-head. The shape of her vessel restricted the kenzan placement to the centre.

I therefore suggested that she use a suiban for her re-working of the materials. Using two kenzans allowed her to have two strong lines that crossed. 

At the end of our discussions during the critique, Eugenia made the observation that Margaret's work would look stronger with only one long cascading line. We all liked this final version of Margaret's ikebana.

I was interested that the re-working of the initial materials freed up the students and resulted in much bolder arrangements. Of course they no longer conformed to the idea of a 'variety of materials' arrangement, which requires a minimum of five materials. 

Greetings from Christopher
10th March 2019

MIFGS

A VARIETY OF SUMMER MATERIALS

Here on the Surf Coast of Victoria, and across the state, we are having a sudden late hot-spell with four consecutive days in the mid to high 30s celsius. It has taken a good bit of attention to keep the pot-plants alive, as well as the exotic northern hemisphere plants which are planted out in the ground. 

This sulphur-crested cockatoo decided to use the freshly-filled bird-bath, even though I had moved it closer to the house at the end of January. I think it was monitoring my movements in spite of the fact that I was some metres away inside the house.

Near the house is an intermittent creek where the council has landscaped a linear park and created a winding path running along its course. Most of the trees in this photo are indigenous and were planted as part of these improvement works.

Further along the creek a bridge crosses a swampy section where bullrushes and 'common reeds', Phragmites australis, grow very densely. In this part of the parkland there is quite a variety of garden escapees...

 ...and weeds that are useful to the ikebanist. 

I had these materials in mind when I set my students the exercise of making an arrangement 'using a variety of summer grasses'. I really enjoy using these weedy materials as they have a beauty that is easily overlooked by the casual passer-by.

At my Geelong class, Ellie made this arrangement using 5 grasses, one of which had an umbelliferous head that is, almost completely, obscured by the mass of the papyrus head at the front. Poor photography on my part.  

Maureen created a vertical arrangement of tall grasses and emphasised its asymmetry by contrasting the two sides. On the left-hand side she created a series of descending lines by cutting reeds straight across and exposing the white pith within them.

My own example of the exercise uses materials gathered along the creek. I made the arrangement a couple of weeks ago having noticed the rose hips and fennel earlier. By the time I collected them they had already passed their peak, however they still had sufficient vibrancy of colour. 

In this exercise, with a variety of materials, we are advised to choose the colours carefully, otherwise the work can look too busy. Apart from the green stems and leaves, I have only used 'warm' colours. The materials are: bull rush and four naturalised plants: fennel, rose hips, crocosima and dockweed. The vessel is an unusual second-hand Japanese ikebana vase that I bought at the February meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne. 

Greetings from Christopher
3rd March 2019