October 11th, 2013 by Keith
I love building structures, and this one was quick and easy to make. Hanakubari is the technique of building fixtures with natural materials to support flowers without wire, nails, or screws. But more important is the fact that it is meant to be part of the design, not hidden like a kenzan or kubari fixture in traditional ikebana. For this particular piece I used mostly “Y” shaped pieces of willow, all held together with some light tension. Strong tension in this ceramic container, and the swelling of wooden stems could cause too much stress on the vessel and cause it to crack or break. There is just enough tension joining it will to form a Hanakubari that is interesting and secure for stems.
Tags: anthurium, branches, dried flowers, floral art, floral design, flowers, Hana Kubari, ikebana, sogetsu, tropicals
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September 11th, 2013 by Keith
As promised, another bouquet that was nature inspired. Actually the materials are gathered from the woods around my parents home in the mountains in the western part of Virginia. I found so many little mosses and lichens,their growth aided by an usually cool and wet summer, and it was a pure delight. Little pieces of treasure all around, slowly revealing small gems of color and texture. Lovely red begonia blooms grown by my mother, they were such a joy to use. She was thrilled that I used them and I cut pieces of them to take home and start my own plants (which made her so happy). The strange coincidence was that I had brought her rooted cuttings of my periennial begonias from my garden to transplant into hers. Delicate lichens and mosses were used to cover the underside of the bouquet, and I wrapped the handle with the soft leaves of lamb’s ear. The experience of searching for enough material to make this was interesting, I really kept my eyes wide open and used things I might not otherwise think of. At some point there will be another bouquet, and yes I will also be posting new ikebana for all to see!
Tags: Acorns, azalea, begonia, branches, Bridal, Bridal bouquet, clematis, Coneflower, Contorted filbert, evergreens, ferns, floral art, floral design, flowers, Holly, hydrangea, Lamb's ear, Lichen, Mint, Mosses, Pods, Running cedar, Spearmint, Wedding, Wedding bouquet, Wedding flowers, Yarrow
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September 5th, 2013 by Keith
This is my garden inspired bouquet, using what I could find still in bloom in the late summer heat. I bought the kale leaves and glued them to the underside of the bouquet to start, and glued a leaf to cover the handle. Flowers were collected and cut from the garden and our potted plants and I got a nice mix of flowers and leaves, pods and acorns. It was a race against the rising summer heat in the studio, and I wanted to get photos done while we still had good light outdoors. After I finished I asked Frederick to go with me over to Fort Bunker Hill Park here in Brookland to do the photographs. It is a lovely place to shoot photos, but sadly is FULL of poison ivy, and now Frederick has it all of his legs and feet despite our attempts to be careful. Since then I have scouted some better areas to shoot photos in with less chances of getting into poison ivy. My original idea was to do cool colors, but with a limited amount of flowers I had to go with many colors instead. Perhaps the next one will be the cool colors using some local flowers from the farmer’s market to add to what I have in the garden. I will also be posting photos of the bouquet I did earlier in August using materials collected from the woods in the mountains and my mother’s garden, hopefully sometime this weekend.
Tags: Acorns, balloon vine, begonia, branches, Bridal, Bridal bouquet, clematis, Cones, ferns, floral art, floral design, flowers, globe thistle, Gloriosa lily, hosta, hydrangea, kale, Lichen, Local flowers, Maidenhair fern, Mosses, Rosemary, roses, Sage, Spearmint, summer, vines, WashingtonDC, Wedding, Wedding bouquet, Wedding flowers, Woodland
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July 11th, 2013 by Keith
The best part of summer is the wonderful array of flowers the garden has to offer, and if you look carefully you can find great roadside flowers to add to that bounty. Here is my latest collection of garden and gathered blooms in my $3 compote (yes, that price is correct!). I realize this is a departure from the ikebana works, and this is the other side of my floral design work. There is ikebana to come, but for now I am enjoying just making pretty work that satisfies me.
Tags: begonia, crepe myrtle, crocosmia, floral art, floral design, flowers, Honeysuckle, hydrangea, Monarda, roses, summer, Sweet peas, thistle
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July 4th, 2013 by Keith
A hot summer day calls for cool colored summer flowers. Everything was either grown in our garden or collected by me this morning in the neighborhood. My low key version of fireworks.
Tags: calla lilies, evergreens, floral art, floral design, flowers, grasses, hosta, hydrangea, summer, vines, WashingtonDC
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