Ikebana and us

Sensei Malathi's arrangement for the reception on 7th December 2012 With Mrs Nakano at the reception

(2) IKEBANA Click on the link.  If Any of you have similar online albums, please let me know and I will shar the link.

II's south-east Asian regional conference was held in Delhi in November, and our member Sensei Meenu represented the Chennai Sogetsu Study Group!! Here is her report.   Day one was registration and later a demonstrations by the Mumbai II chapter.  The Ohara school was colorful and different and espoused an innovative aspect of their school.  There was also a demonstration of Sogetsu style by senior sensei. Mala Agarwal of Mumbai.  She had a theme running through all 6 separate pieces and it was named colors of India. That evening had a Oddissi performance by Arushi Mudgal, alumni of the Gandharav Music School.  There was a short speech by Lily Zang President Ikebana international followed by a welcome dinner at the venue. The venue had an ikebana bazaar where everything needed for the demonstration was sold. My arrangement was heliconias and baby's breath done on 3 steel banana shaped plates with real bananas to balance the plates had to b...

Dec 14th 2012 Our last workshop of the year was a colourful, well-attended freestyle session. Sensei Meenu spoke about her visit to the Regional II convention, and that will be covered in a separate post. This was followed by a free expression workshop, and here are some of the arrangements. Divya used zinnias in a fishpath style Pushkala experimented with jerberas and a dry mas of swirling lines Pushkaka again.  Glass vase with a horizontal line and gladioli used tall Meenu used bulrushes tall, combining them with jerberas and dry material Trishala worked at combination vases with wide graceful bamboo lines Ashoka combined eranthemum and roses Massed jerberas - artist unknown!

This article by Shoba Narayan who was our guest at the October workshop. ‘Navras’ in an ikebana arrangement - Livemint M uhammad said that if you have bread in one hand, you should have a flower in the other because one feeds the body and the other feeds the soul,” says Veena Dass, one of  the early Indian exponents of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. We are discussing the forthcoming ikebana conference in Delhi next week. Yes, flowers need conferences too. Delhi is hosting the 12th Asian Regional Conference from 21-25 November at The Lalit. If you love flowers and are in Delhi, you might want to phone Delhi Ikebana International and register to attend. The big names in Indian ikebana, most of them women—the  senseis  and the  rijis , as the various masters are called—will gather to cut and arrange flowers, foliage, branches, rocks and anything else that catches their fancy to create objects of beauty. The two big schools—Sogetsu and Ohara—will h...

Our chairperson Malathi sensei gave us a litle deomstration and talk on using line in Ikebana, with respect to the new Sogetsu school syllabus The talk was well attended The umbrella plant - Cyperus alternifolia -  was a perfect material for this theme, and sensei demonstrated using it as straight lines and bent into shapes, different ways and different interpretations. Twin  rectangular vases with 4 "windows", was the base for the next set of experimentation.  Placed vertically, the same umbrella plant and gerberas was interpreted differently. The same Sogetsu vases used horizontally and using all four openings.  This allowed the use of linear mass with Areca lutycens leaves,  and for colour effect gerberas to complete the simple composition The ladies had come armed with Deepavali sweets and there was much laughter and eating as well!  Photos of arragements done by the other participants of the workshop will be put up soon.

5th October 2012 Sensei Remani visited us from Hyderabad, and gave us a lively, colourful and vibrant demonstration of her interpretation and creative expression, using local material mixed with flowers from our local Amethyst store! She improvised with vases from Malathi sensei that she came and chose just on the morning of the demonstration, and her flair and confidence were admirable and a lesson for all of us. She had come armed with only some dry material with her, from Hyderabad She started with a dry material with lovely curves, which she used in a round moribana container. See below for the final composition, a low horizontal arrangement emphasizing the curved lines of her material, contrasted with white and green. She then made a bold, dramatic start with these large monstera leaves! The final composition - showing the unusual surface of the Monstera, complimented by lilies.  The dry material is the aerial roots of the banyan tree!  The display...

The Chennai sogetsu Study Group will be meeting on October 5th at ABK-AOTS at their Yamamoto Hall for an Ikebana demonstration by Mrs. Remani Nambiar of Hyderabad  at 11.30am. This will be followed by a business lunch. Expecting to see all of you in good numbers, so that you can give a good cheer to Mrs. Nambiar who has so readily accepted our invitation. Guests are welcome with the usual guest charges of Rs. 200. 1. Venue:ABK- AOTS- DOSOKAI, 113 Nelson Manickam Road, 3rd floor, Chateau de Ampa, Aminjikarai, Chennai 600 029. 2. Intoduction of Mrs. Remani Nambiar by Malathi. 3. Demonstration by Mrs. Remani Nambiar. 4. Vote of thanks by Mrs. Meenakshi Sarin. 5. Presenting a memento by Mrs. Ambika Chandrasekar. 6. Lunch.           Please do attend this 'in full attendance' to make it a memorable event of the year.                     ...

The Chennai Sogetsu Group met for their September workshopon 13th September, at the ABK-AOTS Dosokai hall.  Sensei Molly started proceedings with a demonstration on Variation 6, all round style.  For the first time, we tried an evening meeting to accomodate the working ladies, but this proved inconvenient for several others! She started off with a moribana interpretation A low, arrangement suitable for table-tops, with lovely pink carnations contrasting with the blue of the ceramic vase Another view Then she used a nagiere glass vase, with a vertical cross bar. Beautiful, all round views.  Jerberas, orchid, everlasting flower, and fern. There were ten members at the workshop, and some tried their hand at Variation 6, while others looked at working with interesting vases. Pushkala used local materials for her variation 6 arrangement Nagiere with ixora Divya worked with jerberas too Trishala's all roun...

 Our first meeting after the summer break was held on 8th August at Kalpataru, a hobby centre on ECR road, Chennai. There was a good attendance by the members with 4 absentees. As the programme was announced in many newspapers, there were some 8 to 10 interested visitors who enjoyed the demonstration by Sensei Padma, the theme being " using more than 2 kinds of materials in a Free Style composition"  Mrs. Meenakshi Sarin hosted the event. I must say the ambience of Kalpataru really complemented the event. Sensei Padma's first arrangement Padma showed how to take advantage of the shape of the vase to begin the floral composition, using bleached mitsumata, asia lilies,hosta leaves and completed with golden rod flowers.  For this arrangement she chose the flat or horizontal style. Sensei Padma's second arrangement Her 2nd composition was in a small squarish brown container which had a curled fold on each side as if it was a 'lip'. In ...