Cherry Blossoms

There are many kinds of cherry (Sakura) trees, their delicate and beautiful blossoms last only a short time and scatter away. So the Samurai shared the same spirit. Life can be short but beautiful and melancholy!

Road side Cherry Blossoms (Yoshino Cherry) 

Cherry branches, Rhododendron and pine in two
tall glass vases. (5/4/2015)

Yoshino Cherry tree in my lawn

Two Free Styles - Sunflower and Carnation

sunflower and dried branch (4/21/2015)

I used the black soft wire to twist together to hold
the red dogwood, carnation and pine.
No kenzan required. (4/21/2015)

Exhibition at Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church 3 of 3

Here are my 3 arrangements and 1 demonstration piece (3rd picture).

Dogwood and Pine in moon shaped metal container

Crab Apple, Rose and dried branch in a ceramic container

This is my demo piece of Horizontal free style, using 
Spring materials (emphasized seasonal materials in
 Ikebana arrangement). 

The wall design I made before for my garden
club show. Now, incorporated with the new
arrangement as a pair of whole design.

Exhibition at Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church 2 of 3

This is Grazynka's demo piece, contemporary and pretty

This is June's demo piece showing how to manipulate the leaves 

By June Wu

By June Wu

By June Wu

By Doris Liu

By Doris Liu

By Doris Liu

By Grazynka Shaarani

By Grazynka Shaarani

Exhibition at Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church 1 of 3

Once again our classmates held an Ikebana exhibition at Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church last weekend (4/25-4/26/2015). Thanks to Doris, she put a lot of effort to organize this event to make it a success. This event was supervised by our teacher Meii-Huey Lin. Each of us presented 3 or 4 creations of Ikebana for the exhibition, and all arrangements were so beautiful! We also gave three demonstrations and a workshop by our class's members, four certified teachers. The event attracted many attendants and earned many compliments.

By Sylvia Wei

By Sylvia Wei

By Sylvia Wei

By Sylvia Wei

By Meii-Huey Lin sensei

By Weii-Huey Lin sensei

By Chih Huang

By Chih Huang

By Chih Huang

Hata Sensei's Class for April

1) Free style: Using Spring flowering branches

Pear tree and Azalea branches in a ceramic vase. By me

By classmate

By classmate

2) Book 3-13: Composition of Mass and Line ( straight or curved)

By me. 

3) Free style: "Shades of Sofu", "This month we return to our roots. Following WWII, flowers were in short supply in Japan and founder of Sogetsu School of Ikebana, Sofu Teshigahara, used whatever structural materials were available to create beauty." So we have to look around and see what we can find to create our container, anything goes. My daughter found a piece of  interesting wood bark that she thought I might like for ikebana use someday. So I used it for this lesson "Something Sofu". I post other pictures below are some of my classmates' arrangements for this subject. (4-20-2015)

By me, cheery and wood bark

By me, Sunflower and cherry

By classmate, food coloring in bottles

By classmate

By classmate, using old camera

By classmate

Free Style - Spring Fever

The weather is getting warmer each day. The Forsythia opened its golden bell flower all of sudden!
I like to use them, these seasonal materials for my arrangement.
The other materials are Calla Lily, vine and lemon leaves. (4/14/2015)

In a Suiban Without Kenzan

The lily-of-the valley shrub (Andromeda) branches are in place by interlocking each other firmly. This arrangement in the suiban without using Kenzan is characterized by the neatened base and the effectively displayed water too. (4/14/2015)

Luncheon and Demonstration by Hata Sensei

Ikebana International New York Chapter held a Luncheon and Demonstration by Sogetsu Riji (highest rank) Judith S. Hata Sensei, on Tuesday, April 7th at Nippon Club NYC.
The Philadelphia Chapter along with other chapter's members, almost a hundred, gathered together to  enjoy delicious Japanese style Bento lunches and to witness the amazing, beautiful flower arrangements.

 

Free style - Large Arrangement

To "Use a certain vase for a certain flower". I wonder did I choose the right materials? I thought the small Chrysanthemum matches well with the container but my teacher suggested that bigger orange red flower ( like Heliconia) might be better for this arrangement. (3/31/2015)

Material: Vine, Aspidistra leaf, queenanne lace and Chrysanthemum

Container: Heavy plastic vase (13"x 10"x 3")

Simpler arrangement for fun
yucca, Daffodil and ever green in ceramic vase