BACK TO CLASSES

One of the orchids in last weeks posting was identified by my student Coralie; it was the Tall Leek orchid, Prasophyllum elatum.

With the end of the most recent Covid lockdown and the arrival of Term Four, I have been able to commence classes again in Torquay and Geelong. In Torquay I set the students the task of making an ikebana arrangement with three different materials.

Judy arranged two branches of Prunus with three 'Pinwheel' Leucadendron and two bare branches of a third unidentified material in a suiban. 

Róża arranged a single flower of Echium with a blue-grey leafed succulent and four Lavender flowers. The interesting vase was quite difficult to use because it is narrow front to back, 

 

Coralie arranged a single flowering stem of Japanese water iris, iris ensata, three stems of Germander, Teucrium fruticans, and a small branch of Bluebell Creeper, Billardiera heterophylla. The exercise turned out to be a lesson is the use of a cross-bar fixture, and the pattern of her ikebana is similar to a traditional seika arrangement.

At the Geelong class four of the students were challenged with having to make their ikebana in fifteen to twenty minutes. Then each student exchanged their material with one other and their vessel with another, different student. The process was deliberately designed so that in the second step the materials had to be arranged in a vessel that was not intended for them.

In the following sequence of photographs the first image is of the original ikebana in the creator's own vessel. The second image shows the original material re-arranged in a different vessel.

Helen M created her ikebana with tonally matched materials of a lichen-covered branch, orange Alstromerias and an orange-tipped leafy branch. The tsubo vessel has an iron-grey crackled glaze.

Christine simplified and re-arranged Helen's materials in a pewter-coloured metal vessel emphasising the space under the branch.

Ellie made a vertical ikebana using some Persoonia longifolia, (sold by the florist as 'Snoddy grass'). The wonderful Wikipedia has taught me that it is actually a small tree or shrub from the south of Western Australia in the region between Albany and Perth. She contrasted the green with a vibrant red Ranunculus and unidentified material being a tight inflorescence of lime green spheres and what looked like very small red fruit.

Helen M re-arranged Ellie's material in a larger suiban creating a sense of horizontal movement by crossing the stems.

In a black suiban, Christine created a vertical ikebana with two tall stems of iris, two seed heads of Watsonia, and Nandina flowers and leaves.

Maureen simplified and re-arranged Christine's materials in a suiban. She created a focus on a bud and single flower under the arching seed head of the Watsonia.

Maureen created a vertical ikebana using two Agapanthus flowers and two budding stems. These protrude above three encasing broad, deep-green leaves.

Ellie shifted the focus of Maureen's materials to a single line of a stem in bud. She then reversed the movement of the line by creating gentle curving lines with the leaves that brings the eye back to the two small flowers at the neck of the vase.

A completely different exercise was Tess's challenge. She had to create an ikebana for a particular space and chose the shelf in front of the mirror in her bathroom. Tess showed me a photo of the space and then approximated it in the class room having brought a framed mirror with her. 

Tess's materials were leafy stems of Bamboo and a single orange rose. She created a light open mass with Bamboo using a cross-bar fixture in a Raku-ware vase.

The classes, as always, hold a challenge. The results are delightful; all the more so, when not planned.

I chose this faceted Bizen vase by Hiroshi Toyofuku to set two flowers and buds of Rosa Albertine with a bare branch of the Japanese Flowering Quince. I managed to strike a cutting from our original Albertine Rose, a few years ago. The original had to be removed because of construction works. The cutting survived but is now at risk of being swamped by the Pandorea Pandorana vine on the same fence. 

 

The roses are arranged naturalistically and I have tried to reflect the vase's faceted surface by the use of the Flowering Quince branch. The in-house critic (and editor of this blog) commented that there does not seem to be any space showing at the opening of the vase. In fact it is the dark area below the roses on the left.

Greetings from Christopher

(8.10 pm)  7th November 2021