PLEATED PAPER

After quite a long break for my Geelong and Torquay-based students, we returned to the classroom last Thursday. It was great to see their smiling faces again, and to share our enthusiasm for the art of ikebana.

In Torquay I had set the students the task of making an "Ikebana focusing on Spring-flowering materials and incorporating branch material of ...(their)... own choice".

Pamela used a dried branch, suggesting winter passing. Her floral materials included three different-coloured Geraniums and a small Hydrangea.

Róża used two curving stems of Honeysuckle Lonicera caprifolium, which had a few small flowers opening. In the centre of the arrangement she added three small pink tipped, cream Roses.

In the Geelong class...

 

Anne's exercise was to make a "Composition of Straight Lines". She arranged two groups of Ixia flowers and leaves in a naturalistic manner. To counter the upward movement slightly she bent some of the shorter leaves. A few stems of Statice Limonium, were placed low in the vessel for their richer colour.

Coincidently, I had set the senior students the task of making an ikebana "Emphasising straight lines...". However, I had added the additional criteria of "...using two nageire vessels"

 

Maureen used a structure she had made from lengths of black- painted bamboo, through which she set straight-stemmed Asiatic lilies Lilium. for her botanical material. The square section ceramic vessels had a matching glaze.

 

Christine used an unidentified material from her garden that had small greenish-yellow seed pods at the end of pendulous branches as her principal material She added three straight lichen-covered branches which she  placed horizontally. The materials were chosen because of the colour harmony between the lichen and the seed pods.

Helen used Yucca/Dracaena stems from her garden, with the leaves stripped away, as her main material. For a floral focus she added Jerusalem sage flowers.....

Ellie used a Strelitzia leaf, showing its central rib from the back. To emphasise this line she added a section of a Strelitzia flower stem behind the leaf. The red flowers are Ixia maculata.

Maree used white-painted Corky Elm Ulmus branches as her principal material. She has arranged the vertical stems outside the vessels because it is dry material. The horizontal stems pass through openings on both sides of the forward vessel. A mass of Cushion bush Leucophyta brownii is set in the other vessel and three Billy buttons Craspedia are added as colour accents.

Jo placed three flowerless Arum lily Zantedeschia stems vertically in the upright yellow glass vase. She set single partially-opened Arum flower nestling against the vertical stems. A structure made with yellow painted chopsticks sits across the upright vase and reaches down toward the horizontally placed vase. 

On Monday last week I attended an afternoon workshop of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School. The theme of the workshop, that was led by the Director Aileen Clarke, was to incorporate paper into the ikebana so that it was the principal material, thereby functioning as the Shin. I spent a considerable amount of time that morning pleating two large sheets of Washi paper that I had bought some years earlier but never used. My idea was to bind one end to create a narrow fan, but bend it in the middle. The precarious construction fell apart at the very moment that Aileen was appraising my work during the critique! 

Well, that was not a success. 

When I got home I eventually re-worked the materials, making a new ikebana altogether. In this case I bound both ends of the paper then opened out the "fan" in the middle. This approach gave the structure more rigidity and it held together for the rest of the week. My floral material is red Bottle brush Callistemon, from the garden.

I really like the appearance of pleated paper and need to do some more experimentation of this idea.

 

Greetings from Christopher

1st November 2026.