AEONIUM ARBOREUM 'ATROPURPUREUM


At a recent class in Geelong ...


...Jo  made an ikebana "Using green materials only". Although the Sogetsu curriculum does not specifically state the number of materials to be used in the exercise, I think, as a generalisation, three should be the minimal number, (sometimes exceptions are appropriate). In this example Jo used Mirror Bush Coprosma repens, Agapanthus and a large Tree Philodendron Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum. 
   

Maree's exercise was "Taking into account the view from below". It is convenient that the class room has a high shelf that suited the cascading lines of this pink Amaranthus caudatus, above which is a pink Grevillea and a some Bamboo. In this exercise short materials, in particular, may need to be placed at a lower angle than when the vessel is at table level.

The exercise for the senior students was to make a "Basic Slanting Arrangement", with no other criteria specified - a revision of one of the basic forms in the Sogetsu curriculum.


Tess chose to use a tall cylinder as the vessel in which she set Australian native materials; Oldman Saltbush Atriplex nummularia and a pale yellow Grevillea.


Maureen used two species of Grevillea set in a pale blue suiban. The foreshortening in the photograph makes the flowers look larger than the reality and their line is rather lost.


Ellie also set her ikebana in a suiban. The principle material is Kangaroo paw with Billy Buttons in the  flower position on the right hand side.  The pale blue-grey material in the centre is a small stem of Acacia.


My ikebana this week comes from a chance finding. A neighbour was throwing out a large clump of Aeonium arboreum 'Atropurpureum'. I was immediately drawn to the thick curving lines of this material and the dramatic dark maroon-purple of the rosette of leaves. The heaviness of the stems and flower created a challenge because of the snaking curves and the weight of the material. I created a cross-bar fixture that was wired onto two upright bars which were impaled in a large kenzan. This meant that the cross-bar did not have to be wedged tightly against the wall of the vessel, which might have cracked. The materials both project forward of the vase, the smaller one is actually a little further forward of the larger rosette. I like the visual strength of these materials which contrasts with the pale glaze of the vessel. In making this ikebana I was reminded of the following advice when arranging fruiting branches. "If the fruit is heavy, it should look heavy". Therefore it is allowed to hang below the opening if a tall vessel is used. 

The vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Kaye Poulton.

Greetings from Christopher
17th March 2024


MASSED EXPRESSION


A couple of weeks ago I failed to include a photo of my student, Maree's ikebana. Her exercise was the Book 4 lesson using "Dried, bleached or coloured material". The exercise does not preclude the addition of fresh materials. However, they should be secondary to the dried materials. 
 

Maree chose some bark for the warm cinnamon colour of its inner surface, the outer surface being grey. She set the bark inside three large glass cylinders with crushed white stones in their base. This provided a mechanism for supporting the bark without the need for kenzans or other fixing mechanism. She added some Billy Buttons Craspedia canens which gave a bright yellow highlight to the ikebana. The large "rock" outside the left-hand cylinder is actually a piece of foam plastic that has become tan-coloured with age. At the critique I moved the three cylinders into this triangular configuration which gave depth to the work. It also made the ikebana able to be viewed from all around which was much more interesting.
  
The senior students at a recent class were given the exercise of making an ikebana using "summer flowers" in a suiban. In the context of the hot, dry summer conditions typical in the south of Australia, this can be quite a challenge.


Christine chose to use some bright red Nerine sariensis from her garden. She also decided to incorporate some additional "unconventional material" into her ikebana. It is white, plastic-coated wire, used for binding single pages into calendars or book manuals. The wire was unexpectedly heavy and had to be held up with some strong green stems. 


Maureen used the terminal inflorescences of Leucadendron for the flower component of her ikebana. The principal line was a large dried branch sporting clusters of dried Lichen. She placed the Leucadendron stems to complement the branch lines and create interesting spaces in the ikebana.


Tess has a garden with an abundance of summer flowers. Such an "embarrassment of riches" can be a challenge in the world of ikebana where it is often said that "less is more". The difficulty is in choosing what to leave out. Tess's ikebana included a single Rose, blue and pink Statice, Geranium, Sedum and Plumbago auriculata.


