LEAVES ONLY IN AN UPRIGHT VASE

This week I set some of my Torquay and Melbourne students the task of making an ikebana arrangement incorporating any kind of Narcissus and one or more kind of some other flower material. It is the season for Narcissus flowers and I thought the additional challenge would encourage the students to think "outside the square". I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed.

Lyn created this ikebana with the principal subject being the strong diagonal line made with two variegated leaves of New Zealand Flax Phormium. These lines are balanced by a counterposed linear mass of yellow Daffodils at the base. A small pale green Anthurium sits low down behind the line of the flax.

Coralie also made a simple ikebana with a strong design using two Aspidistra leaves and three Daffodils for the main elements. She has emphasised the space between and under the leaves. Her second flower material was an Anthurium provided by her class-mate Lyn.

In the Melbourne class, Jacqueline arranged a single stem of white Narcissus Jonquilla low in the group of green Chrysanthemums. She also set a stem of Jasmine Jasminum, curving over the surface of the water on which she floated a large number of Jonquil flower heads.

In a modern Japanese ikebana vase, Eugenia placed three Daffodils as the focal point in her ikebana, setting them beneath a large ornamental Kale . The branch material is Leafless Acacia A. aphylla, from her own garden.

Chen's exercise was to make an Upright Variation No 1 in the Nageire style. I think the branches are from an Ash tree Fraxinus. The floral material is one of the many Grevilleas. In this variation, the Shin line is placed opposite the Support line and leans toward the rear. This dramatically opens up the space between these two lines.

Aileen's exercise was to create an ikebana using leaves only, in an upright vase. She used a Monstera leaf as the principle material which she cut in quite an interesting way. Look closely at the upper left of the leaf. Her additional materials were Fatsia Japonica, showing both the upper and lower sides of the leaves, and a single strong angled line of New Zealand Flax. 
 

My ikebana this week is this same exercise. Once again, one of the leaves on the Tree Philodendron Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum in the conservatory has started to turn yellow; so it has become the main subject of my ikebana.

I set the leaf in a tall black vase which has three openings, one at the top and one on each side. To complement and contrast with the Large leaf, I added two New Zealand Flax leaves that were heat damaged on one of the extremely hot dry days last summer. The upper surface of those leaves developed interesting markings in several shades of brown. I felt that the large yellow leaf required strong accompanying materials as well as a visually strong vase.

Greetings from Christopher

17th August 2025

A DIAGONAL LINE OF FLOWERING QUINCE

 

This year part of the clump of red Japanese Flowering quince Chaenomeles, seems to be flowering more prolifically that in previous years.

I must have planted this Flowering quince about thirty five years ago. It is a delight to see part of this bush as I look from the west-facing kitchen window, especially when the late afternoon sun shines through the petals.

There is also a white Flowering quince in the garden. It was grown from a cutting and given to me by my colleague and Ikebana friend Joan. 

The third variety of Flowering quince in the garden is this one that was given to me by a former work colleague and friend Shirley. Appropriately, it is called Chaenomeles "Apple Blossom".

I have a new student in my Geelong class who recently created a Basic Upright ikebana, the first exercise in the Sogetsu curriculum. 

Susie did not have suitable branches and so I suggested that she use her long stems of Gladiolus for the principle lines and the seed head of Bursaria spinosa for the Hikae, 'flower line".

I asked my advanced students to make an ikebana "Using Camellia with Pine and or Willow". 

Maree used a very interesting vessel made from a folded ceramic cylinder, which has two openings.The lower part of the cylinder extended the left side. That leftward line was balanced by having the fine Tortuous willow Salix, curving to the upper right. Two variegated Camellias, provide focal points and the freshness of live material.

Maureen also used Tortuous willow, in this instance a thick branch that was placed outside the vessel to create a dramatically strong diagonal line. Two white camellias created a floral focus.

Christine placed her curving branch of Tortuous willow in a suiban so that it made an arch of multiple irregular lines. Nestled beneath the arch is a single, bright red Camellia flower, also curving to the right.

Helen used a large glass vase in which she set a single straight branch of Japanese Black Pine Pinus thunbergii, at a shallow angle to the right. Two pink Camellias create a floral focus at the opening of the vase. The clear glass gives a feeling of lightness to the ikebana.

Ellie also used a large branch of Tortuous willow which she extended to the right of her lacquered vase. The floral focus on the left side of the vase draws attention to the short thick base of the willow branch.

For my ikebana this week, I was delighted to be able to use some of the red Flowering quince from the garden.

Here is the work placed in the living room wall niche. I have used a single branch of the Flowering quince. The diagonal line that extends from the lower left to the right side are separate side-branches that attach to the main stem very closely together. I have put a kink in the highest branch so that it reinforces the movement of the main diagonal line. A mass of Geranium leaves sit at the opening of the vase. Some fixing techniques were necessary to hold the main line at this angle as the righthand side was relatively heavy.

 

I took this photo against a screen and from an elevated position. This is more true to how the ikebana looks in the niche when viewed from a standing position.

The vase is by the Japanese born Australian ceramicist, Terunobu Hirata.

Greetings from Christopher
9th August 2025

VERTICAL IKEBANA

In my Melbourne class this week, Chen was repeating the very difficult exercise of creating a Basic Upright nageire. That is an ikebana set in a tall straight-sided vessel. 

On this occasion, he was creating a reversed, or mirror image, version of the arrangement. That meant the principal line is on the right hand side, rather than the left. He used very thick Olive Olea europaea branches, and small button Chrysanthemums for the hikae (flower line).

Julie-Ann created a slanting arrangement in a suiban. Her unidentified branch material came from a friend's garden. The flower material, Alstroemeria is also homegrown from the friend's garden.

The exercise I set for the senior students was to make an ikebana arrangement in a tsubo (spherical) vessel using a single crossbar fixture.

In her arrangement, Aileen used Japanese Flowering Quince Chaenomeles, for the principal branch. The secondary materials are Eucalyptus leaves and some white Freesia flowers.

Marcia used some unidentified branch material, and some Hydrangea for the focal point on the right side. 

Jacqueline reused some Cypress stems for her main line and variegated Camellias for her focal point in the centre of the arrangement.

Unfortunately, Marisha's material, Leucadendron, had stems that were too fine to split across the horizontal bar fixture. So she completed the exercise with a different fixing technique, in this case using unconventional crossbars.

Eugenia used Eucalyptus stems for her branch material, and some interesting spidery, pale yellow Gerberas for her focal material. She also added a line on the left using a dried branch which swept forward, embracing her vessel. 

In my Geelong class on Thursday, I demonstrated a Basic Upright ikebana arrangement for two new students. When I came home, I decided to rework the materials. 

I have made a vertical arrangement with the original Shin line, and its supporting line. To them, I have added four light-yellow roses. Laurie described it as an arrangement of branches, with hidden roses. I had to agree with his description. Of the four roses only one can be seen clearly.

The suiban is by the New Zealand ceramicist, Elena Renka.

Greetings from Christopher

3rd August 2025

 

USING GOLD LEAF

We are really feeling the cold this week. This is because of the poorly-timed (winter) re-roofing of our house in Torquay. One of the necessary processes was the decommissioning of the gas heater in the living room. Fortunately, we have heating elsewhere in the house and we are able to stay warm.

A sure sign of winter in this part of the world is the start of the blossoming of the Australian Wattles, acacias. Among the early flowering wattles, I noticed this beautiful Acacia baileyana a couple of days ago in a nearby garden. It is one of the most abundantly flowering wattles that we see locally. Sadly, the large Acacia baileyana in our garden came to the end of its life a few years ago. However, it is a pleasure to see these wonderful trees in the depths of winter. 

Last week, I posted this photograph of a reworked arrangement, to which I had added some white Narcissus. In this case some jonquils, one of the many species of the Narcissus genus.

Two of my Geelong students, Maree and Jo, sent me photographs recently of some ikebana arrangements they had made using Narcissus. They had taken the opportunity to make these arrangements using flowers from Jo's garden. Above is an ikebana Jo made using white Jonquils, in which the leaves have been arranged into a triangular design. The flowers form a point of focus at the top of the arrangement.

Maree's arrangement is also made with Jonquils from Jo's garden. She arranged the naturally-curving leaves to create an asymmetrical structure around the small mass of yellow flowers.

At the beginning of the week, I attended a workshop of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu school. The workshop was led by one of the teachers, Akemi Suzuki, who demonstrated techniques for using artificial gold leaf and gold powder on large leaves in an ikebana arrangement. She presented this topic as she had recently attended a workshop on the theme at the Sogetsu headquarters in Tokyo.

