GREETINGS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

At one of the recent term three classes with my Geelong students, the topic for the senior students was to make an ikebana with a feeling of containment or enclosure. By coincidence, and the time of the year, three of the students used Agapanthus as their principal material.

Tess's ikebana focused on the materials apparently arising from the confinement of her contemporary ceramic ikebana vessel. Her principal material is Agapanthus, still in bud. The material is from her garden and all of the stems had a curious "S" curve at the top. The second material, also emerging from the vase, is a  succulent flower massed at the base of the work.

Helen M has used Agapanthus 'gathered from the wild', which also had some curious curves. These were emphasised by their placement on opposite sides of this double necked vase. This makes them appear as a single wandering movement almost diagonal to the upward movement of the principal stem.  

Maureen inverted a single flowering stem of Agapanthus in a narrow glass vase, with the stem reaching strongly upward. She then created a sense of enclosure by draping three Agapanthus leaves that, by their curve, seem to be holding the vase and the flower it contains.

 

Ellie placed a small mass of pink buds within the opening of this donut-shaped vessel. She then emphasised the sense of  containment by inverting a blue painted branch over the vase. The use of two shades of blue on the branch gives it an extra vividness that brings it alive. 

I could not help but comment on how the branch reminded me of an Australian Leafy Seadragon.

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This year I particularly wanted to make a Christmas decoration that was not reminiscent of a traditional tree; that is, not cone-shaped. I was also wanting to use a bare branch or some driftwood. As I was searching about the garden, I suddenly noticed the framework that I had created in early October for the online, "From Melbourne" exhibition, organised by the Wa Ikebana Festival committee.

This is the frame work I had created, in which, for the exhibition, I had massed some blossom of Golden wattle, Acacia pycnantha.

I was delighted to find that the framework fitted perfectly when balanced on the top of the two pillars of the living room sideboard. I have added Christmas baubles in silver and gold and some short, iridescent cellophane streamers.

Depending on your time zone, I do hope that you have had, or are continuing to have, a Happy Christmas. I wish you peace and good health.

Greetings from Christopher

26th December 2021