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  

Demonstration and Exhibition 2

 "Spring is in the air" exhibition, most of the materials that we used were seasonal flowers. Here were our class members' arrangements.

On cloud 9 [身在雲端]. Demo by Sylvia Wei

Spring Reflections（春光外洩）by me

A  Basket of Summer Dream. Demo by Granzynka Shaarani

Go Modern [ 朝向時代]. by MeeiHuey sensei　

Graceful [婀哪多姿]. by June Wu

A writer's Inspiration. Demo by Grazynka Shaarani

The dawn of spring [春曉]. by Chih Huang

Looking out the windows [窗外]. by June Wu

Old and Young [老與少].
by Sensei

Peeking through the window
 [別有洞天]. by Sylvia Wei 

Invitation to the dance [ 邀舞]. by Chih Huang

Encounter [邂逅]. by Sylvia Wei

Hope Rising from the rubble. by Cheryl
Background is NYC painting

Reflection. by Cheryl 

Wave. by Mary

Decay. by Mary

Ah! Spring [春到人間].
 by Betty

Romancing [花前月下].
by Doris

Flowering in the basket
 [柳暗花明]. by Doris

Ever Green [松柏長青].
by Betty

March and April Orchids Bloom

 I was so busy and occupied by my many Ikebana activities this month. So I did not have much time to care and pay attention to my orchids. But they are still blooming so beautifully and smell nicely too.

Epi. Ciliare. Miniature, flower is 2" in size

Onc. Pacific Panachc 

L. Purpurata var. carnea x  Bl. Richard Mueller

Orange red cattleya

Onc. Mtdm. Issaku Nagata

still blooming over 6 weeks

Onc. Sherry Baby

Large Centerpiece at the Liberty Place

This Centerpiece was done by a group of Meiihuey Sensei's students. Under her leadership, we constructed a huge and beautiful arrangement at Liberty Place, city of Philadelphia. The arrangement is one of the many Japanese cherry blossom festival programs in the Greater Philadelphia. (4/11 to 4/17/2016)
Materials: Cherry blossom, mum, bamboo, willow, orchid, pine and many greens...
Here are the pictures I took from front, back and side view:

Hello Spring!

Judith Setsuko Hata Sensei and her students (Sogetsu Wasetsu Group) held an Ikebana Flower Exhibition at the Nippon Club, NYC. April 7-9-2016. Hata Sensei is a Senior Teacher of Sogetsu Ikebana, Riji Rank, the highest teacher's degree. She learned her art directly under Sofu Teshigahara, founder of the Sogetsu school, and then under his daughter and successor, Kasumi Teshigahara. Over 50 years, she has led her Study Group, comprised of students from all over the New York metropolitan area and the world.
As I mentioned before, she comes to our Main Line study group (PA) once a month to teach us. I am lucky enough to be one of her students. She is in her 80s, I admire her youthful look and energy. I believe her passion for Ikebana does all of this!
The first three pictures were Hata Sensei's arrangements. The other were some of her students' arrangements.