AN EXERCISE IN TRIMMING

It has been a very busy time in the ikebana world lately. Last weekend we had two days of workshops with Mr Yoshiro Umemura * from Sydney. On the Victorian Sogetsu website you can see photos from the first workshop *, other photos will be posted over the next week or so. On Monday afternoon the Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter 29 annual exhibition, which I am curating, will be opened. It is open for two weeks. If you are in Melbourne do come along.

At a recent class, with Elizabeth Angell, we were set the exercise of making a simplified arrangement. In the Sogetsu text book the student is advised to study the material carefully and remove all that is superfluous or extraneous to the design. The challenge is to not go too far, so that the material becomes unrecognisable. Before the class I found a dead ivy branch still clinging to the trunk of a tree by the river. The branch had interesting lines and character. 

The photograph above shows the branch before I began trimming. My goal, of course, was to preserve the character of the material and its interesting lines, both the fine and strong lines. 

To provide a foil for the branch I contrasted it with a flowering camellia stem, from which I removed most of the leaves. It is not easy to see, but I have created a support for the principal branch so that it does not rest on the left-hand side of the vase opening.

Greetings from Christopher
30th August 2015

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HIROSHIMA PEACE DAY and DAFFODILS

The 6th August this year was the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. On Sunday 9th August, the first Sunday after the 6th, an ecumenical commemorative service was held in St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. Ikebana International Chapter 29 provided two arrangements for the service and the Japanese Consul General, Ms Haneda, was in attendance. The most recent posting on the I.I. website shows some photos of the arrangements, by Chieko Yazaki (Shogetsudokoryu school) and Elizabeth Angell (Sogetsu school), for the Hiroshima Peace Day * service.

A couple of weeks ago my teacher had set the exercise of using either narcissus or daffodils in an arrangement. 

I used these flowers in a revision exercise of a 'basic upright arrangement', for some of my students. The branch material is New Zealand 'mirror bush' * (Coprosma repens). A very hardy, salt spray tolerant, bush that has become an environmental weed in some places in southern Australia.

Here are some more daffodils in a freestyle arrangement. Perhaps a bit too subtle, as there is a third daffodil behind the corky elm. The tips of some petals are peeping on the righthand side. I rather like the contrast of these bright yellow petals with the rough texture of the elm.

Greetings from Christopher

23rd August 2015

WINTER SKIES

At the beginning of this week I attended the AGM of Ikebana International Melbourne. Following the devastation of WWII, this organisation was founded by Ellen Gordon Allen in 1956 '...to stimulate international friendship and spread goodwill throughout the world...' 1. , as expressed by the motto: 'Friendship through Flowers' * . There are five ikebana schools represented in the Melbourne Chapter, and at the AGM a representative of each of the schools gave a demonstration * as part of the meeting. 

We are now in late winter and the weather is beginning to change here, leading to greater variability. Cold fronts come through bringing rain, which often is then followed by brilliant sunshine.

One consequence is wonderfully dramatic cloud formations in the sky.

But also flowers like this native Clematis (C. microphylla) have come out and festoon our back fence.

 These creamy green flowers are about 4 - 5cms across.

This weekend our local shire council is sponsoring an 'Arts Trail' in which local artists and art teachers hold exhibitions to show the community what is going on that might otherwise not be noticed. My local, beginners' ikebana class exhibited in the same venue as some visual artists.

This work is by Leonie, using dietes leaves and oriental lilies.

Jill has arranged some flowering prunus branches with camellias.

Charmaine created a horizontal arrangement of New Zealand flax leaves and 'red hot pokers'.

I have added to, and re-worked, some material I used on 4th July. It is branches from our apricot tree and chrysanthemums in a 
no-kenzan arrangement.

Greetings from Christopher
15th August 2015

1. Coe, Stella. Ikebana a practical and philosophical guide to Japanese flower arrangement

WINTER EXHIBITION

Below is a view of the western end of the beach as I usually see it in my minds eye. 

However, at this time of year...

                  

  ...it can also look like this. 

I must admit one of the blessings of the environment in which I live is that, in winter it is more common for the sun to shine, even if only for a short time, on most days, than it is to be overcast for days on end.  

The week has been a busy one, with the annual exhibition of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, Victorian Branch being held. I was privileged to be tasked with making a large ikebana work in the window of the Melbourne Style Gallery. In this I was assisted by my student Nici.

  
The exhibition is entitled 'Winter in Ikebana' *, and includes a wide variety of interpretations of the theme, as is the Sogetsu practise. In my work I have used three large branches of magnolia, camellia and dwarf nandina leaves, and three white chrysanthemums. I was particularly attracted by the idea of contrasting the bare branches of the deciduous magnolia with the green and red leaves that survive the cold of winter.  

The arrangement is in a Shigaraki * storage vessel, with a highly textured surface and ash glazing on the right-hand shoulder.

Greetings from Christopher
8th August 2015

* Click on the blue text for photos of the exhibition and Shigaraki ceramics.

LINES REVEALED IN WINTER

In my last post I had intended to provide a link to a Sogetsu workshop I had gone to at the beginning of that week. The presenter was Reiko Ito and some photos from the workshop are on the Sogetsu website. The subject was 'Two vessels, with a Winter Feeling' *. 

During the week I attended a class with my teacher, Elizabeth, on the theme of using a glass vessel.

I liked her example of the exercise, above, in which she used an Arum lily and contrasted it with some pieces of red dogwood which she cut just below each fork, creating multiple 'V' shapes.

