SOGETSU ANNUAL EXHIBITION at ABBOTSFORD CONVENT

Several weeks ago I set my Melbourne students the task of making an Ikebana  Mass and Line’, combined with using dried or bleached material.

Jacqueline created a spreading style ikebana using two vessels. Her dried material was a long branch of driftwood that was supported on the black vessel the larger was set a mass of orange Clivia flowers and leaves. The smaller vessel held a single flower.

Marcia set a dried Allium stem in a vessel with a mass of Lilac Syringa,  flowers and leaves.

Eugenia set a line of Siberian dogwood Cornus alba, in a white vessel with a mass made using Viburnum plicatum and dried Kelp.

Aileen set a line of dried vine in an annular vessel with a mass of Wisteria flowers.

My ikebana this week comes from my archive of past works. I have chosen them because this weekend I have been very busy participating in the annual exhibition of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School. Also the Branch has held a workshop led by Master Instructor, Oizumi sensei. in conjunction with the exhibition. The theme of the workshop was to make a flat object, washi paper, into a sculptural three dimensional form. I have not had the time to process the photos from the workshop.

The two photos below are earlier examples of using paper in an ikebana arrangement.

In this example from 2009 I used newspaper which I "pleated" into flame-like forms and added dried Dracaena draco stems and part of a dried seed pod.

In this ikebana I created two large hemispherical forms from pale green washi paper. They were placed around a deep green vessel in which I set two Hyacinth flowers.

If you are in Melbourne today you may visit the Annual Exhibition in the Linen room at the Abbotsford Convent cultural centre, 1 St Heliers st, Abbotsford.

Greetings from Christopher

16th November 2025