Thursday, December 24, 2009

New year arrangement

We use special materials and arrangements for Festive Occasions. It often happens that placing just one Ikebana can totally change the environment which you are familiar with.
The traditional Ikebana materials for New Year arrangement are pine,bamboo and Japanese plum,flowers such as chrysanthemum, camellia,lily,narcissus etc... My friend Lynn gave me handsome bamboo from her backyard. It made this composition look different. I also got beautiful red-Berry from shopping mall and sprayed silver paint on pine branches and decorated with silver and gold paper strings on top of the bamboo. The Mizuhiki (paper strings)is a typical decorative material for Japanese New Year, which my teacher gave me a year before. BTW:the secret way to keep freshness of bamboo leaves is to put water inside the bamboo shaft (Ms. Lin said). 12-15-09

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Free style - sketching and Arrangeing

This subject means, prior to actually making an arrangement with the materials, to sketch your ideas of the composition which you want to make with a pencil on a piece of paper. I would like to emphasize two pieces of bleached roots, which my friend gave me and I bleached it by myself a while ago. Top picture arranged in the class(turn 45 degree), and the bottom one was arranged a night before at home, with bright red Gerbera daisy, holly branch and spruce. I think I can use it for Holiday arrangement. (12-01-09)

Variation No.2 Upright Style Nageire

The key point of this style shows the beautiful line of Soe which extends toward the front-right. Choose a branch which looks beautiful when slanted or bent. In Winter, since there is no more flower in my backyard, so I got Gerbera daisy from market and with Bittersweet branches to complete this composition. (12-01-09)