Ikebana Class - Two Free Style Arrangements

My daily life is almost getting back to normal, day by day. This past two months my husband and I were so busy trying to settle down to our new home, we plan to live here for rest of our life. It is a beautiful place. Its surrounding is the historic Washington Crossing Park. General Washington crossed the Delaware River here to attack British on Christmas night during Revolution War.
I found a piece of  wood trunk here in the park long time ago. I have been keeping it and now I could use it for my August Ikebana class.

One piece of  wood trunk, Sunflower, Cornflower and  Magnolia
Ceramic container placed under the wood trunk

 Horsta, Japanese Anemone, phlox, willow and honeysuckle
vine in ceramic container which color match the flowers.  

July, August Orchids Bloom

Our new house is now finished, and we have been moving this past month. It has been a very stressful time, and I haven't been able to pay attention to my orchids but they surprised me with their blooms this Summer. Now, the blooming orchids are in the new home, except the rest of the orchids still are staying outside of my old house. By October, all the orchids will be in the new house before it gets cold. With all this stress, and without materials organized or brought over from the old house, I haven't been practicing ikebana. I'm also just too tired to think about it. I will also be missing the August's class. I feel my life is miserable right now!

E. Mariae.  It has been blooming more than 5 weeks.

Dendrobium. Division of same plant.

Hall way of my new home. Lady Slipper orchid
is still blooming.

Free Style - Stokes Aster

I have been going to physical therapy for three weeks now since recovering from our car accident. Besides that we are in the moving process to our much smaller house. It's been really hectic, busy and tiresome these couple months. I feel like I need to have calm and quiet time for myself. Doing Ikebana is my meditation!

Materials: Stokes aster, Solomon seal, and walking stick.

Lady's Slipper Orchid - Pinocchio

The Paphiopedilums are called "Lady's Slippers". My Paphiopedilum is also called "Pinocchio" because it  keeps blooming, and the stem is growing longer and longer like Pinocchio's nose. This is one of my favorite orchids. I have been growing this orchid for many years. I also divided my first one into another plant a few years ago. These two lady's slippers have been blooming every year ever since. The continuously growing stems produce the sequential blooming flowers which can last for months. (6/9,7/4 and 7/15/2016)

Life is Precious and Fragile

Three weeks ago (5/28/2016), my husband and I had a major car accident. The air bags were deployed, hitting us so hard. The Acura car was totaled. I thought I was not going to make it. At that dark moment, my husband was afraid he was losing me. The ambulance rushed us to Lower Bucks hospital. After lengthy check ups, thanks God! We were soo...lucky! No fractures, no broken bones, but I could not move my upper body and left shoulder, it hurt so much and I was bruised all over in my seat belt area. I have been in pain for these days. But I am getting better each day now! My husband is not as severely hurt as me. Both of us still have chest pain when coughing, sneezing and laughing. We went to see our family doctor (6/15/2016) after this trauma. Everything will be OK, just need time to fully recover and get back to be normal. THANKS GOD!!

Half the month of June has been gone, I have no energy to do anything including ikebana and minding my orchids. I haven't posted for a while and have not been to ikebana class. Life has twists and turns and is precious and fragile. Good health at this age is essential, and we must take care of ourselves, one day at a time, appreciate the beauty of life, and do not take anything for granted.

Composition of Straight Line

"One stone, two birds". My arrangement suited two purposes.
1) Composition of Straight Line:  It was another one of Hata Sensei's class assignments (5/16/2016 ) which I missed and tried to make up.
2) Using Bamboo: This was for MeeiHuey Sensei's class (5/24/2016). Once again using bamboo, I split the bamboo in half, painted one side white, the other side purple. I made it a straight line structure.
All the materials were from my garden.

Arrangement in a basket with peony.

The flowers of the Tree Peonies are gone, but the regular one just started to bloom.  I have two kinds of flowers, single and double petals. They are equally beautiful but short lived!

Fisherman's basket with peony, allium, carnation and green branch

Tall basket with peony and honey suckle

This one is for my garden club's little show "A garden Party" 

Composition of Surfaces by Using Leaves

I know I am going to miss Hata sensei's class on 5/16/2016 due to a doctor's appointment. So I made one of the three assignments before class instead. This one was supposed to be done in class.
I mainly use leaves with two or more kinds that should be showing their surface.  I used two Hosta leaves, front and back side, and ivy (1st picture with carnation).

 

The 2nd arrangement, one Peace lily and a Tiger tail leaves are both folded in with Hosta and Allium.
The other two assignments are: Composition of Straight Line and Arrangement in a basket with peonies. Hopefully I will find the time to do them.

With Flowers Only

In book 4 (the last textbook), "Pursuit of Material" is a main theme. So we tried again to arrange with "flowers only". I would like to try something new with Peony from my garden and my daughter's mother's day carnation bouquet, as their colors are in the same tonal range. The ceramic container made with lineal dripping-down. It drew my attention to arrange with chopsticks and metallic structure. (5/10/2016 class)

   

Demonstration and Exhibition 1

Grace Taiwanese Presbyterian Church (women's fellowship) held a flower arrangement exhibition from 4/23 to 4/24/2016. The theme of the exhibition was "Spring is in the Air". The program included five certified teachers' demos and workshop. This was done by Meei Huey Lin Sensei and her class of students. All together we presented more than 20 arrangements. We all were very grateful to have this opportunity to show our Ikebana creations to the public. Many thanks to Doris who organized the event and  made all the works a great success!
Here were my two demonstrations and one arrangement:
1) Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring [冬去春來]
2) Spring Breeze [春意盎然]
3) Spring Reflections [春光外洩]

Goodbye winter, Hello Spring!
Dried and fresh branch, Rhododendron and Tulip

Spring Breeze
Three bamboo sticks, Azalea, pine, moss and rock

Spring Reflections.
Metal mesh, sweet pea, Aster, Hydrangea and Philodendron