A Valentine's Day workshop

18th February 2014. We gathered for our February meeting at ABK AOTS Dosokai where our senior member Sensei Padma Swaminathan took us through two lovely compositions, with her expressions of Valentine's Day.

Padma sensei started off with a black Nagiere vase which was a little different with multiple openings at the mouth.  She used anthuriums in a striking rich red along with Baby's Breath.

What resulted was this beautiful composition - which she dedicated to her wonderful, supportive family, whose love and support helped her through difficult times

She then moved on to this metal container, from Indonesia, which has little containers inside, all with this same lovely design.  Sensei Padma said that there was no need to polish this as it maintained its gleam.

This arrangement with wide palm leaves exemplified the love that she gets from her Ikebana world.

The top view highlights the roses which stood for her Ikebana friends, wherever in the world they may be.  Truly, "friendship through flowers"!

Another angle

The ladies then looked to create their own expressions of Valentine's Day, and the variety was enjoyable and eye opening.

Malathi sensei took the theme of Vrindavan as an age-old expression of love.  She explained that for her, the large heart-shaped leaf was Krishna, and the little leaves below the gopikas, attracted by the sound of his flute, which is the bamboo, and there is calebration, romance and love in the air, that the carnations and Baby's breath symbolise.

Pushkala used a dry vine to symbolise a heart, and the roses of course stand for true love.

Dally sensei was exuberant in her expression of a  festive Valentine dinner, with close family and dear friends

Prerana expressed that we all need to learn to love ourselves first of all, and her arrangement is her visualisation of how she has learned to love herself.

Nirmala used betel leaf vine to create a mood of love encircling her flowers.

Pushkala's second expression used origami swans and represented the love of a mother for her child

Molly sensei used  pink caladiums from her garden as symbolising two hearts in love and its celebration is symbolised by the gold embellishment

Chelvi's theme of love was expressed by a pair of vases, forming a harmonic whole.

Janaki celebrated the magic of love with a joyous, exuberant display of colour.

Ambika chose to express how love surrounds her family with the graceful fox's tail

It was a  morning filled with roses and the colour red! 

To cap a creative session, Padma sensei gave us all valuable tips on preserving the freshness of flowers, bleaching and colouring as well, via handouts, which will be most useful to all of us.

We meet in March for our exhibition at ABK and we also welcome Valeria from Auroville, who will be demonstrating.