BRUSHFIELDS YELLOW: CHABANA

I asked my senior students in Melbourne recently to make an ikebana incorporating Pine.

Eugenia created a simple ikebana with two long Billy Button Craspedia stems, and a few sprigs of Pine arranged as a mass hanging on the edge of a hand-made ceramic vase.

Aileen made a horizontal ikebana with branches of Pine, Japonica Chaenomeles, and long stems of Freesia in a mid-20th century Japanese ikebana vase.

Julie-Ann's exercise was to make a Slanting Variation No 3 in a tall vase. Her main material was some found, bare branches of Ash Fraxinus angustifolia. Green button Chrysanthemum were used for the centrally-placed flower line which is significantly foreshortened in the photo. Freesias were added and extend along the branch line to the right.

In the Torquay class I asked the students to make an ikebana incorporating paper.

Coralie used a large traditional Japanese basket. She added Japanese newspaper rolled into long tubes as the principal element. A small mass of purple Statice Limonium was massed in the mouth of the basket.

Pamela folded a sheet of printed paper into a small fan secured with the use of two chopsticks. The floral materials were leaves and a stem of Cymbidium orchids, that colour-matched the fan.

Lyn printed paper with "I love ikebana", translated into Japanese and folded into two fans. She then set them into a footed vase with half a Monstera deliciosa leaf between them, and a small section of leaf at the front.

This week Laurie and I have travelled to visit friends on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Along the way I was delighted to see large paddocks of Canola in flower. 

The spectacle was really quite extraordinary and extended over many kilometres of our travels.

Another great sight was the dish of the radio telescope 20km north of Parkes (NSW). This was the subject of the much loved 2000 film The Dish.

My ikebana this week...

,,, includes a re-working of a vertical arrangement I showed two weeks ago. The Cape Honeysuckle flowers and leaves had died. However, the Umbrella grass was still looking good, and more golden, so I added some orange-toned fallen Bamboo leaves.

My second ikebana is a simple placement of 'Brushfields yellow' Camellia in a small Bizen vessel. More in the style of Chabana *.

Greetings from Christopher

13th September 2026

* My editor agrees with me that there are really too many leaves left on the Camellia stem.