TWO VESSELS

   

For the second year (in its already fairly long life !!) the Wisteria in the garden has flowered. From reading the Wikipedia article I now know that the plant in our garden is Wisteria sinensis. 

Among other things, I have learnt that it is slow to flower and may  also be unpalatable to possums. I have great hopes for the future of this vine. 

Also in the garden the Callistemon, now re-classified to Melaleuca viminalis, is really starting to flower. I included a photo of this bush two weeks ago when the first flower of this Spring started to open. The photo above is just the top quarter of the bush. As we walk around the neighbourhood it is amazing to suddenly notice all the red flowers that have opened on bushes that, at other times, just blend into the green background. I have been planning to use the Callistemon in my ikebana this week... 

...along with some Coastal-beard Heath, Leucopogon parviflorus. This is a large bush in our garden which has just come into flower in the last couple of weeks. To my naked eye the end of the branches are covered in clusters of very tiny white flowers like five point stars. They are only about 5mm across when fully open.

Interestingly, when photographed close-up and then zoomed they look like they are made from white velvet. A branch of these white flowers is the second element of my ikebana.

The challenge is a topic for the September workshop of the Sogetsu Victorian Branch, set by Akemi Suzuki. She has modified the curriculum exercise of making an ikebana, "Using two or more vessels". Akemi's added level of challenge is that the vessels must either: touch, be stacked or interlock in some way.

In thinking about the topic I considered using these three vases by Ray Pearce in this configuration. However, I decided that the uniformity of their shape ended up being restrictive and not very dynamic. 

I finally chose this uniquely-shaped vessel by Graeme Wilkie...

...and this small suiban by Robert Schulze. Although they differ in shape and were made by different ceramicists, they both have a shino glaze which helps unify them. 

After some experimentation I decided to use Graeme Wilkie's vessel in this position. I had never placed the vessel like this before and what appealed to me was to discover that, on the righthand side, it is supported on a single point. It also allowed me to complement the form of the vessel with the extended curving line of the Calistemon.

 

My final version was to add the suiban with the Coastal Beard Heath rising in a counter-balancing upward curve. This created a circle of movement and preserved the interesting space beneath the first vessel as well as the spaces created by the materials.

More examples of this exercise can be seen on the Victorian Branch website through this link.

Greetings from Christopher

19th September 2021