When I do my daily ikebana arrangements I often start with one idea and it progesses into something else, sometimes along the same thought/design process or something altogether different. So here is a glimpse into one of those ideas. I have these lovely gloriosa lilies and I wanted to use them in mass, an easy thing to do, but I also wanted to add some interest with some manipulated monstera leaves. I put two monstera leaves back to back and used short pieces of wire to pin them together, and I really liked the look and feel of the new element I created. I did the photo, and still wasn’t totally happy with the result. So after pulling a few other containers and trying to find a way to use the leaves I came up with the second version below. It’s less gloriosa lilies, but the “floating” palm gave the piece some tension that was lacking in the first version. Each small step with leaf manipulation is giving me a better relationship with the materials.
Cool leaf manipulation! And I prefer the geometry of the 2nd arrangement more than the first. Fun experiments.