MASSED EXPRESSION

A couple of weeks ago I failed to include a photo of my student, Maree's ikebana. Her exercise was the Book 4 lesson using "Dried, bleached or coloured material". The exercise does not preclude the addition of fresh materials. However, they should be secondary to the dried materials. 

 

Maree chose some bark for the warm cinnamon colour of its inner surface, the outer surface being grey. She set the bark inside three large glass cylinders with crushed white stones in their base. This provided a mechanism for supporting the bark without the need for kenzans or other fixing mechanism. She added some Billy Buttons Craspedia canens which gave a bright yellow highlight to the ikebana. The large "rock" outside the left-hand cylinder is actually a piece of foam plastic that has become tan-coloured with age. At the critique I moved the three cylinders into this triangular configuration which gave depth to the work. It also made the ikebana able to be viewed from all around which was much more interesting.

  

The senior students at a recent class were given the exercise of making an ikebana using "summer flowers" in a suiban. In the context of the hot, dry summer conditions typical in the south of Australia, this can be quite a challenge.

Christine chose to use some bright red Nerine sariensis from her garden. She also decided to incorporate some additional "unconventional material" into her ikebana. It is white, plastic-coated wire, used for binding single pages into calendars or book manuals. The wire was unexpectedly heavy and had to be held up with some strong green stems. 

Maureen used the terminal inflorescences of Leucadendron for the flower component of her ikebana. The principal line was a large dried branch sporting clusters of dried Lichen. She placed the Leucadendron stems to complement the branch lines and create interesting spaces in the ikebana.

Tess has a garden with an abundance of summer flowers. Such an "embarrassment of riches" can be a challenge in the world of ikebana where it is often said that "less is more". The difficulty is in choosing what to leave out. Tess's ikebana included a single Rose, blue and pink Statice, Geranium, Sedum and Plumbago auriculata.

On one of our regular walking paths we pass a garden with this very large clump of Belladonna lily which has an especially rich colouring. The clump must be very old as the bulbs have pushed up above the ground surface forming a small mound. I am intrigued by the intensity of the pink flowers.

 

In our garden the Golden Rod Solidago altissima has started to flower more prolifically this year. It is confined in an old concrete laundry trough, the base of which I lined with garden-pool grade plastic. Thus I am able to keep the soil saturated, in spite of temperatures like today's 39C  (!).

This week's ikebana came about because a neighbour kindly offered me the seed head of some Artichoke Cynara cardunculus. A gift this ikebanist could not refuse. I have used three of the flowerheads, the largest to the left front and the other two partially hidden. Two flowerheads of the Golden rod cascade across the smallest of the Artichokes. Only partially seen at the back are some pale pink trumpets of our Belladonna lily.

The green galzed flower bowl is by Isabella Wang.

Greetings from Christopher

9th March 2024