TWO VESSELS : LEAVES ONLY

I recently set my Melbourne students the exercise of making an ikebana using bare winter branches. In the context of ikebana, this is usually understood to be bare branches characteristic of a northern hemisphere winter. 

Aileen made a horizontal arrangement of bare Japanese flowering quince Chaenomeles, which were in bud. She added a small bunch of Narcissus, giving a fresh feeling that suggests the Spring to come. 

Marcia used red Siberian Dogwood Cornus, Forest bell bush Mackaya bella leaves, and a Camellia 'Brushfields Yellow' flower.

Marisha brought two branches of Japanese Maple Acer palmatum (perhaps A. palmatum 'Burgundy lace'), with desiccated leaves. Her garden is very sheltered from the wind and many of the dried leaves had not fallen. Her centrally-placed fresh material is Alstromeria.

Jacqueline's  lichen-covered branch material is ornamental Prunus, with leaves, and a single, partially hidden, flower of Camellia 'Brushfields Yellow' providing a mass in the centre of the arrangement. 

Last Monday, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School held a workshop which was led by Emily Karanikolopoulos. The two themes she set were: an ikebana 'Using Leaves only' and 'Using two or more vessels'. Four of my students attended and I thought I would include photos of their work. 

 

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Ellie Welkamp

Christine Denmead

Jo Graham

Eugenia Chudacek

For my ikebana I decided to use two standard Japanese vessels, a Suiban and a tall square-section vase, both of which have a Cobalt blue glaze. The tall vase has the vertical corners cut on an angle, thereby giving a small flat section which allowed me to balance it on the corner. I did this to give a feeling of lightness to the placement of that vessel on the rim of the suiban.  

This is the completed ikebana. The tall vessel is lying at a shallow angle on the rim of the suiban. It has a single crossbar inside that holds the green Gymea Doryanthes palmeri leaf above the side of the vessel. A second Gymea leaf is placed vertically and intersects the folded first leaf. The other leaves are Birds nest fern Asplenium australasicum, which were beginning to die off. 

Because I do not have a suitable display place for such a wide arrangement, when I came home I re-worked it into the suiban only. 

Greetings from Christopher

28th July 2024

 

COOTAMUNDRA WATTLE: ACACIA BAILEYANA

It has been very wintery here this last week; cold, wet and windy. However, there have been moments of sunshine and, as I write, the sunshine is flooding into the living room. 

During one of those sunny spells we had a walk along the creek path. To my surprise we saw this Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo, quite low down in a tree. They seem to be a bit skittish when they are surprised in our garden. However, this female moved closer toward us along the branches, chomping through small branches as she moved. I must admit I felt somewhat intimidated by the demonstration of her beak's power and decided to continue walking!

In my Melbourne class...

...Eugenia made an ikebana using bare branches and contrasted them with fresh material. In this case deep red Asiatic Lilies. Her almost square box-shaped vessel is one she made at the Sogetsu Kiln in Echizen. It has a vertical slit at the top left which is helping support the branch which is outside the vessel.

Marcia made a vertical ikebana arrangement with tall straight Oak Quercus, branches which had faded autumn leaves. She added a small floral focus of Jonquils Narcissus jonquilla.

Marisha also made a vertical ikebana using Leucadendron. The bunch of mostly straight stems also included some smaller stems that had grown sideways which were placed to the left of the main line.

Jacqueline made an ikebana with Jasmine Jasminum officinale vine, and a small mass of White Narcissus. The flowers are set above and below the waterline and contained between two crossbars of Narcissus stems. The two glass vessels allow the vine to 'float' in a naturalistic manner. 

In the garden...

...the prostrate Cootamundra wattle Acacia baileyana, has started to flower. These Acacias are one of the joys of winter as the yellow of this particular form is very vibrant and abundant. I decided to use it for my ikebana this week as I missed the opportunity last winter.

Naturally the lines of this form lend themselves to being set in a tall vessel. I chose this tall vase by Pippin Drysdale to create a one-material ikebana. Although there is a single mass cascading forward I have used two principal branches to achieve the desired volume to balance with the vase. 

Greetings from Christopher

20th July 2024

WIND

Editor's note: The orange flower in Maureen's arrangement two weeks ago (30th June) was incorrectly identified. It is a Tagetes not Calendula. Thanks to Fermi, my friend and plant-knowledge guru, for the correction.

In my Geelong class...

...Jo's exercise was to use 'One Kind of Material'. For this exercise she deliberately chose challenging material, two large leaves of Tree Philodendron Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum. Jo dramatically stripped the large leaves to emphasise particular lines inherent in the material and the spaces she created. This was an exercise in exploration of the material.

Maree's exercise was to make a 'Celebratory Ikebana'. She used Delphinium, Eucalyptus leaves, Tagetes and some wild Rapeseed Brasssica napus. 

Maree subsequently sent me a photo of some 'homework'. A revision done at home of an ikebana in a suiban without using a kenzan. The branch material is Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis and the flower is an incurve Chrysanthemum.

Because we are now in winter, I set the senior students the exercise of making an ikebana using both 'bare and leafy branches', flowers being optional.. 

