MOTHER'S VASE

 

The bright sunshine and almost windless, calm air on Saturday lured Laurie and I out to walk with friends, Heather and John. 

They chose a delightful beach walk along a short section, between Anglesea and Aireys Inlet, of the Great Ocean Walk. We were in luck as the tide was very low and were able to explore beaches that we had not previously walked along.

It is always fun to discover 'new' places like this natural arch between two beaches, where Heather and Laurie posed for me;

and later, with John as well in the photo, they posed with the Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet in the background.

A closer view of the lighthouse and Eagle Rock from the beach.

Earlier on our walk I took the opportunity to photograph a small section of clay that was composed of pink and cream alternating layers.

The layers are very strangely folded together...

...which immediately brings to my mind larger scale patterning of alternating colours sometimes seen in aerial photos. Also it reminds me of the surface patterning of Pippin Drysdale's ceramics.

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In my Geelong class this week I set the senior students the exercise of making an ikebana with berry bearing branches.

Helen stripped all the leaves from the branches to make this large double vessel ikebana using Cotoneaster. The removal of all the leaves creates a bold statement because of the reduced colour palette and the intense red of the berries.

Ellie created her ikebana in a glass vase with the main element being a red painted Corokia that she submerged inside the vase. She then added a Cotoneaster branch with red berries as well as some white berries.

 

Maureen used branches of Sweet Pittosporum, Pittosporum undulatum, for her ikebana which she arranged in a copper vessel. She carefully defoliated the branches to show the lines while preserving some of the glossy leaves and showing the matte orange berries.

Tess chose Mirror Bush Coprosma repens, as her subject material. She also removed quite a lot of the leaves to show the lines and the fairly sparse orange berries.

Maree's curriculum exercise was to make an ikebana "Using Flowers Only". It is quite a difficult task given that the element of line is so important. She she created a gentle S-curve, with vividly coloured Snapdragon Antirrhinum, which is contrasted with a mass made with orange Chrysanthemums.

Earlier in the week I attended a workshop meeting of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter. The focus of the meeting was to make an ikebana referencing our Mothers or mother figures in our lives. Today, the second Sunday in May, is Mother's Day.

This very simple ikebana was my offering. As I said to the members, it was not really about the camellia stems and flowers. It was about this vase that was made by my mother in 1955 when she attended evening pottery classes in Melbourne.

When I look at this vase I am impressed by the skill she developed very quickly in just a couple of years. We then moved to Torquay and that was the end of her pottery classes. I had never previously used the vase, which was given to me only a few years ago by one of my brothers. Oddly, it is only in this last week that I have realised that my awareness of the beauty and unique qualities of hand-made ceramics dates back to my early childhood.

Greetings from Christopher

14th May 2023