END OF TERM CHRISTMAS PARTY

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, my Geelong based students and I have held the final ikebana class for 2015. The class took the form of a celebration by sharing food and friendship at my house with Laurie co-hosting. The students were required to create their ikebana in our house in a location of my choosing. For the advanced students I selected more challenging locations and they had to choose one of my vessels. This meant they could not do too much planning. 

The photographs below are of the students work. The first two are by two students who began classes this term. They made the curriculum exercise: 'Slanting Varitation No 1, moribana ' using strelitzia flowers. 


Jo has skilfully concealed the kenzan with clivea leaves.


Andrea used ornamental grape leaves to conceal the kenzan. Unfortunately there is some foreshortening in these photos and as a result the proportions are distorted.


Karen created an 'Upright Variation No 1, nageire ' using New Zealand 'mirror bush' (coprosma repens) and roses. In this difficult exercise she has used a particular fixing technique for the principal branches for the first time.

The following photos are all freestyle arrangements by the advanced students who have had to adapt their work to fit into and 'relate to the space in which the work is set'. This is an advanced Sogetsu curriculum exercise.



Helen created a simplified, horizontal arrangement on a corner bookshelf using beautifully marked Gymea leaves and a single banksia flower.



Christine created a tall arrangement in a narrow space on a plinth between a doorway and a heater, out of view on the right. She used weeping elm branches and the flowers of carrot gone to seed. 



Ellie also had to contend with a narrow space on a small pedestal beside a door. Her work is in the form of a 'double shin' arrangement. 



Maureen created this straight and curving line arrangement using a cockscomb flower and leaves and the curving lines of leeks, from her own garden. The corner space is slightly wider than the others shown above and at the end of a corridor between a window and a door.

I must thank all my students for another delightful year of sharing the joys (and frustrations) of creating ikebana together.

Greetings from Christopher
12th December 2015


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