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