Christine was inspired by the curving lines of this unidentified Hakea from her garden. The contrasting material is an unidentified Banksia.

Ellie used the strikingly coloured 'Peach sticks', which I gather is a cultivar grown for the floristry industry. The flowering material may be Pieris japonica.

Three weeks ago, the guest presenter at the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School workshop was Ray Bywaters. She is the Director of the South Australian Branch of Sogetsu and last year was the recipient of the Norman and Mary Sparnon Ikebana Endowment Scholarship. This is the scholarship that funds active Australian Sogetsu teachers to attend the Sogetsu Head Quarters in Tokyo for three months of classes. 

Ray chose interesting non-curriculum themes for her two workshops. In the first workshop members were asked to make an ikebana in response to the compound Japanese character, “花鳥風月“ Kachoufugetsu. The expression evokes the appreciation of natural beauty. Its literal translation being; flower, bird, wind, moon.  We were encouraged to make a freestyle ikebana drawing on any of the ideas these words evoked in us.

The idea of wind appealed to me and I used a twisting branch of Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata. This small tree grows on the clifftops around Torquay and, because of the strong prevailing winds, it develops twisting forms.

 

This is my ikebana from the first workshop using a small Moonah branch. I have also added some lines of Coastal sword sedge Lepidosperma gladiatum to give the feeling of the directional flow of the wind. The yellow Japanese ikebana vase allowed the branch to balance with one part resting on the table.

This was Ray's demonstration ikebana in the theme of 'wind'. The principal material is the base of a banana leaf stem. She added further lines of New Zealand Flax leaves and a small mass of red synthetic rope. The vessel is by Graham Wilkie.

For further photos from the workshops click on this LINK.

Greetings from Christopher

14th July 2024

ACANTHUS

 

At the end of term two, because it is now winter, I set my Torquay students the exercise of making an ikebana using bare branches. They also had to add some fresh materials. 

 

Lyn's ikebana featured a branch of London Plane Tree Platanus x acerifolia. Although not quite bare, this branch certainly had a late autumn look. On the right side of the vase are some stems of Cotoneaster with red berries attached.

Louise used bare branches from a Nectarine tree Prunus persica. The branches on the left are unidentified. At the mouth of the vase is a small spray of Sweet Pittosporum Pittosporum undulatum leaves and berries. 

Róża used a bare branch of Coast tea tree Leptospermum laevigatum which she positioned to emphasise its sweeping lines. The small contrasting fresh material was Pincushion Hakea H. laurina.

Pamela's materials were not specifically identified. The bare branch was positioned to exploit the counter movement of its lines. The small focus of fresh materials includes a red flowering Eucalyptus

The starkness of Norma's bare branches was highlighted by the small mass of orange-red Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis, which has the function of visually holding the branch lines together and connecting them to the vase.

In the Melbourne class the students' task was to make an ikebana using one material only.

Eugenia brought some Hakea branches that were in flower. She commented that she had deliberately chosen this material for the additional variety of texture and colour in the flowers. The branches had long curving lines that she arranged asymmetrically in a tall nageire vase.

Aileen's material was Bushy Yate Eucalyptus lehmannii. Having first removed all of the leaves, she set the material in two unusual ceramic vessels. The branches have irregular curving lines and feature two stages of the flowers buds and one fully opened flower.

In the garden, the red flowers of the Swan River Pea Gastrolobium celsianum caught my eye in the morning a couple of days ago. The plant is growing beside the garden steps and the early sun was dramatically back-lighting the flowers. It is such a joy to have these flowers open in the middle of winter.

Elsewhere, the herbaceous Acanthus mollis... 

...has recently produced its leaves for the new season. This is one of my favourite large-leafed plants and I am delighted to have it in our garden. It has a particularly beautiful form and I am not surprised that in ancient Greece it was used for the design of Corinthian column capitals. I have been monitoring its growth and decided that I would use this leaf material for my ikebana.

I have arranged a single leaf in a black ceramic vase and added two white Chrysanthemums. Because I wanted to emphasise the curving line of the leaf, as well as the pattern of the ribs on the underside, I placed one of the flowers beneath the leaf. The second flower is set high, contributing to a sense of the materials rising out of the vase. They are set facing slightly away from each other.

The vase is by the Australian ceramic artist Terunobo Hirata.

Those of you who are familiar with Acanthus leaves may be surprised to learn that I picked the leaf over two weeks ago. It is still looking fresh two and a half weeks later. The plant is in its early growth phase for this season and I cut it in the morning on a cool day. After cutting I used a process that I developed a few years ago: Once inside, I re-cut the stem under water. Then I held the base under warm running water while I gently rubbed the cut surface until it stopped feeling slippery. I then placed it deep in warm water (40 degrees Celsius) with 10ml white vinegar per litre, and left it in a cool dark place overnight. 

The plant has quite a sticky sap and I think that after the leaf has been cut from the plant it becomes more sticky, preventing water from being taken up. I use this process with other sticky sap plants.

Greetings from Christopher

7th July 2024