A week ago Laurie and I were delighted when we saw a relative of Spike in the Iron Bark Basin reserve. It is unusual to see Echidnas at this time of year as they tend to hibernate.
I took this photo from some distance away, so it is rather blurred.
Two weeks ago in my Geelong class, while the other students were arranging with Narcissus...
...Maree made an ikebana incorporating vine. In this case she used Hardenbergia violacea, to which she has added a closely- colour coordinated purple Kale, and a mass of colour contrasting Acacia blossom.
Coincidently, this week I had set the senior students the exercise of making an ikebana using vine and incorporating Dutch Iris, Iris x Hollandica.
Ellie used Honeysuckle Caprifoliaceae, from which she had stripped all the (rather flakey) bark. She set her ikebana in a tall multi-opening vessel and added yellow Dutch Iris as the floral focus.
Christine used fine vine twined into a loose circle which stretched forward embracing the blue iris flowers.
Maureen created an eye-catching mass of silver-coloured dried vine to match her tall metal vase. The iris flowers were set behind the mass of silver lines.
Tess arranged spreading lines of a pale Hardenbergia in a bottle-shaped vase. She set a small mass of blue iris in the centre of the ikebana.
Jo revisited her exercise of making an ikebana in a suiban without a kenzan. The large ikebana had strong slanting and vertical lines, the latter being emphasised by the single green line of an Arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica.
Maree's ikebana exercise was to use fruit bearing branches. The material is Orange Citrus x sinensis, which need a lot of pruning to show the branch lines and the brightly coloured fruit. Adding to the difficulty was devising a fixing mechanism to stop the branch from rotating anticlockwise.
The principal subject of my ikebana this week is Flowering Japanese Quince Chaenomeles. The branches in this ikebana had already been in the vessel a few days while I waited for more of the buds to open. As the flowers open, after being cut and placed in a vase, they become progressively more pale. I have set them with some small leaves of Acanthus which I particularly admire for the beauty of the shape and the rich glossy green of their surface.
With my colleagues; (L-R) Swan Lam, (me) and Aileen Duke, I have been busy over the last couple days. We were responsible for the preparation and installation of the Sogetsu School's contribution to the Hiroshima Peace Day service at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter has provided a large and small ikebana for this service for the last several years by rotation among the various schools of ikebana.
Greetings from Christopher
6th August 2023
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