I used a shallow art-glass dish in which I placed a single red camellia. Because this meant the work was very low and flat I have curved five dietes grandiflora * leaves from underneath the dish and intersected them above the dish creating a much larger work.

This week the Flowering Quince in our garden looked more prolific than I remember it being last year...

...and the cutting given to me by my ikebana colleague, Joan, is also doing well. However, the white one is still too small to cut.

  

I was really pleased to find some branches with very interesting lines and arranged them in a suiban.

I subsequently added some daffodils that I have arranged with their trumpets facing inward so that they are 'talking' to each other. This seems necessary to give the work an ikebana feel.

Greetings from Christopher
1st August 2015

* Click on the blue text for further information

COOL CLIMATE GARDENS

This week Roadside Ikebana comes to you from Hobart the capital of our island state, Tasmania.

At the bottom right, of the view above, is the Saturday market in front of the 19th Century Warehouses and Bond stores of Salamanca Place. Mt Wellington is in the background.

The city of Hobart climbs up hills that surround the estuary of the Derwent river giving it a very picturesque setting.

Within the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart is a Japanese Garden. It seems to me that the Hobart gardens are the only Botanical gardens in an Australian capital city that has a truly suitable climate for such a garden. When I first visited this garden four years ago, I really enjoyed the way they flourished in the cool climate here.

Laurie on a plank bridge over the lowest of a series of small ponds in the garden.

The second pond has a bright red curving bridge and this splendid stone basin being fed from a bamboo pipe.

From the top of the garden is a distant view of Mt Wellington providing 'borrowed scenery'. This garden was created in 1987 as a sister city project with Yaizu city in Shizuoka Prefecture.  
  

As we were leaving the Botanical gardens I could not resist photographing this very large bush of Japanese flowering quince.

This weeks ikebana is in a vase, by Jody Johnstone * , that I bought in Maine USA last year. Jody specialises in wood fired ceramics in the Bizen style. Her website is well worth a look.

I first arranged two bare branches from my apricot tree prunings and then added some Acacia Baileyana *. I think this will be the last of this wattle for this winter.

Greetings from Christopher

in Hobart.

26th July 2015

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A SMALL LANDSCAPE ARRANGEMENT

Two years ago at an Ikebana International meeting our guest speaker was Mr Peter Leigh, from the Post Office Farm Nursery north west of Melbourne, a specialist in hellebores. At the time I was surprised that he described these plants as being 'hardy', even drought tolerant. Taking him at his word I bought four plants. This week I was very pleased to notice that one of the hellebores was flowering, in spite of some neglect in the dryer months last year. I think the plants have appreciated the increased layer of mulch I applied recently.

This photo reminds me of the description of hellebores being the 'heroes of the winter garden'. Probably a fair description for short stemmed flowers and they do look fresh and perky. 

A couple of days later I was delighted to see these little hands pushing through the mulch. I had thought I had lost two of the original four plants, not so. I am hoping this one will be a different colour.

At the beginning of last week I attended the July meeting of Ikebana International. The guest speakers were from the Waverley Bonsai Group * , who gave a fascinating presentation about their passion. Unsurprisingly, a number of principles that guide design in the creation of Bonsai also apply to ikebana design. For example, asymmetry, pruning to reveal lines, emphasis on the trunk and shorter lines at the back to give a sense of depth. I.I. Members at the meeting made small and landscape ikebana to complement the subject of the guest speakers.

I chose a small leaved native, the Costal Beard heath * Lucopogon paviflorus, that grows on the cliff tops as the material for my ikebana. This medium sized shrub has very tiny white flowers that are just beginning to come into bloom at the moment. Its form, bark and the smallness of the leaves lend it to being interpreted as a tree in a miniature landscape.

This is how my ikebana looked. I have deliberately left some of the leafless twiggy branchlets on the main stem to imply a sense of age to my little tree. More images from the meeting can be seen by following the links at: I.I. July meeting * . 

Greetings from Christopher
19th July 2015

* Click on the blue text for further information

CHEERFUL WINTER COLOUR

The temperature gauge was measuring 8 degrees Celsius today, a rather cool day in this part of the world.  

So I was surprised when I went for a walk along the clifftops to see a small group of enthusiastic surfers out from the beach waiting for a good wave to catch. There was little wind and an occasional set of good waves did appear.

In the garden two of my favourite plants have come into bloom.

The first is the Cootamundra Wattle Acacia Baileyana * . In the photo above, the sun was shining through the blossom making it glow.

I photographed it again today when I noticed that the rain-soaked branches hung heavily as though weighted by gold.

The second plant is the Japanese Flowering Quince (Chaenomele) that I also used in last week's arrangement. As more branches have blossomed this week I was able to make an arrangement to welcome my niece and her husband when they visited on Friday night. 

First I made an arrangement that contrasted the sharp angles of the branches with the smooth form of the spherical ceramic vessel.

I then added a sprig of wattle high in the arrangement, which contrasts with the colour of the quince blossom, but matches the yellow of the quince blossom stamens.

Often wattle blossom does not keep well when picked. It tends to dry quickly, causing the blossom to shrivel. This thin stemmed branch is still doing well after 24 hours. I cut  two thicker stems at the same time. One of which I scraped and the other I bashed, but both of them shrivelled. All of the stems were first cut under water and then placed into deep water with a teaspoon of sugar and a little bleach for a few hours before arranging.

The spherical vessel is by Don Jones, an Australian potter who worked in South Australia in the 1970s.

Greetings from Christopher
11th July 2015

*  Click on the blue text for further information.