YELLOW SPRING FLOWERS

At class last week I set some of my students the exercise of making an ikebana arrangement in which the vessel is the principal subject. This comes from the principles developed by Sofu Teshigahara, founder of the Sogetsu School. He wrote, "...if the container is the main focus, then the flowers should be secondary to it...'. 

I think the challenge in this exercise is to make an interesting and attractive, but modest, ikebana that accentuates the vessel being used.

Julie used a small gourd-shaped vessel with a particularly interesting under-glaze design. The design is an ancient map of the islands of Japan, with the domains marked out. Her materials were a single bare line of tortuous willow and part of a pale pink hydrangea flower-head.

Marcia chose a very unusual glass vessel with a curving form. Its shape was emphasised by a black line that ran from the large opening at the top to the finer opening at the other end. The material she used is a single leaf of New Zealand Flax. This has been split into several lines for half its length. As the leaf was inserted into the vessel it was twisted, resulting in multiple curving lines accentuating the form.

At a class with my teacher Elizabeth the exercise was: 'An arrangement using a variety of materials'. An additional criteria was added that the materials should be spring flowers. I noticed that there were a number of yellow Australian native flowers blooming at that moment...

 ...including this small Everlasting Daisy, Chrysocephalum apiculatum that is growing well in our garden.

This tight little bunch of flowers are all on the one stem.

I thought that using a variety of small yellow flowers would work well in a brightly coloured lustre-glazed bowl by Greg Daly. 

Then I realised that a little zing of red would give the ikebana a lift. The red flowers are Freesia laxa which like moist conditions, and therefore don't grow in our garden.

This 3/4 side view gives a sense of the forward reach of the longest of the Billy Button, Craspedia, stems.

Today I also want to mention the exciting success of my colleague Emily Karanikolopoulos. In a collaborative working relationship, with the Victorian sculptor John Meade, they were successful in being awarded the Southern Way McClelland Commission in 2018. This is a commission for a public sculpture that is set along a section of the Southern Way freeway south-east of Melbourne. The sculpture was unveiled on 24th October and details are posted on  Emily's blog. I was delighted to be able to visit it on the following weekend. If you are in the vicinity some time in the next couple of years it is highly recommended. Congratulations to Emily and John.

Greetings from Christopher,
10th November 2019