On one of our regular walking paths we pass a garden with this very large clump of Belladonna lily which has an 
especially rich colouring. The clump must be very old as the bulbs have pushed up above the ground surface forming a small mound. I am intrigued by the intensity of the pink flowers.
 

In our garden the Golden Rod Solidago altissima has started to flower more prolifically this year. It is confined in an old concrete laundry trough, the base of which I lined with garden-pool grade plastic. Thus I am able to keep the soil saturated, in spite of temperatures like today's 
39C  (!).


This week's ikebana came about because a neighbour kindly offered me the seed head of some Artichoke Cynara cardunculus. A gift this ikebanist could not refuse. I have used three of the flowerheads, the largest to the left front and the other two partially hidden. Two flowerheads of the Golden rod cascade across the smallest of the Artichokes. Only partially seen at the back are some pale pink trumpets of our Belladonna lily.

The green galzed flower bowl is by Isabella Wang.

Greetings from Christopher
9th March 2024

BELLADONA LILIES and SEDUM


Yesterday was partially cloudy with a slightly chilly wind from the south when we had a walk in Iron Bark Basin, part of the Great Otway National Park.

The dense bush on the right of the path has an understory dominated by small Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea Australis. These Grass Trees all appeared during the natural regeneration after the 1983 bushfires. Hence they are much the same height and may eventually grow to over 3 metres tall. The left side of the path is bare because it has been slashed as a fire break.

Some sections of this path provide glimpses of the sea several hundred metres away.


It always reminds me of Arthur Streeton's painting "Ocean Blue, Lorne" brought into the  Geelong Art Gallery collection in 2011.

In my Melbourne class last week I set the exercise of creating an ikebana using 'Green Plant Materials", a subject from the Sogetsu extended curriculum. Green is a particularly pervasive colour in the plant world therefore, it is important to turn our attention to that fact.  The exercise encourages the ikebanist to discriminate between different greens and, in so doing, reveal them to the casual observer. 



Aileen used Gymea leaves for the main lines and then added a single Fatsia Japonica leaf and a small bunch of green berries. The vertical lines, together with the space created, provide the strong elements of the design; while the leaf and berries invite a closer look.
   

Jacqueline got busy changing the appearance of her stem of  Cordyline so that it didn't look like a small palm tree. She then added an Escheveria rosette and a small stem of Camelia leaves. 


Marisha also had a stem of Cordyline, variegated in this case. The manipulation of her leaves made such a bold design that only a small bunch of Dwarf Nandina could be added without weakening her design.


Eugenia used a single leaf of Sansevieria which she had manipulated to create a bold line. The colour and bold line matched closely the colour and strong lines in the vase. To this she added some fine green lines of Mistletoe Cactus Rhipsalis, and a small bunch of Clivia berries.

 
Marcia's ikebana incorporated Umbrella Grass Cyperus, Arum lily Zantedeshia aethiopica and Crab Apple Malus fruit. The black annular vase offset the different forms of the naturally arranged materials and the subtle variation in shades of green.



This week the Belladona lilies, originally from my parents garden, have finally flowered. Last year we were in New Zealand at this time and I missed the opportunity to use them in an ikebana. I was keen to use them in my ikebana because of the memories they recall for me.
  
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I also wanted to use the Sedum Autumn Joy, (a Hylotelephium hybrid) because it provides a good colour harmony with the Belladonna lily.


I have arranged the two materials naturalistically closely placing the Belladonna stems to emphasise their vertical movement. Unfortunately, I did not photograph them as soon as I finished the ikebana; and in the warm room two more of the flowers opened. The consequence was that I missed the strength of the buds reaching upward. However, it reminds me that ikebana can be translated as "living flowers". The rich pink of the Sedum flowers and the green leaves make a strong mass at the base of the ikebana.


Greetings from Christopher
3rd March 2024

 

DRIED MATERIALS


Last Wednesday evening I took this photo with my mobile phone. A storm cloud in the east was illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. They were coming through the haze of bush fire smoke and turned the cloud to shades of amber. The storm was exceedingly heavy in the Dandenong Rangers east of Melbourne and the bush fires were causing great losses in some of the smaller communities in the west of the state. It seemed to me that the camera captured the fearful beauty (and drama) of nature's some times violent events.

