Ikebana and us

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...