CHALLENGING MY STUDENTS

 

This last week I challenged both my advanced Geelong students and my Torquay students by requiring them to create ikebana with unfamiliar material and unfamiliar vessels. Each student was asked to bring both material and a vessel to class. Logically, students were likely to bring materials and a vessel that would combine satisfactorily. To make this exercise perhaps slightly more difficult, the students were given material from one of their colleagues and a vessel from another. 

I felt that the students did the task well, producing interesting and attractive ikebana. One of the most surprising and unexpected aspects was that often there was a close harmony between the colour of the vessel and the material. With a couple of the arrangements the vessel and material had a strong colour contrast.

The Torquay class was only small, so I participated in the exercise myself.

Coralie made this ikebana with a fine leafed Leptospermum, and small pale pink Carnations. The turquoise and pink glazed vase was from my own collection. 

  

In a tall glazed vase, Marta created a design with curving lines of Dietes leaves and  Western Australian rose coneflowers, Isopogon formosus.

 

Judy made a slanting design with Leptospermum laevigatum and Centranthus ruber, from my garden.

In the Geelong class...

...Tess was presented with Elllie's vase and Maureen's materials. She arranged the Strelitzia reginae leaves and flowers in a visually strong blue vase which contrasted with the orange of the flower's petals. The mass created with the leaves sits above the vessel creating a space which lightens the ikebana.

Maureen, with Tess's vase and Christine's materials, created an ikebana with strong lines that direct the eye to the intense blue of the iris flower and vertically placed bud.

Christine, with Maureen's vase and Helen's materials, created a bold design using two stems of Beschorneria septentrionalis The intense pink of the stems contrasts with the deep blue of the plastic cylinder.

Helen, with Christine's vase and Ellie's materials, a cultivar of Larkspur Consolida "Sublime", created a massed ikebana stretching to the left of the vase. I was fascinated to see the coincidental colour match between the flowers and the irregular splash of pale blue glaze on the righthand side of the vase. Unfortunately, the flattening effect of the photo hides the fact that the flower mass stretches well forward of the vase.

Ellie, with Helen's vase and Tess's materials, also created a surprisingly colour matched ikebana. The mass on the left stretches well forward and on the right stretches to the rear. The photographic angle hides some small yellow Jerusalem sage flowers, Phlomis fruticosa, that was placed between the two masses.

My own ikebana was made in the morning class. I was given Judy's flat-sided glass vase and Marta's materials, some stems of Kiwi vine, Actinidia deliciosa and cerise Cineraria deltoidea.

I found the flower buds on the vine to be the most interesting aspect and therefore removed almost all of the leaves which tended to be floppy as well as obscuring the buds.

This is my completed ikebana. In addition to removing leaves I also added the curve to the tall line that extends to the upper right. This particular branch was originally completely straight and vertical which looked very awkward. The cineraria provide a very small intense area of colour in the centre of the ikebana behind a mass of flower buds.

Greetings from Christopher
5th November 2022