Ikebana and us

There was lean attendance for this month's workshop. It was held at the Amethyst .  It was a freestyle workshop.  Many of the arrangements were done in the Amethyst's glass vases and basket containers, and the members left the arrangements behind for display at the flower shop.  The use of oasis in flat containers was a challenge to the flower artists, as we usually use kenzans, and a lot of its surface had to be covered with materials. That was a learning experience too. Sitalaksmi brought a new white jar shaped ceramic vase with an interesting design on its surface.  As usual, it was wonderful to see the members' enthusiam and interest to be working with flowers. -  Malathi

November 2011 Sogetsu Study Group workshop Sorry for the late report - it is a couple of months overdue, but the holiday festivities delayed the putting together of the report! As we look at Ikebana increasingly as an art form, we decided that it was time to understand and study other related concepts to enhance our compostions.  So, the workshop was dedicated to very simple aspects pf photographing Ikebana, and the elements to be taken care of. All of usare at the moment comfortable with point-and-shoot automatics, and/or our phone cameras.  So, this was not about shutterspeed and aperture so much as about light, background and composition. Here are some of the experiments of the study group members. Chitra used the plain white wall as background and experimented with square vs round placemats and the effect it has on the composition.  The photograph was taken with a flash, and this has thrown dark corners at the extremities of the picture. Prerana worked with differ