In the previous week I had set my Geelong students the task of making an ikebana expressing their, "Memories of summer (holidays ?) ". Their interpretations were surprisingly varied, as were those of my Melbourne students that I posted two weeks ago. Tess and Helen thought back to childhood memories.

Tess grew up in Cornwall UK and had memories of walking on the Quantock hills of the Somerset Moors. Her ikebana, using materials available in her garden, invokes the memory of ferns, English Heather and Broom.

Helen spent her childhood in rural western Victoria. Her memories were of visiting her grandparents' property, where her grandfather kept a productive vegetable garden. When I saw the silverbeet leaves, my first impression was of tall poplar trees. Partially hidden in the vessel is a small Zucchini flower.


Maureen's ikebana represented the "...ups, downs and ups..." experienced over the holiday period. She used the maroon coloured central rib of Strelitzia like a bar graph to show the progress. the other materials represented periods of optimism.


Christine saw a lot of her grandchildren over the summer holidays. Her ikebana represents the much repeated game of 'hide and seek' with the grandchildren.


Ellie's ikebana is her response to the hot, dry weather over summer and is represented by the dry grass, orange coloured Helichrysum flowers and the unglazed ochre coloured vessel.

My own ikebana this week was made at the first meeting and workshop of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School.

The theme of the workshop was the preparation and use of dried materials in ikebana. I used a, now rather old, dried unopened bud of Artichoke Cynara Cardunculus var. scolymus.  It was given to me by my student Marcia. Also a dried Aspidistra A. elatior  and some green, spent Agapanthus A. praecox flower heads. The Aspidistra leaves were curved before drying. The fresh green material brings the ikebana alive.

The ikebana vessel is by Tom Cockram who, at the time I bought the piece, had his studio in Daylesford Victoria.

Further photos from the Victorian Branch workshop.


Greetings from Christopher
25th February 2024 

A SMALL MASS: TWO HYDRANGEAS and SOME LEAVES

 
Last week I posted a photo of the ikebana which I had re-set at home after the I.I. Melbourne workshop.  Other photos from the workshop are now available via this link: Ikebana International Melbourne, Chapter 29.

Two weeks ago I had set my senior Geelong students the task of making an ikebana 'emphasising the surface of the water' in a suiban. Given that we were then just over 2/3 of the way through summer, it seemed like a cooling idea. As usual, and very pleasingly, the students' work showed a variety of expressions of the idea.

Tess created a loose ikebana using bamboo stems and a pink Statice, Limonium. The open ikebana felt like a light breeze was blowing.


Maureen set five stems of Umbrella grassCyperus alternifolius, and a small group of Asiatic lily buds in a black suiban, creating reflections on the surface


Christine took a different approach by creating an abstract design with strong stems braced across the suiban. Small CrabappleMalus, fruit were contained between two of the lines. A third line was added to break-up the larger space on the right side of the suiban.


Ellie's ikebana featured three green Lotus 
podsNelumbo nucifera, two variegated Aspidistra leaves and a small mass of Sedum. Her ikebana was set to the right edge of the circular suiban to allow the reflection of the material to be seen in the water surface. 


Maree's exercise was to create an ikebana "Using both Fresh and Unconventional (man-made) materials". In a flat-sided glass vessel she arranged masses of black and unpainted wooden pegs. These were contrasted with a single line of Plumbago auriculata.


Jo's exercise was to take the 'unconventional material' idea one further step. That is, she was to make a purely sculptural work using only man-made materials. She used black rope-like oval shapes, that reminded me of quoits, which she massed into a tall irregular structure. To create a focal point she added a small mass of blue plastic ties and some blue bubble-wrap.

This is a challenging exercise to which students, consciously or not, bring lessons that they have learnt from their ikebana studies. 

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In the garden the pots of Hydrangeas have started to dry off. Their colours are fading and becoming more muted. I am hoping that some will survive into the autumn without being burnt by the sun. In that case, there is a good chance that they might develop rich red tones. I picked three small flower heads for my ikebana.


The colours in the flower heads are warm and muted. Some of the leaves are bright red at their tips and I wanted them to be seen also. However, this looks too busy...


