WINTER BRANCHES

Last Sunday I learnt of the death of Alistair Whyte (1954-2023), one of Australia's highly regarded ceramicists. I first met Alistair Whyte through Laurie. In 1989 they were both studying at Monash University, Laurie doing a BA in Japanese Studies and Alistair a Masters Degree in Applied Japanese Linguistics. Earlier, after completing a Diploma of Ceramic design in Bendigo, Alistair spent five years in Japan, first undertaking postgraduate studies in ceramics at the Kyoto University of Arts. He then studied for two years in the studio of Katsuno Hirokuni, a Master Porcelain Potter in Kyoto, before returning to Australia.

Laurie and I had the good fortune to visit Alistair at his Warrandyte studio a couple of times, and over the years have acquired some examples of his work. His style was very refined and varied in form and surface treatment. Below are some examples of ikebana I have created over the years in three of his vessels.

This is a very grainy photograph I took at a class where the exercise was to take into account the colour of the vase. I chose only white flowers because of the intensity of the red glaze, see below.

I distinctly remember seeing this vase sitting on a high shelf covered in dust in Alistair's studio. He explained at the time that he had used this glaze to show his secondary school ceramic students what the glaze would do in the kiln. As it was not what he was working on at the time in his own studio work, he had put it aside.

Laurie bought this elegant black-glazed vase from an exhibition we had gone to in the City of Melbourne. I made this ikebana at a demonstration I gave at one of the garden clubs in Melbourne in 2007. It may have been the first time I used it for ikebana.

This photo is from a workshop given by Yoshiro Umemura in 2012. The exercise was to make an ikebana with an emphasis on asymmetry.

I first posted this photo in May last year. Our neighbour had given me the fruiting branches from a Kentia Palm Howea fosteriana, with the instruction "you can do something with these.". The extreme heaviness of the branch meant that it could not support its own weight.

This photo is from March 2015 when I was asked to make ikebana for an event organised by the Japanese Consul-General's Office that was to promote Japanese Sake.

As you can see, this particular vase is very versatile and has a strong presence that needs an equally strong design for harmony.

  

This third of Alistair's vessels is large, and we bought it at the time of extending the house at Torquay. It has a sprayed-on Chun glaze with patches of orange-red showing through from a second glaze containing iron. A special place was made for it at the end of a corridor leading to the new building. The photo above is of an omukaebana, welcoming ikebana, that I made at the residence of the Consul-General for the reception marking the Emperor's Birthday in 2020.

This week's ikebana in the large urn-shaped vessel includes branches from Elizabeth's Magnolia that was pruned a couple of weeks ago. I have secured two branches together then added four Arum lilies and three leaves, that I harvested from the creek behind the house after donning my gumboots. Having passed the shortest day of the year last Wednesday/Thursday, this qualifies well as a Winter Ikebana.

Vale Alistair Whyte.

Follow this link to a tribute by fellow potter Steve Harrison

Greetings from Christopher

25th June 2023

BRISBANE WORKSHOPS: PART TWO

Last week I showed a photo of a Banksia ericifolia ikebana I had made, and I had mentioned the trimming I did to reveal the line in the ikebana. I thought later that I should have shown before and after photos of the process.

This clearly is "before", showing the quite bushy nature of the branch.

Now in this "after" photo the amount of trimming is revealed. The line is revealed and the space it makes between the flower head and the branch itself. Line is one of the three essential elements that are necessary for a well-constructed ikebana.

The first of the three exercises that were set for my recent Brisbane workshops was to make an ikebana in a suiban emphasising the water and incorporating stone. At the time of setting the exercise I could not remember where I had first come across the idea of including stone in ikebana.

Today I searched my ikebana library and found this book that I bought in Japan in 1992. It was first published in 1970. Ikebana's past has many treasures, and much to teach us.

This was my demonstration example. I selected these two stones from the garden of Wendy Hoskin, the Director of Sogetsu Ikebana Queensland. The black stones, which have white quartz veins, are apparently characteristic of the Brisbane area. The first thing I found preparing this ikebana was that the stone on the right was too big to be in the suiban. When I placed it there it dominated the space making it look congested. As you can see my solution was to use a smaller stone of the same kind placed instead, and to place the larger stone balanced on the rim of the vessel, thus extending the width of the ikebana.

The next exercise was to make an ikebana that extended into the space around the vessel. This was my first example. Although it is not obvious in the photograph I have used two matching tall vessels made of resin. The Strelitzia leaves and flower are clearly reaching to the left side rather than vertically above the vessels.

My second example is one of those things that evolved. I had hoped the branch we found in Wendy's garden could extend horizontally so that one of its side branches would reach down to the table surface to provide support. However, the material, which seemed to be a small self-seeded Morton Bay fig Ficus macrocarpa was not compliant to this idea. As much as I bent the branches, they "un-bent" themselves. Finally, I wired the terminal side branches together into interesting shapes and rested one branch on the top of the vase. I placed two small stems of red-flowering Camellias on top of a lens-shaped cage formed by the terminal stems.

 

The final exercise was to make an ikebana using three non-matching vases. This topic was first set by Thea Sartori for the Victorian Sogetsu Branch at our March workshop.

This is the ikebana I made at that time. I began by arranging the vases in a configuration with which I was satisfied. Then I added the materials linking them.

