GEELONG JAPANESE SUMMER FESTIVAL

In the warm weather on Friday afternoon we had a visitor to the garden. Our irregularly seen visiting Echidna was searching for ants that have nests under the brick paving on the terrace.

Man and Echidna, Laurie capturing the visit on his phone camera through the living room window. 

Because of the very poor eyesight of Echidnas you can easily observe them at close quarters if you keep still and do not cause vibrations through the ground.

It certainly must take a lot of ants to provide sufficient sustenance to keep this little creature alive. Since the drought in the early 2000s we have not had a lawn in our garden. Instead, we have large areas of mulch interspersed with ground cover plants. The result is an environment that is favourable to ants. 

On Saturday 30th November the Japanese Association of Geelong held its second Summer Festival, in which I and my senior students from the Geelong class were pleased to participate. There were a large range of activities and displays including: music, taiko drumming, martial arts, cosplay, handcrafts, traditional foods to eat, calligraphy classes and of course our ikebana and much more. 

Because such an event brings many visitors who are unfamiliar with ikebana, I set up this basic slanting arrangement using Plum branches and Snapdragon, Antirrhinum flowers. It is important that visitors see work that they can imagine creating in their own homes.

Ellie created this ikebana, using 'dried materials only', that worked as a freestanding sculpture and which did not need a vessel. The stripped wood has three Billy Button Craspedia flowers creating a geometric focal point.

In a tall stainless steel metal vase, Maureen created a line and mass ikebana using fine dried branches and focal point of red Alstroemeria flowers.

Christine made an ikebana on the theme of 'using fruiting branch' material. She has used a single lichen-encrusted branch from her lemon tree. The ceramic vessel is by Graeme Wilkie.

Ellie's second work is of 'dried and fresh' material using a bare branch with lichen and three Chrysanthemum flowers in a white ceramic vessel.

Helen Q. re-worked a mass and line ikebana that I had shown a couple of weeks ago. The materials are Smoke Bush Cotinus and Hydrangea. The almost black Japanese ceramic vase has an 'oil spot glaze'.

My second ikebana is a New Year arrangement of pine and white Chrysanthemum in a Shigaraki tea storage jar. I have added some red and white mizuhiki, the paper strings that are traditionally used on celebratory occasions.

Here is a link to a short video by Mr Ian Mac of the: Geelong Japanese Summer Festival, which Laurie says I should tell you includes a 2 second view of my back.

Greetings from Christopher
1st December 2019