Monday, October 31st, 2011
A miniature ikebana arrangment today, inspired by the lovely pink begonia bloom. I wanted to use it since it is at the peak of perfection. So small so it had to be a minature ikebana. I chose a small white sake cup and curled up a single leaf of bird’s nest fern and place it in the cup, inserted the pink begonia bloom in place and I was done. It’s great when these minature pieces just come together in such an organic way, it was just meant to be today.
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
A quick post after traveling today, my arrangement was done this evening. I took a walk with Frederick and we found some berries that we think are some sort of honeysuckle. They are very translucent and went well with the single chrysanthemum I had left. It was a nice way to send my travel day. The leaves are finally turning here and I hope to be able to use some in the next week, and I’ll be on the look for more berries too. There was an early dusting of snow here on Saturday, a rare occurrence for October. Typically we don’t get any snow until December, so I want to make sure I get some great materials from outdoors while they are still available.
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
The first part of my post today is about the stem of foliage seen above, it was the mystery foliage in the grocery store bouquet yesterday. Does anybody recognize this foliage? It’s very tender, and weirdly alomst plastic. On first glance (and second and third glance) it almost looks like a plastic piece of foliage from any cheap floral department in a discount store. The leaves are dark green on top and the underside is almost black. The stem doesn’t seem to be woody, and the leaves are very oval in shape. Any ideas on what it may be?
Now to my fairly simple piece for today. I did want to make it somewhat easy since I had a lot of things to do on my last full day on vacation(and a lot of packing also). I got some eucalyptus at Trader Joe’s and combined it with the red rose from yesterday’s bouquet and also used the hawthorne berries from earlier in the week. Using the color of the container is the lesson I used to do today’s arrangement. The green and red of the glaze works so well with the dark green eucalyptus and red rose and hawthorn berries. There is also mass and curved lines in this design also. It’s not bad for today, I love this vase and want to see what else I can do with it. Good color for a Christmas ikebana arrangement. I need to gather my thoughts on some holiday work to show here and get some preparation done to make it interesing and inspiring.
Friday, October 28th, 2011
My quest to find flowers on my vaction has led me to grocery stores, and I have written about it in the last few days. Dyed flowers, bad/limited selection, that sort of thing. Today I gave Trader Joe’s grocery store a try, and surprise it had a nice little section of flowers (not a dyed flower in sight) they were very fresh and the price was really reasonable. The bouquets were cute, and I thought it might be fun to challenge myself to make my ikebana arrangement today with one of the pre-made bouquets. At $3.99 it was a bargain! So I took it back to my temporary abode and took a look at what I had: a stem of alstromeria, a red rose, two tems of purple statice, two stems of chrysanthemums and two orange gerbera daisies. There was also odd stem of darkish green/black foliage that was unfamiliar to me (and I do know quite a bit about flowers and foliage). I used everything but the rose and alstromeria stems in the black tube vase to make my nagiere arrangement. So here we have the tranformation of the grocery store bouquet to ikebana arrangement!
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
My busy vacation day included looking for flowers, no flower shop nearby so I had to resort to the grocery store. I kept telling myself that it is a challenge and that ultimately I should be able to produce ikebana with any material. I chose the football chrysanthemums for color, seasonal relatabilty and the fact that they were the best items to be found at the grocery store. My ikebana for today is a moribana made with only one material, the chrysanthemums, but in two colors. Using one material is a great Sogetsu lesson, it can be a challenge but one that does let you understand the materials and learn to use them in different ways. I find it a bit easier with leaves, since they can be shaped and bent and altered in so many ways and look different. It is quite different with flowers, their properites remain much the same and it takes some thought and creativity to come up with different looks. The possibilities really are endless.
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
One thing I like about being away from home is being able to visit new sources for containers. Thrift store are still a big favorite, as well as different art galleries and craft shops. I spotted this vase in a Goodwill store, a handmade piece(with a small seal signature one the bottom) with a great red iron oxide glaze. Even better was the price, a $5.25 bargain. The floral material was a little difficult, I searched several stores to find they all had dyed carnations and chrysanthemums, and spray painted hydrangeas. Not my cup of tea, so I turned to the remaining materials I had on hand and made them work. A monstera leaf was manipulated with the help of the thorns from the hawthorne berries, they work better than wire and I feel better about using natural materials.The hawthorne thorns also did the trick for keeping the orange berries in place, the berries are actually the seed from inside fresh Japanese lantern pods(how cool is that?). Together it made for a great horizontal ikebana arrangement, and I am loving today’s work. For me it was a great way to bring some needed energy and creativity to my week.
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Hooray, it’s a milestone day for me. Day 100!!!! Only 265 more days to go. Today I did a moribana with grasses that I collected, and I also found some bay berry and small bradford pears. I combined all those materials with the reamining black callas and some red rose buds. Simple but it worked, although I would have loved a bit of orange or some brighter materials to add in. I’m hoping to get out and find some interesting things to work with tomorrow. I can’t believe that I have kept this project going for 100 straight days, such a good use of my time and efforts. It has some peaks and lots of plateaus, such is the life of mastering anything. On to the next 265 days!
Monday, October 24th, 2011
This week I am actually away on a vacation, trying to unwind and to also get re-energized. It’s also a bit of a challenge for this project since I am doing arrangements while I am away. So far, so good as there are interesting materials growing and they are seasonal too. These gorgeous hawthorne berries were a delight to use today, vibrant red and full of ripe berries. The leaves are already gone from the branches so just the berries remain. With the chill of the autumn air as my inspiration I used the branches of hawthorne berries to start the nagiere arrangement this morning, and added the Japanese lanterns (which are also called Chinese lanterns, bladder cherry or winter cherry) and some burning bush branches to finish. Tomorrow either more autumn inspired work or something that is based on found materials. I’m enjoying my time away from home and finding things to work with.
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
My freestyle moribana for today, just trying to not think about it too much and just do it. Easy to do with such lovely materials. The pink dahlia is courtesy of my partner’s mother, Phyllis, and the white freesia and monstera are from the florist. I’m taking this week to decompress a bit and re-group (but I am still doing a piece each day). Enjoy your week!
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
Autumn and flowers from the garden were the inspirations today. The Japanese toad lilies with their speckled blooms were my first choice, and I experimented with many other materials before settling on chrysanthemums, hydrangea, blackberry lily pods and a begonia leaf. The base of the desing is a piece of driftwood, and my thought was to produce a work reflective of a fall garden. It wasn’t easy to make this arrangement today, I think my mind is going in so many different directions in design style and which way to go forward. For me this is a sure sign that I need to recharge my batteries a bit and find the path I need to continue my journey with flowers.
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