WINTER MAGNOLIA

      

In my Melbourne class last week Marisha completed Book 4, the last book of the basic Sogetsu curriculum. She was doing some revision exercises and the final one she chose was an ikebana in a suiban without using a kenzan.

This is the completed work. Marisha had collected some Manchurian Pear (Pyrus ussuriensis) prunings with which she made her structure from two inverted branches. The floral focus was made with a single stem of pink Chrysanthemum and two stems of Snapdragon (Antirrhinum).

The other students' exercise was to make an ikebana using two vessels and in which the materials are intertwined.

Jacqueline used two cylindrical vases for her ikebana. Two branches of Manchurian Pear (from the same source as Marisha's) were fixed using an interlocking technique. Jacqueline then entwined three lengths of Devils Ivy (Epipremnum aureum) which she has growing as an indoor plant. 

 

Marcia used two black vases in which she arranged the climbing Rose "Crepescule" and bare stems from her Wisteria. Marcia created the ikebana to hang over the edge of a shelf in her home where she usually keeps the two vases.

This fourth example of the exercise was made by Mary Fulton, a colleague visiting from Aotearoa New Zealand. She bravely attended the class, taking on the exercise and having to work with unseen materials and unseen vessels. Mary used dried Kiwi Fruit vine that she arranged to the right. Through the vine she looped Dietes leaves creating a loose mass of fresh material.

 

My ikebana this week was made using some bare branches of Magnolia from Elizabeth Angell's garden. The final ikebana is 1.4 Metres wide which is a problem to position in our house as there are no walls that wide which do not contain furniture or artwork. My solution was to set it up in a passage way. On the right side of this photo is a doorway and on the left a window. The two branches are secured with a fine dowel made from a bamboo skewer. To give the work a feeling of freshness and a textural contrast, I placed a single Arum lily leaf at the mouth of the vessel. It extends forward and curves pleasingly around the main branches.  

I worked on the ikebana from this angle arranging the two branches which extend forward. This looked alright seen with binocular vision where the depth is apparent. However with the flattening effect of the photo it looks a little messy, even when re-photographed against a backdrop. 

When I had finished I then had a look from the only other angle possible for viewing.

Imagine my surprise then to see that it looked much better from this side-on angle. I really liked the strong movement to the left that is counterbalanced by the shorter line that curves to the right.

The large wood-fired vessel is by Sergio Sill.

Greetings from Christopher

1st July 2023