Ikebana and us

The flower shop! Dear members, Meenakshi Sarin, Prerana Mehta, Shobhaa Ramji and I visited the Bangalore Sogetsu Chapter on the 15th of September and a programme of interaction was organised. Upon our arrival in Bangalore, All 4 of us picked our flowers from a wholesale outlet on our way to Lal Bagh where we were to meet the Bangalore Chapter members.  I cannot convey to all of you the awe and joy at seeing the abundance of colourful flowers!  Not only were the buckets  full of colourful flowers, there were bunches on the floor waiting to be placed and another van of flowers was waiting outside to unload. You can imagine what a variety we had to choose from as they were half the price we pay for them herein Chennai! We did 4 free style arrangements. Meenu, using the coconuts with umbrella plants  jerberas Prerana wished her arrangement to be minimalistic and used dry bamboo and jerberas, Shobhaa used strong stems of heliconia with s...

Our September workshop was on Sep 12th at the ABK-AOTS Dosokai hall, on Nelson Manickam Road, and the them was unusual containers. It was very nice to see three new faces, students brought by Meenu, and we do hope to see them more often. Malathi sensei started off proceedings by quickly showing us the use of the old, discarded woven cane pieces from her home chairs, and converting them into a lovely vase! The cane used as vases Molly used a gift bag The completed arrangement by sensei Malathi Members had brought various materials and containers to work with.  Chitra brought her child's toy train, and see below for the full arrangement Shobhaa brought an old pickle jar, and also used a plaiting technique for the green material, details of which can be seen below. Nirmala worked with a copper kitchen vessel Pushkala placed a whitecoral/shell on top of an ollock measure and created a striking linear arrangment that can be seen be...