“Art in Bloom” exhibition event will be held on 12/1 - 12/3/2023 at the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum. I have chosen this painting “Quarter Sawn” by Mike McConnell. Since then I have been thinking and preparing how to interpret it with an ikebana arrangement. Stay tuned! (11/27/2023)
The interesting shape of bittersweet vine, I found them from wild during my routine walk in the open field. Also, surprisingly! The leftover mums were still looking fresh! I arranged them together in a some kind of basic style nageire. I named it “ Sound of Late Autumn.” Because the vine looks like a sheet of music. (11/18/2023)
For the upcoming event “Art in Bloom," I had made a special trip to Delaware Contemporary art center to choose a painting a month ago. I thought it over and over how I am going to interpret it with an Ikebana arrangement. My preliminary, rough idea will be using two containers. I used leftover materials to arrange something with the two containers to get an idea of the massing. (11/17/2023)
The third class lesson of November was “Thanksgiving, Autumnal arrangement using Dried, Bleached or Colored Materials.” Even though I had made two arrangements using dried materials already, I combined the Thanksgiving and Autumnal arrangements with dried materials all in one, just like the title said and I chose the basket for this arrangement.
Materials: Dried hydrangea, bittersweet, dried leaves, fresh apple, pear, squash, persimmon, mum, nandina and green. (11/14/2023)
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| Happy Thanksgiving to all |
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| I love Sensei’s demo arrangement |
We did two basic moribana styles again, upright and slanting. Their three main stems just (the shin is a long branch, the Soe branch is 2/3 of shin and one flower hikae is 1/2 of shin) changed around the position and the angle of degrees. They looked easy to do, but it was not easy to make sense 3-dimensionally. The worst arrangement is looking like a 🤚(flat)! The first two pictures below were Sensei’s two basic style demo arrangements. (11/14/2023)
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| Upright, Shin15 degrees, Soe 75 degrees, Hikae 45 degrees |
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| Slanting, Shin 45 degrees, Soe 75 degrees, Hikae 15 degrees |
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| 11/9/2023 |
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| This container made from gourd |
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| I purchased the mum for 11/14/class. (11/11/ 2023) |
I gathered all the dried materials that I could find surrounding my house. I used some of them with fresh fruits, mum and maple in a big black suiban. I thought it was too much! But it’s really bountiful!😄 (11/7/2023)
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| Morimono arrangement (11/1/2023) |
I had been thinking about what kind of arrangement I could create for the 8th annual exhibition. So, I tried to arrange a couple times. But one thing for sure was that I would like to use persimmons in the arrangement and with the title “Autumn fest” ( 秋宴).
Materials: Mock orange branches, two kinks of mums, persimmons, pine, nandina and euonymus / tall glass vase. (10 /28/ 2023)
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| I thought, put one fruit down to look better in balance |
One of the programs was teacher’s demonstrations. There were six teachers -- each one gave a different subject for demonstration. My subject was “Repeating Similar Forms or Shapes”. (10/28/2023)
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| Hoses tail, magnolia, mum, bittersweet/ ceramic container |
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| Tried at 10/27/2023 |
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| Bamboo forest |
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| Vegetable delight |
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| Composition of branches |
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| Complimenting an artwork |
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| what is Ikebana |
The 8th Annual Exhibition was held on October 28, 2023. It was a gorgeous warm Saturday, attracting many people to see the beautiful Ikebana display. So many people gave many positive comments!
“Love for Ikebana” was this year’s theme. The program included member’s arrangements, six teachers’ demonstrations and raffles. For me, it was a busy, tired, but very rewarding day!
Here were the member’s arrangements, please see below:
