I recently partook in three different ikebana workshops headed by Mihori-sensei, two yesterday in the afternoon and evening and one this morning.
So the first one I had to do yesterday was the one with fruits and/or vegetables that I had mentioned previously.
As you can see, it’s pretty much the same thing as the one from Tuesday. I originally wanted to have the lettuce act as waves and have the celery and radish stick out…somewhere…but that wasn’t quite working out. Mihori-sensei commended that idea but stated that my final work (that you see above) was “too ordinary”. I can’t say I blame her…it’s…pretty ordinary. I don’t feel too bad about this shot being so horrible since it’s pretty much the same thing as the one I did on Tuesday. No real loss here.
For the second workshop, we were told to work “exclusively” with sunflowers, or at least, that was supposed to be our main focus.
If you’re wondering why the sunflowers are red…well, it’s because they were dyed.
So anyway, this was another first for me, much like the fruits and vegetables one, in that I’ve never worked with just flowers and not branches. Due to having to tread through unfamiliar territory once again, I asked myself what’s the most easiest arrangement I could possibly make? Well, nothing’s easier than having everything just go up in a straight line.
Okay, but how do you make this not boring? My answer to that question was to cut the flowers in half. I personally rather like the image of two semicircles side by side but misaligned vertically so I went for that. It also mirrors my semicircle suiban in a way. If you like the curves and such of the bottom sunflowers, let it be known that they were all pretty much standing straight up and it was Mihori-sensei who adjusted them to give the arrangement more depth.
While there were arrangements that included sunflowers with their petals plucked out, my arrangement was the only one that incorporated sunflowers that were cut in halves so I felt pretty good here. Mihori-sensei also mentioned that this splitting in half business was similar to one of the works by one of the iemotos of Sogetsu. Of course, I was extremely humbled by this comment. I’ve been trying to google that piece but haven’t found it yet. When I figure it out I’ll be sure to post a blog entry.
The assignment of the final workshop, which was hosted at the Embassy of Japan this morning, was a free style nageire arrangement. There were no other requirements otherwise.
Looks pretty good, right? Well, that’s because the only thing that’s really mine here is the large branch sticking upwards on the right hand side. :P I tried to go for something simple with a branch on the right, a different kind of branch on the left, and flowers in the middle…but that apparently was a no go and Mihori-sensei revamped it to what you see above. So really, I can take very little credit for this arrangement. She mentioned that using two different branches is quite difficult so I guess I was biting off more than I can chew.
So yeah, this is what I’ve been up to. I’ll be on a bit of a two week ikebana break since my classes won’t be resuming until the 17th. I will be sure to speak with Tsunakawa-sensei then or before then to get a feel of what she thinks I need to work on. The workshops have truly been enlightening thanks to Mihori-sensei’s excellent critique and comments about the arrangements. It’s also really been quite an eye-opener for me to see the wide variety of containers people have and the kind of beautiful and unique arrangements that can be composed with them.
I think this entry has gone on for long enough so I’ll stop here. I of course have photographs of the other arrangements (but am purposely not posting them publicly here since I don’t exactly have the artist’s permission). I think all my regular readers know how to contact me so feel free to email or IM me if you’d like to check out the other arrangements.