At the workshop last weekend I approached the exercise differently. This time I placed a back ceramic cube within a squat glass cylinder and placed an egg-shaped green glass vase partially behind the other two. I then added a small number of Australian native flowers and leaves to harmonise with the vases.

In doing this exercise the vases usually will become the dominant element. The Sogetsu School teaches us that in this situation the botanical materials should be secondary.

At the end of the second day we might have been tired but we were still able to smile. 

Thank you to my hosts, including those behind the scene who helped to make the workshops a success.

Greetings from Christopher

17th June 2023
 

BANKSIA ERICIFOLIA

This week I travelled to Brisbane to present two days of workshops to members of the Queensland Branch of the Sogetsu School. One of the workshop themes was to learn how to use ‘dowels” to secure woody branches to make either small or large sculptural elements in ikebana. For larger pieces of wood, dowels may not be quite as strong as metal screws but they are not visible when carefully  done.

In this simple example that I made recently, I used two little wooden sculptural pieces constructed from small cylindrical sections of Birch wood. The upper one, hanging from the vase opening, has eight sections and the lower one, on the table, has five sections. They are aligned so that they form an interrupted curving line across the face of the vase. The fresh material is a single variegated leaf from the narrow leafed Cordyline "Pink passion". These mini sculptures can be seen at close range, so it is important that the joining technique is not visible.

At the workshop, Belinda made this sculpture which could be displayed as a tabletop sculpture or used in conjunction with fresh material in an ikebana work.

This larger, freestanding sculptural ikebana was made by Ann and Helen. In the process of making the sculpture they used pre-cut 10mm diameter dowels. They also made some dowels using kitchen bamboo skewers for some of the finer branches.

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In the garden recently I noticed with pleasure that the Banksia ericifolia had come into bloom. 

These large flower heads are made of many small flowers and have strikingly hooked styles. I wanted to use one of these flowers in a vase that I had bought when I was in New Zealand recently. Because of the nature of the growth of this particular bush I imagined that a single branch could hang beautifully down the side of the vase. However, the branch was too long and would have touched the table surface. Another instance of the material creating constraints on what was possible. What a surprise when the branch sat beautifully in a horizontal position. 

Not a naturalistic arrangement but much more revealing of the character of both material and the vase. I was delighted with the line and the spaces it created, which I emphasised with some judicious trimming.

Here is the ikebana set in the living room niche showing the reverse side of the vase.

The maker is the New Zealand ceramicist Elena Renka. The vase has lovely twisting planes which make the base lift in two opposite corners. In this photo the lifting corner is in the centre .

Greetings from Christopher

11th June 2023

POMEGRANATES

In a recent class...

...Jo's exercise was to make an ikebana in which the aim was to express herself, ("You in Ikebana"). She chose as her material some bright yellow Kniphofia and this unusual vase with two openings of different heights. After some experimentation she settled on this simple design of two crossing lines and a small mass of glossy Magnolia grandiflora leaves. The bright yellow of the flowers appealed to Jo as well as the design of the vessel.

Jo then made a second ikebana using the same flowers, which she contrasted with a bare branch which was covered in yellowish lichen. The branch was set across the opening of a large white vase and was stabilised by the stems of the Kniphofia.

Maree's exercise was to make an ikebana using branch material only. She wisely chose two different kinds of branches, with fruit attached, which gave them a contrasting appearance. The unidentified greenish-yellow fruit was made the principal subject and massed toward the front. The flattening effect of the photograph hides the fact that these branches extend well forward of the vase. The Pittosporum branch, with orange berries and leaves attached, was placed at the right rear of the ikebana to create a feeling of depth. 

Ellie's exercise was to make a freestyle ikebana using camellias. In the two examples below she has minimised the material drawing our attention to the essence of the subject.

In a black suiban she set a single white flower and a stripped branch with its leaves arranged separately.

Her second example is more like an abstract painting. In ikebana terms it conforms to the exercise of "Deconstructing and re-arranging" material. A black Corokia cotoneaster branch sits across a plate in which float rich pink camellia petals and two leaves.

Earlier this week I visited my teacher Elizabeth, who kindly offered me some Pomegranates from the impressive tree in her garden. I also came away with some bare Magnolia branches, maybe Magnolia x soulangeana, which are likely to feature in a future posting.

I selected two pomegranates from Elizabeth's tree. The one in this ikebana is the smaller of the two. I have arranged the leafless branch with a branch of small yellowing leaves from my own small (fruitless) pomegranate. I have added a small cluster of orange Pittosporum undulatum berries with leaves attached in the centre of the ikebana. In addition a red Geranium sits behind the Pomegranate leaves to give an additional colour highlight. I used a black backdrop to photograph the ikebana as it emphasised the colour of the fruit and the yellow leaves. The vase is by the New South Wales ceramicist Ian Jones.

The second and larger pomegranate turned out to be quite a challenge to arrange. It was on a rather fine branch which could only support it hanging vertically. That would mean it would touch the outside of most of my vases which is not acceptable. What to do?

The solution was to find a vessel that the heavy fruit could sit on and still allow it to be seen clearly. The blue bottle-shaped vase on the left provides a brace which prevents the fruit from falling off the one on the right. I set this ikebana up in my class and Jo kindly gave me the vibrant Bloodleaf Iresine herbstii which balances the design.

Greetings from Christopher

4th June 2023