Three weeks ago I set the advanced students in my Melbourne class the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in a suiban using bare branches and camellia(s). My expectation was that the work would reflect the winter season. Additionally, the task required the students to practise their technique, particularly with regard to the placement of jushi (the smaller leaves and flowers) that would conceal the kenzan (needle aid).
I was not disappointed with their work.
Margaret used some lichen encrusted branch material and a small deep-red camellia. She kindly shared her material with Helen N, who lives in an apartment.
Helen's arrangement is a freestyle work in the Sogetsu slanting style.
Unfortunately, the flattening effect of these photos does not allow you to see the spreading of the wintery branches.
Eugenia stripped her materials down to strong almost straight lines which she arranged in a black trough.
Marcia used red Dogwood Cornus sanguinea, as her bare branch material, creating an upward sweeping line.
The wintery weather does bring some delights among the Australian native flora.
Last week we went for a walk in Iron Bark Basin, a nearby nature reserve, and came across some early Greenhood orchids. I think this one is Petrostylis melagramma.
Yesterday, in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, I was delighted to see the late afternoon sun illuminating the flower heads of this common reed phragmites australis.
A bit further on I was surprised to see this beautiful Sandpaper wattle, acacia denticulosa from the southwest of Western Australia. The finger like flower heads are dense, velvety and a rich yellow.
This wattle is new to me. The rather untidy sprawling shrub is growing beside the National Herbarium building in the Gardens.
My ikebana this week contrasts mass and line and is made from dried materials.
The intense red leaves are Dwarf Nandina which dries naturally when left in a vase with a little water. The branch materials are the new corky shoots cut from the base of an Elm in a nearby street. I have arranged the materials in a black porcelain vase by the Australian ceramic artist Alistair Whyte.
Greetings from Christopher
1st September 2019
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