Ikebana and us

At the Taj.  Ballroom. By Malathi sensei Taken with a mobile phone, so please forgive the quality. 

The flower shop! Dear members, Meenakshi Sarin, Prerana Mehta, Shobhaa Ramji and I visited the Bangalore Sogetsu Chapter on the 15th of September and a programme of interaction was organised. Upon our arrival in Bangalore, All 4 of us picked our flowers from a wholesale outlet on our way to Lal Bagh where we were to meet the Bangalore Chapter members.  I cannot convey to all of you the awe and joy at seeing the abundance of colourful flowers!  Not only were the buckets  full of colourful flowers, there were bunches on the floor waiting to be placed and another van of flowers was waiting outside to unload. You can imagine what a variety we had to choose from as they were half the price we pay for them herein Chennai! We did 4 free style arrangements. Meenu, using the coconuts with umbrella plants  jerberas Prerana wished her arrangement to be minimalistic and used dry bamboo and jerberas, Shobhaa used strong stems of heliconia with s...

Sensei Malathi demonstrated the hanging style, an addition to the Sogetsu textbooks, and a lesson that some of the older students are not familiar with. We met at Vaishali's nice cheerful new flat in the IIT campus, and the airy atmosphere and granite counter seemed to help us all creatively! And of course, we had the most delicious lunch courtesy Vaishali, after that!

As Japan is hit by the earthquake and tsunami, our thoughts go out to the people of that country. So many fond memories I have of my two visits there.... Here are the arrangements of Malathi sensei at the Japan Festival, done on March 9th 2011, at the ABK AOTS Centre. As I was helping her, the pictures were taken in the end after the demonstration. The Cycle of Nature series A tribute to the ceramists who inspire creations in Ikebana The Indian touch

As our Chennai Sogetsu Group grows larger, we find that accommodating all of us into a residence, along with our vases and material, is becoming a real squeeze. The Group decided to use the hall at the ABK-AOTS Dosokai centre on Nelson Manickam road. ABK-AOTS has been a wonderful patron for our group, and once again extended a helping hand by giving us one of their business meeting rooms for a nominal fee. As we arrived, we found that tables had been put out, buckets of water were ready and all we had to do was get down to our ikebana! It was a pleasure to have Mrs Lan Minagawa, Mrs Suzuki and Mrs Keiko from the consulate as guests at our workshop. We started off with a short presentation on the materials of Chennai, their botanical names and some possible materials that we could use in the future as well. Hopefully, this exercise will help us at our next exhibition when we look to make a note of the materials we have used in the arrangements. Demonstration The highlight of the m...

Malathi sensei did these lovely arrangements for the annual Emperor's party, hosted by the Japanese Consul at Chennai. I was privileged to accompany her and watch her work. Mr and Mrs Minagawa, (the Consul and wife) enjoyed the exhibits. They are so warm, gracious and friendly, that as Malathi sensei says, we do hope they stay on for another term!

The Urali displaying colourful symmetry Hello all! After the team went off to Delhi and returned excited, happy and with renewed creativity, things have been quiet around the Sogetsu Chennai team. It was time for the September workshop to be hosted by Seethalakshmi, and what a treat it was! A gracious hostess with a lovely home, an innovative demonstration by Vaishali, gorgeous freestyle arrangements by others (except me!), and of course a super lunch!! Unfortunately, (ok dont yell), I forgot my trusted digicam, and had to rely on my phone cam. From next time, will somebody remind me the previous day to take my camera please?! So, my apologies to Molly and Chitra. Their other arrangements I have not photographed. As we entered Seetha's home, after negotiating the various "No Entry" and "No Right Turn" boards along the way, we immediately spied lovely granite vases as well as beautiful arrangements. Seetha's arrangement in the front lobby Another granite...