This is my arrangement from the workshop. I had cut two philodendron leaves, one of which had started to yellow on one side. I thought it looked particularly beautiful, especially after I had cleaned it with some white oil. I decided that the yellow colour would not look good with gold added to it. So I applied three small patches of gold leaf on the smaller lower leaf. Because the two leaves had significant visual strength, not much else was required to complete the ikebana. All I added was a small piece of driftwood placed at the top of the larger ot the two vessels.

More photographs from the workshop can be viewed via this link: Gold leaf and  powder workshops.

After the workshop, I re-set the ikebana at home, altering the positioning of the vessels and bringing the driftwood to the front of the arrangement.   

Greetings from Christopher
27th July 2025

 

RE-USING MATERIALS

A couple of weeks ago I had a class with my Melbourne students for the first time since returning from holidays. Two of the students are studying Book 1 of the Sogetsu curriculum. For those of us who are teachers it is a pleasure to see the changes in the students as they start to see the botanical world anew through their "ikebana eyes". 

Julie-Ann's exercise was to make a Slanting Variation No. 1. This means that the shorter branch supporting the main line is angled away to the back. The change in position creates a larger space between those two stems.

 

Chen's exercise was to repeat the Basic Upright, Nageire style. Unfortunately we had to fossick for material at the last minute, so the principal branches are not entirely satisfactory. However, it was a good learning exercise because the branches were thick enough to practise this difficult fixing correctly.

Because it is winter, I had set the advanced students the exercise of making an ikebana with Camellias using either willow or pine as a second material.

In the absence of pine (or willow) Marisha used Cypress, another member of the Conifer family. Her freestyle arrangement has the basic structure of a Variation No 3.

In this arrangement, Jacqueline chose to use a clear glass vase. She had some left-over stems of tortuous Willow Salix, at home which she used in the arrangement. For the purpose of balancing the design she added some willow inside the vase. The Camellias are in a small tube.

Aileen was given some variegated Pine Pinaceae, with quite short stems, by an ikebana friend. She made a freestyle arrangement, adding a single "Brushfields yellow" Camellia. The vase is by the Australian ceramicist Ian Jones.

Aileen made a second ikebana in this low modern tubular ikebana vessel. The pine formed a stretched S-shaped curve from the centre of the vessel to the left side.

My own ikebana this week is an example of re-using materials. 

The structure, which I made with some Japanese Quince Chaenomeles, branches on 29th June, still looked fresh. It was just beginning to show the development of some tiny leaves, so I added a bunch of white Narcissus. I was very happy with the result as the tall straight lines harmonised well with the branches. It also made the focal point of the ikebana higher in the arrangement than in the earlier version.

Vessel by Phil Elson

Greetings from Christopher

20th July 2025

KATH DACY 1926 -2025

Today I pay tribute to my ikebana friend and colleague Kath Dacy who died last Wednesday at the age of 98. Kath was a student of the late Norman Sparnon, as were many of Australia's early ikebana community. She also was a student of the late, highly regarded, Victorian teacher Ursula Breit. 

Kath was a qualified high school art teacher before she was introduced to the art of ikebana, which became a lifelong passion for her. She served as the Deputy Director of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School in 1993 and 1994, and as the Director in 1995 and 1996.

Like many of her peers, Kath was drawn to the bold, modern feeling of strength, as well as beauty, in ikebana. I cannot date this photograph but think it might be the 1980's.

I first met Kath in the early 2000's when I joined the Victorian Branch as a recently qualified Sogetsu teacher. We got to know each other over time as she occasionally spent the weekend at a holiday house nearby in Torquay.

This photo shows Kath working on her floor-based ikebana arrangement at the Victorian Branch's 50th anniversary exhibition in Federation Square 2014.

Again at the 50th anniversary exhibition preparations. 

I always enjoyed discussing ikebana with Kath. Her perspective on ikebana seemed to me to be profoundly influenced by her training and her practice as an art teacher. I feel enriched by her insights and analysis of ikebana.

Kath died at ninety eight; a long life committed to education and the enjoyment and creation of things of beauty. Although her body became frail, ikebana was always an inspiration for her.

This photo is of her Ikebana at the Sogetsu School's Victorian Branch exhibition in 2013 at the Malvern Artists' Society Gallery.

