TWO VESSELS, ONE ARRANGEMENT

A couple of weeks ago I set my Melbourne students the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in which the vessel is the principal subject. When I was a student this exercise was called "Emphasising the container". It arises from one of the 50 principles of ikebana developed by Sofu Teshigahara. In such a situation the flowers and branches play a secondary role to the vessel. To my surprise last week I discovered that I had not included the work of two of the students. 

Eugenia used an irregular donut-shaped vessel with fold lines that create a sense of movement. She has used curving dried acacia stems to complement the form and a small floral focus of Grevillea.
  

Margaret used a large flattened bowl-shaped ikebana vessel from Japan. The vessel is quite narrow from the front to back and a challenge to use. She deliberately placed her materials so as to keep the front surface of the vessel uninterrupted. The branch of driftwood and the pincushion proteas provided a textural contrast.

Last week I attended the Sogetsu Branch workshop that was given by my teacher Elizabeth Angell. She chose as her theme: Two Vessels, One Arrangement, and encouraged members to use non-matching vessels. 

When I attended her class later in the week she had made the arrangement above using five green glass bottles. Of course this is a variation on the principle of her workshop theme. She has supported a dried magnolia branch across the bottles and created three small floral foci. It is important to point out that the bottles are set out in irregular triangles and that two of them do not have any materials in them.

From my bathroom window I can see this Bushy Yate, Eucalyptus lehmannii, that has recently started to flower. In the photo above the flower is the greenish-yellow mop of stamens. To the lower right is the developing seed pod of a finished flower. On the above link is also a photo of the flowers in 'bud' before the flower caps have fallen off. 

This is one of my (many) favourite plants in our garden. Its buds, flowers and seed pods are all unusual and have great sculptural qualities. I thought this material would make an interesting subject for the Sogetsu Branch workshop. 

For my two non-matching vessels I chose a matt-black vessel with a gold and silver leaf decoration and a lustre-glazed bowl. Although different in form and surface treatment they were both made by Greg Daly. I have separated the flowers on their stems from a massed group of seed pods and reversed their colours with respect to the vessels. The black vessel has the lighter coloured flower and the predominately yellow bowl has the dark brown seed pods. At this time of the year when the seed pods are just developing they have a beautiful almost lacquered  appearance.

There are more photos from the workshop via this link.

Greetings from Christopher

23rd November 2019.