Ikebana and us

8th December 2014 Our last meeting of the year was a  Christmas theme with a delightful demonstration by sensei Dalley. She created lovely arrangements with her usual flair and colour sense, and all the members enjoyed the demonstration. Her first arrangement for the season was this creation, with a large palm leaf adding drama, and the strelitzia adding Christmas cheer. It was a well attended session As she starts on her second compostion The one white Carnation is for Christmas Moving on to her final piece. A dash of Christmas colours with large showy anthuriums. Members then displayed their own creations. Sensei Molly found Bottlebrush in bloom to add that festive look to her arrangement with wine bottles. Ambika used  twigs painted red to add line to her slender glass vase Prerana accessorised her arrangement to good dramatic effect. Trishala recreated a Christmas tree. Chelvi complemented her bright red baske...

Ikebana, Chennai style - The Hindu Hema Vijay A rather unique floral exhibition celebrates the city’s 375th anniversary Slender coconut husk-straws and coconut fronds, fragile plantain shoots and massive flowers, ficus and banyan branches, Calotropis, better known as the ‘popping’ plant; Gulmohar pods, leaves of lily, betel nut, Murraya, Casuarina, Philodendron, — these flowers and foliage adorned the Ikebana arrangements at a recent exhibition at the Lalit Kala Akademi. The exhibits were beautifully arranged in an array of traditional cooking pans, pickle jars, copper and terracotta pots, perforated bricks, coconut shells and dry coconut fronds; traditional fibre scrubs, and even in hollows etched out by nature on driftwood. This year, the beautiful and evocative Japanese art of Ikebana took on a delightful Chennai avatar, courtesy the Chennai Sogetsu Study Group. Celebrating the 375th anniversary of the city’s existence, the group let their annual show...

Floral Beauty At its Best By Express Features Published: 24th November 2014 06:17 AM

  Click on the link below for the exhibition album. Sogetsu Study Group, Chennai celebrates 375 years of our city - Sogetsu Chennai - Picasa Web Albums

Snapshots from our exhibition Click on the link above for a close peek at our annual exhibition.  From cycle wheels to clothes clips, thermocol packs, to coconut shells, everything has an artistic value and helps our creative energies. Chrysanthemums, lilies, crotons, orchids, bottle brush, palms, dressina and jerberas, are just some of the wide variety of material used.  Pods and berries, roots and shoots, you will find them all. Each composition has a bit of Chennai in them, as we celebrate our city's 37th Anniversary, so come and take a look! a close-up of the centrepiece Mrs Nakano inaugurates as Anuja looks on The artists!

Celebrating Chennai's 375th anniversary with Ikebana

October 15th 2014  Our October workshop was on working with unusual materials or vases and creating abstract compositions. Ambika demonstrated a couple of arrangements before the assembled members tried their hand at it.  It was an exciting and invigorating workshop, with a wide array of material and containers. Ambika's first arrangement, seen below, was with four bits of packing material ( soe ), that she rested on a bubble wrap sheet.  The strong shin was provided by a roll of chart paper discarded by her son!  The hikae anthuriums and the jushis coloured seeds added to colour to the composition. "Urbania" The second arrangement was created in a machine-cut hollow brick, which had an interesting texture, as well as six spaces created by the structure of the brick. Umbrella plant was amassed as two heavy lines, while the purple and green chrysanthemums were also massed for colour. In order to provide depth, a few of the umbrella plant stcks w...

16th Sept 2014 Our September workshop featured sensei Meenakshi Sarin demonstrating with combination vases, followed by a workshop where the members also worked with combination vases. Both her arrangements were with nagiere vases, though completely different in texture and style. Her first arrangement was with a pair of glass vases. Meenu filled the vases with formica strips from the carpenter working in her home, creating an interesting effect.  The strips also served as a fixture for the strelitzia and umbrella plant in the arrangement. Her second arrangement was this beautiful pair, elegantly complemented  with the heliconia.  The graceful bamboo and the variegated dressina added depth to the creation. It was a wonderful start to the workshop, and then it was time for the members to try their hands, and everyone worked with enthusiasm. The vases were all different and there was a variety of material on display as well. Ambika used a pa...