Happy Holidays/Happy New Year

My study of green moss/Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto

Teacher's workshop 11/12/2011

Teacher's workshop at Sogetsu Headquarter
Instructor: 久保島一超

What did he say: We are used to arranging flowers in the order of shin, soe and hikae. Try it in a different way, for example, arranging hikae first. Maybe you'll find out that shin and soe (sometimes) are not necessary after all. You may feel uncomfortable at first, but worth trying.

After his lecture, I cut shin and soe in my arrangement and placed them back into container as jushi. The overall view of my arrangement became tighter, or in a more unified way.

One-Two-Step photo Shoot at the HQ

Before & After

Instructor: Ms. Koka Fukushima

Men's class at Sogetsu Headquarter

Sensei: 淺井秀英

(1) Ping, curved and straight lines, rose hip vine and bulrush


After I arranged rose hip vines, I found that bulrush are not strong enough to compete with the curve lines if I try to mix them together. So I put bulrush together upright then bend them to the height of rose hip. I arranged bulrush pretty evenly all around.
critic: grouping bulrush not so evenly. That way, the (negative) space and rhythm are achieved.

(2) Ross, acacia, cock's comb, free style
After saw the Sogetsu Exhibition at Nihonbashi Takashimaya Department Store, he's really inspired. The teacher's critic was very gentle and encouraging. This is Ross' very first ikebana.

Lisa's ikebana hands-on

Lisa is a talented floral designer (western). She's coming to the class to try out ikebana. She brought her own container. So I gave her materials to work with--Ilex berry orange (mini persimmons) and Fuji mums. The middle one was her original arrangement. She beautifully placed mums and berries. Unfortunately, from ikebana point of view, mums and berries are in the same value. So, I asked her which one, mums or berries, are more important to her. It's hard to decide, because both are beautiful. Instead, I showed her 2 scenarios. If she want to show mums, she needed to shorten the berry branches (as in top photo). If she want to emphasize berries, she need to shorten the mums. (bottom photo)

Serena's arrangement

Theme: Vertical Composition (Book3 lesson1)
Materials: Dogwood, Oak leave, Fuji mums

A beautiful vertical arrangement shows the fall color. The placement of the container was originally placed side way. I re-positioned the container so it also shows the narrow width to accentuate the vertical lines.

Mazezashi in nageire style

Mazezashi (まぜざし）

(1) Sandy

(2) Ping

Sandy did a good job in expressing fall using mazezashi technique. The colors are beautiful. What I did here was to loosen up the branches so the air is easy to move in and out.

ikebana study 10/8/11

Persimmons

Happen to see persimmons at Mayesh Wholesale Florist. Though the temperature in Phoenix still reaches to 103F (about 39C) today, it's fall in the rest of the country. Bought a bunch, did 3 arrangements.

Greens only

Myrtle and Monstera leaf

Silver tree (new material)

Found silver tree branches in Mayesh Wholesale Florist. The velvety silky shimmering leaves attracted me. To emphasize the uniqueness of the silver tree, I only use queen ann's lace to support and soften the arrangement.
Two attempts are made, one with upright, the other with horizontal.

Castor beans

Castor beans, flax leave

ikebana study 8/19/11

Summertime, and the living is "lazy."
When I saw three coconuts on sale in a grocery store, they immediately got my attention. I love cool coconut milk. More important, I wanted the coconut shells for my ikebana study. So, when I got home, I carefully poke holes and put straw in, so I can suck the coconut milk and keep the shell intact.
My first attempt to use the shells is to use them as containers. Here is the result.

Material: bamboo split, limonium sinesis

Southwest--Utah and Arizona

Sunny face

Phoenix Art Museum, Arts and Flowers

silk flower in ikebana way

A small church needs a permanent floral display on its reception desk.

Mimosa Acacia

ICM Food & Clothing Bank fund raising, 3/12/11

Flowers are donated by Mayesh Wholesale Florist

Branches only

Cherry blossom and forsythia
(requested by a Japanese family for their grandpa's memorial)

Matsuri Festival 2011, mini ikebana lessons

This year, I provided mini ikebana lessons for people who showed interest in ikebana. There were total 12 people took lessons. A small number. But people who took the lessons had fun.

Matsuri Festival 2011

The theme for this year's ikebana is the use of local materials, agave, palm leaves.