...so I carefully removed two of the downward hanging leaves. This draws more attention to the the flower on the right and strengthens the asymmetry of the design. The botanical materials form the mass in this ikebana. 
In this instance the vase provides the line. The elegant six-sided Japanese vase has a very dark brown Temoku glaze.

Greetings from Christopher
17th February 2024
 

BACK TO CLASSES

 
Two weeks ago marked the end of the school holidays, with students returning to classes on 30th January. The following weekend, 3rd and 4th February must have been the most perfect beach weather. Sunny, but not too hot, with a cool light breeze.


The tide was low in the middle of the day and many people took the opportunity to enjoy themselves.


This photo shows the west end of Jan Juc beach.

Last week marked the return to classes for my students in Melbourne and Geelong. I had set my Melbourne students an exercise called "memories of summer (holidays?)". A topic that is wide open for interpretation.
  

Marcia's simple, somewhat stark, interpretation featured a forked branch of Cork Oak Quercus suber. The branch is part of a much larger one that came off her tree in a wind storm. She is particularly fond of the bark's colour and texture and was pleased this piece did not go into the mulch. The leaves on the branch had dried and fresh leaves were massed in the black vase.
 

Marisha chose roses which flower in this season. She selected some beautiful orange ones with petals that were a darker colour on the outside. These are contrasted with deep green leaves in the main lines, but harmonised with a mass of Dwarf Nandina leaves at the front which are beginning to colour yellow and red. 


Jacqueline's mind went to images of the setting sun colouring the clouds lit from behind in bright yellows and deep reds. She cut three leaves from her Canna Phasion thinking of their shape as well as the intense colours seen in a sunset. The roses which are just peeping from behind the leaves were yellow, orange and deep red.

Yesterday the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana International held its first meeting of the year. The guest presenter was a Japanese born and trained potter, Naoko Coghlan, who now lives in Australia. Naoko gave a short overview of the history of pottery in Japan and demonstrated her own work. Members were asked to bring ceramic vessels to the meeting in which to arrange their ikebana.
 

I was pleased to have an opportunity to use this Bizen vase that I bought in Kurashiki last November. The unglazed clay body is a dark brown marked with irregular lighter blue-greys and tan that have occurred during the firing. I selected Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus', Nandina and Hydrangea from the garden to make this naturalistic ikebana. This photo was taken at home, where I re-set the ikebana.

The Bizen vase is by Isezaki Jun.

Greetings from Christopher
11th February 2024

SOME EUCALYPTUS BARK


A few nights ago, as we were having our dinner in the conservatory, Laurie drew my attention to the shaft of late afternoon sunlight that was backlighting a Canna 'Phasion' leaf. This leaf is finely striped in red, yellow and bronze lines.  Who needs stained glass? Of course it was only a chance effect, which makes it all the more delightful.


Also this week, I was surprised that one of the buds on a Phalaenopsis orchid opened. I had bought the plant on a whim last year toward the end of its flowering season.


I really don't know much about these rather exotic orchids. However, when the flowers finally died I was fortunate to be advised by a friend that I should not prune off the old flower spike. A new spike branched off the previous one.


Now there are two open flowers and five more buds on the stem.

A week ago I noticed that the Bursaria spinosa in the garden was coming toward the end of its flowering.


I thought the small white flowers would go well in the new vase from the Kutani Kosen Kiln in Kanazawa. A simple line and mass ikebana.

Earlier in the week while walking along the creek path I came across some Eucalyptus bark. It had evidently come off a smallish branch and retained its cylindrical form. The inside was a warm soft orange colour while the outside was pale grey. The contrast between the inner and outer surfaces looked like an interesting ikebana subject.


This is the first version I made adding the fresh green of some more Bursaria. The flowers were not as green as in the photo. Unfortunately, I could not correct the colour. The Chun-glazed vase is by the Castlemaine ceramic artist Barry Singleton
I was not particularly happy with the ikebana as the interior of the bark did not show well.


This is my re-working of the idea in a vessel by the ceramic artist Graeme Wilkie of Qdos gallery, Lorne. I think it works a little bit better with the harmonising colours of the Crasula arborescens flowers. I also was able to re-position the bark to show the inside a bit more. I will keep my eyes open for some more bark to show the lovely interior colour. It has such a rich warm colour and soft texture which I find very attractive.

Greetings from Christopher
4th February 2024