Last week my Melbourne students' class exercise was an ikebana of "Spring flowers in a suiban". Coincidently, Eugenia and Jacqueline both brought pink tulips, of two different kinds.
Eugenia's tulips appear to be one of the Parrot tulip cultivars. She arranged them naturalistically along with leaves of Spider plant Chlorophytum comosum, using two kenzans.
Jacqueline had planned to arrange her flowers under the curve of some fine stems of Silver Birch Betula pendula. However, this could not be achieved without cutting the tulips quite short. Plan B turned out to be an arrangement with two contrasting curving lines which preserved the beauty of both materials. Quietly we wondered which way the tulips would be facing the following day.
The exercise for my senior students in Geelong was to make an ikebana incorporating the area around the vessel. This is a good exercise in drawing the students attention to the space that surrounds their work which plays a vital role in the way the ikebana is seen. The completed ikebana is defined as being the plant materials, the vessel and the area in which it is situated.
Ellie arranged some red flowering Calistemon and used a green painted structure of disposable Chopsticks ('hashi' in Japanese) to extend the ikebana forward and to the right front.
To extend her ikebana, Maureen has used a single, unusually-shaped piece of dried wood which has several almost right-angle turns. She has also used a complementary square-shaped vessel. The other material is a dried stem of Dock Rumex and a small mass of orange flowers.
Tess has used a lichen encrusted branch of Box Thorn Lycium and Licorice plant Helichrysum petiolare. Her materials extended both forward and to the back in this ikebana
Christine arranged two stems of dried palm inflorescence on one side of a tall black vessel to which she added three flowering stems of Strelitzia.
Ellie arranged some Nasturtium Tropaeolum flowers and leaves in a tall glass vase. She then set the vase within the curve of a large black-painted dried branch; which showed well against the table top but not the portable room-divider.
Jo's exercise was an ikebana using irises, which apparently are flourishing in her garden. She added Rapeseed Brassica napus for its textural and colour contrast, as well as a stem of Japanese maple acer palmatum.
This first ikebana uses one material only, Bushy Yate Eucalptus lehmannii. I have stripped most of the leaves from the branches and left the fascinating buds, flowers and seed pods that all occur on the tree at this time of year. I bought the interesting mid-century Japanese ikebana vase from the late Cherie Glaser a few years ago. A number of her vases and vessels were gifted to the Victorian Branch, some of which were used in the exhibition to honour her gift.
In this second arrangement I have used bare Magnolia branches contrasted with fresh growth on Oak branches. A small number of pale pink Helichrysum flowers provide a colour focus. The large pale blue vessel has a subtle crystal glaze. It is also from Cherie Glaser's estate.
Greetings from Christopher
22nd October 2023
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