BARE BRANCHES


Today we had a late afternoon walk and were delighted to see a flock of Galahs on the power-lines.

  

Their warm pink feathers contrast beautifully with the pale grey of their body and upper wings and seemed more intense in the afternoon light.

We have just come back to Torquay after spending nine nights in Melbourne. On Saturday last weekend I gave a workshop for members of Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter, which we also opened to visitors. Our intention with weekend workshops is particularly to provide an opportunity for members who are working or otherwise unable to attend our regular meetings. 

The theme of the workshop was 'Bare Branches'. Being winter, it is a seasonally relevant subject. I had prepared two examples and demonstrated a third. 


The intention of my first example was to capture the feeling of the wind, which has sculptured this branch of Leptospermum laevigatum. I added a small sprig of camellia leaves to give the arrangement a feeling of life.


The branches for my second example (Leucopogon paviflorus) were chosen because of the effect of lichen on their surface texture and colour. All the branches were relatively straight so I cut the thickest one to make a sculptural form from short lengths, then added one finer branch and two blue iris flowers for a contrasting highlight.


My third example was a 'no kenzan' arrangement of branches from our apricot tree expressing the stark lines of their wintery state. I have added three orange tulips as a focal highlight.

Further images can be seen at Ikebana International Winter Workshop.

Greetings from Christopher
21st July 2017

1 comment:

  1. I am interested in finding out if having your meeting on a weekend brought more people to this event? Did you have advanced publicity to just your chapter or to the general public about this meeting date and time?

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