Vale Kath, and thank you. 

Christopher

12th July 2025

SMALL WINTER IKEBANA ARRANGEMENTS

As an Ikebana practitioner I have a particular appreciation of the conditions in winter where I live. The climate of the southern coastline of mainland Australia is 'Mediterranean'. That means hot dry summers and cold wet winters. It means there is still plenty of green to be seen during winter. This is particularly because Australia is blessed with native evergreen trees being the rule, rather than the exception. 

Here is an interesting example in this photograph I took in the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne this morning. In the foreground, deciduous trees from China and North Asia in their autumn colour, while in the background are Australian evergreen eucalyptus trees. 

To ikebana.

On Saturday, Ikebana international Melbourne Chapter held a workshop which I was unable to attend. The guest presenter's topic was 'The Way of Tea'. It reminded me of some ikebana that I had seen in 2023 when I participated in an 'Art, Architecture and History Tour' in Japan. 

The following two photos are of some ikebana I saw arranged in a traditional tokonoma, the display alcove of a traditional formal Japanese room.

This ikebana was in a National Trust of Japan property in Tokyo, built for Mr Yoshisaburo Fujita.

I photographed this small ikebana in a hanging vase in one of the houses in the Samurai district in Kanazawa.

I was prompted to make this very simple ikebana arrangement.  I have used two leaves of an unidentified ground lily (I think) and a small sprig of Brushfields yellow Camellia with an opening bud. I have discovered that I have not catalogued the vase and will have to go back to my paper records.

To make today's ikebana ...

...I gathered a single small branch of Manchurian pear Pyrus ussuriensis, from the garden of our apartment, with which I created a late-autumn, early-winter ikebana arrangement. The Manchurian pear is growing in a very sheltered position. So it still has quite a lot of green leaves, despite it being early July. I gathered the spent seedheads of some Dietes for their slightly nutty brown colour, and also the feeling of late autumn that they provide. The bottle-shaped vase is by Jamie Beeston.

Greetings from Christopher

6th June 2025

IN A SHALLOW VESSEL WITHOUT A KENZAN

 

In this part of the world, it is most distinctly winter in spite of the bright sunshine seen in the photograph below

The large expance of white water is an indication of the strong prevailing winds from the south west, bringing cold weather at this time of year.

A couple of days ago, the bright early morning sunshine created a rainbow in the misty rain. Because the sun was low, the rainbow stretched from horizon to horizon. Unfortunately, I could not capture that in this photo.

Also, during last week, Laurie and I were delighted to come across this male Gang-gang cockatoo feeding on a shrub in a neighbours front garden. These are delightful parrots. I am always amazed that they are so unperturbed by the presence of humans, looking at them and taking photographs at close range.

Last Monday, the Victorian branch of the Sogetsu school held workshop, which was led by Emily Karanikolopoulos. The subject of the workshop was an arrangement in a suiban without a Kenzan. This style of arrangement shifts the focal point of the botanical materials to higher in the arrangement. It also emphasises the space in the suiban, as well as the surface of the water.

I was not able to attend the workshop because my right arm is recently out of plaster and still quite weak. This means that I cannot manipulate materials satisfactorily. At present, I am also unable to drive. I decided that although I could not attend the meeting, I would try to make a small version of the arrangement. It is one of my favourite exercises and can look simple and elegant. It is particularly good exercise with winter branches. 

I had pruned some small branches from my Japanese flowering quince Chaenomeles bush which I decided to use in a shallow bowl-shaped vessel. I hadn't stopped to think that this shallow bowl made the exercise all the harder because it has no walls to help stabilise the materials. However, I persisted and I was happy with the final result. The two single-red Camellia flowers are quite complimentary to the Japanese flowering quince branches. I am hoping over the next few weeks that these branches will develop flowers if I keep them in water. 

This is how the base of the stems looked sitting within the shallow bowl, made by the Victorian ceramicist, Phil Elson.

I made an additional arrangement that was inspired by a single piece of grey bark, which I noticed as we were walking in the nearby park, a couple of days ago. The inside of this bark is a lovely warm nutty brown colour. For a focal point I have used a single stem of ornamental grape vine with three small pink leaves. I have used the vase made by, and given to me by Janet Keefe, a ceramicist and long-term Ikebana practitioner when I was in Canada recently.

Greetings from Christopher
29th June 2025