October Class Lesson (3) - Fruiting Plant Materials

Our persimmon trees are having a lot of fruits this fall, which are still hanging on the trees. In comparison, we harvested only one persimmon last year. In fact, you need two persimmon trees to bear fruit. So, we planted two young trees six years ago. It took four or five years to finally bear many persimmon fruits! I am really thrilled! 

For the class lesson, the subject was “Fruiting Plant Materials." My persimmon branches came in handy just in time. Sensei was not only using my persimmon branches for demonstration, I also shared some of them for my classmates to use. For myself, I used four persimmon branches (5 persimmons) and a dried tree branch arranged in a heavy duty ceramic vase to hold securely in place, then added mums and pine to complete my arrangement.  (10/10/2923)

Sensei’s demo 

October Class Lesson - 2 Basic Style and Fruiting Plant Materials

Between classes, I always do some arrangements for my own pleasure. But for our October class lessons, Sensei assigned two basic style arrangements for us again. She likes to make sure that we do it right. Lesson (1): Basic Slanting Style Moribana - book 1-7,   Lesson (2): Variation #1 Upright Style Moribana  (10/10/2023)

Lesson 1: Dogwood and carnation 

Lesson 2: magnolia and mum

Persimmon, Fig or Vegetables Arrangements

Autumn is here and it’s harvest time! We have much more persimmon fruits and figs this year, compared to a couple years ago. The persimmons are still hanging on the tree, they grow bigger and bigger every day. Contrary to the figs, they are ripening several and ready to pick everyday and they are delicious! 

Having Fun with Hosta and Sushi Mat

A friend of mine gave me seven pieces of beautiful hosta leaves, two were very big. I put them in the bucket, thinking about how to make an arrangement with them?

A couple days later, they started turning yellow, it’s time to make an arrangement. I had been playing around with the hosta and sushi mat. It’s fun to see the final arrangement.  (10/4/2023)

hosta, alstroemeria and sushi mat / ceramic container 

adding sushi mat into arrangement looked prettier   

different angle view 

changed alstroemerias to mum

Sweet Autumn Clematis Seed Pods

The flowering of Sweet Autumn Clematis vine is beautiful, after their tiny white flowers fade, their seed pods are very unique too! I can use both of them as Ikebana materials.

This time, I used less of sweet Autumn clematis vine seed pods for the same arrangements, just changed the different colors of chrysanthemum.  (10/2/2023)

Rearranged with only mums and added azalea 

I made this arrangement earlier using purple mum and pink turtle head  

“Mid Autumn Festival” in the Villanova University

The MainLine Study Branch is invited to participate “Mid Autumn Festival” in the Villanova University, PA.  Our Ikebana exhibition is in conjunction with the Dept. of Asian Studies. The festival is a series of performances. Most of the performances are from Chinese culture club. (9/30/2023)

The arrangements below were done by our members of MainLine study branch, and some performances were from students of Asian Studies.  

My arrangement theme: Mid Autumn Festival 

Side view of arrangement 

Asian studies- students choir 

Young kids dance - I want to fly

Beijing opera (天女散花)

2023, September Opening Luncheon with Demonstrations

Ikebana International Philadelphia Chapter 71 is proud to present an annual opening luncheon with a demonstration by Louise Worner, Somu, Sogetsu School. “She is a British/Australian ikebana artist who currently lives in Waterloo, Belgium. Her 25 year ikebana journey has spanned across Belgium, Japan, Australia, and Spain. Her Sogetsu teacher’s diploma in 2000 by lemoto Hiroshi Teshigahara.” 

She demonstrated ten pieces of unique and wonderful arrangements. Some of her arrangements were  speculative design and give me great inspiration!  (9/28/2023)

 

I won this arrangement from raffle (except the top branch).
It’s Midori Sensei’s structure, I am so happy, I will treasure it. 

Opening Luncheon with Demonstration- Arrangements for Raffle

There are 8 pieces of beautiful arrangements including containers that will be raffled out. All of the containers belonged to our late good friend, Modori Tanimune. Whoever is lucky enough to win them will treasure it as she is missed dearly! Besides, some of the demo materials will be for raffled also! I believed all the arrangements used for raffle were done by the Brandywine Study Group, they did a lot of hard work behind the scenes to make the opening luncheon with demonstration a great success. (9/28/23)