UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIAL and VEGETABLES

Last Wednesday morning we walked to Bell's Beach, where this Australian magpie Gymnorhina tibichen was perched on a post watching the activity of the humans. The warbling or chortling sound of magpies is a favourite of mine as it is musical and sounds quite complex to my ears. If you click on the link above and scroll down there are some links to magpie song.

 

In the evening two days later ...

...a cold front with strong winds came from the south-west causing a large swell. There was a lot of white water between the widely spaced waves.

This zoomed photo shows a large "bow wave" on the ship-like "Bird Rock" at the end of Jan Juc beach. The temperature had fallen from the low 20s to 12 Celsius (!). Changeable spring weather.

In early August I had set my senior students the exercise of making an ikebana incorporating Dutch Iris Iris x hollandica and vines. Last week, while trawling through my photo library, I discovered that I had not included the photos below from my Melbourne class; the reason being that my classes in Geelong and Melbourne are on completely different schedules. Here are the photos from my Melbourne students:

Eugenia used an upright, conjoined vase with two parts of different size. She made the vine the principal subject curling it down the vase and between its feet. To maintain the focus on the vine she reduced the iris to a small mass of two flowers, one being partially obscured.

Marcia created an upright ikebana using the iris as the main subject. She supported a small line of Jasmine on a single bare branch that looped to the side of the main lines.

Marisha used a long looping stem of what I think is Star jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides without flowers. The low angle of the photo fails to capture the way the iris flowers sat within the loop made by the Jasmine vine

Jacqueline used a dried branch which she sat across a trough-shaped vessel. She twined some Jasmine around the branch, using it as a support, and placed her iris off-centre in the trough to make a strong vertical line.

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Last weekend the Victorian Branch held a workshop that was led by Elin Dahlin, a Sogetsu practitioner from Sweden. The topic she chose to present combined two Sogetsu curriculum themes: 1. an ikebana using unconventional materials, and 

2. an ikebana incorporating fruit or vegetables. 

Branch members were asked to being their own vessels and unconventional materials. The Branch supplied vegetables and fruit which were allocated by drawing lots.

I decided to bring three square sheets of expanded metal mesh that I had saved when our kitchen rangehood was replaced a few years ago. As we say, "You never know when that might come in handy". I had used the mesh once before at an Ikebana International workshop. This time I was interested in the idea of trying to created the illusion of some fruit or vegetable penetrating the mesh.

This close-up photo shows a purple carrot that I have cut into pieces. I then passed a skewer through the mesh and  pushed the matching pieces together on either side of the mesh. The carrot is actually in three pieces, which does not show in the photo. 

This is my finished work with two carrots cut into three parts each, separating two sheets of mesh. I have also used a stem of lemon grass that provided a support function, a lime and half a pomegranate. It was an interesting experiment, but not a very satisfactory ikebana. Its weakness is that the vegetables are too evenly scattered. It would be much improved if they were clustered together forming a mass. However, all experiments like this are learning exercises and it was good to work again with the mesh to explore how it can be used.

Click here to see further photos from the workshop, held on 

2nd September 2023.

Greetings from Christopher

9th September 2023