Pipe Organ or Container?

For this assignment, we have to create our own container and arrange it. I dreamed of a beautiful shape of creation, then I went to Lynn's backyard to chop down a couple of bamboo and went to Home Depot to buy a fine sharp saw and have made some nice angles and painted them. Having worked very hard, after everything being done and ready to assembly, the difficult part was still ahead of me. The container design turned out to look like a Organ Pipe. But I am proud of myself, because all the work has been done by myself entirely.

Colors in Contrast

"Contrasting colors" are the main subject this time.
Euonymus "Emerald 'n' Gold" and purple Japanese iris, purple salvia are colors in contrast yet in harmony. Develop your idea freely so that you can feel the pleasure of " arranging colors". (6-02-09)

Shape of the container

A piece of dried branch extending the unique shape of the container. Using clematis and astilbe leaves to complete this arrangement. (6-30-09)

My garden

1) Oriental pears.

2) Heliopsis

3) Calla Lilies.

4) Purple
Coneflowers.

5) Black- eyed Susans.

A lot of my Ikebana arrangement materials are all from my garden.

I Lha Formosa

1) To make an arrangement on the space of a wall. I created this design on a black background hard-board,with big dried branch and two yellow Asiatic lilies. - No title. (6-16-09)


2) The following class with same ideas + with title "I Lha Formosa" --Beautiful Island (6-30-09)

Portuguese sailors, the first Europeans who settled on Taiwan, were so taken by the natural beauty of Taiwan as they sailed passed by that they called the island "I Lha Formosa". Taiwan(Formosa) is a subtropical island off the southeastern coast of China. The island is shaped like a yam. It is situated on the rim of the Eastern Asian continental Shelf between Japan and the Philippines. During the 16th and 17th,18th and 19th centuries, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, China(Ch'ing Dynasty) and Japan vied for control over Taiwan. After Japan lost World war II in 1945, China's KMT party administratively controled Taiwan. The people of Taiwan has endured through a lot of hardship, struggled to rebuild their own country.
Taiwan deserves the support and recognition from international community. Lily is a"symbol and hope" of the Taiwanese people. Muscadet Lily with a rich scent is as pretty as a lily can get.

A Variety of Materials

An arrangement made of using five or more kinds of materials. Putting too much materials together could be too messy. We should be careful to see if the colors of the materials are in harmony and are well-matched. White astilbes, purple lavenders, pink spiraeas, hot pink snapdragons, pink karas, Japanese iris leaves and astilbe leaves all in this arrangement . I think it looks very graceful right? My teacher didn't correct a bit. (6-16-09)

With Leaves Only

Make an arrangement only with leaves of two or more kinds. I have a lot of different kinds of hostas at my garden. I used croton and hosta to arrange the assignment. By bending, and overlapping them(small curly two tones hosta) ,or by presenting reverse side of the leaves, it gives different characters and different impressions. (5-12-09)

Using wood as a partial arrangement 2

This larger arrangement with wood was arranged at the following class. My teacher pushed me to have larger arrangement to display at the entrance, which I added bamboo, azalea branches and small yellow mums. (the smaller bamboo at left side of the picture was carelessly left there when I took the picture) size:36"x52"

Using wood as a partial arrangement 1

Last November, we had Free style class which was a large arrangement using wood as a partial arrangement. It was a challenge. I picked two pieces of wood with moss on them from my garden and arranged with mums and pine branches. To force branch toward front, I joined two branches and tied with wires and let it lay out naturally.

Basic upright style nageire

Nageire(vase) is arranged by crossing stems inside the vase, and is harder than Moribana(Suiban),by presenting the characteristics of upright style include expressing the strong line of Shin and fixing Soe and Hikae securely in place. (2-03-09)

Moribana emphasizing curved lines

This composition I arranged at home. Our master showed us at the class to use bending branches to create curved lines, so I tried to make the maximum use of my bending techniques at home. (2-04-09)

Composition of Curved Lines

Curved lines can express the sense of rhythm, the volume, the swirling lines of flow, the light tone or motion, the feeling of energy, and so on. This composition was arranged in Feb.Tulip and Willow branches were good to use. (2-03-09)