Ikebana and us

17th November 2017 Sandhya with her creations Our November workshop was an unusual one. While we work so hard as a Study Group to create Ikebana with various inspirations, what about the containers that we use? What can we learn from the allied art of studio pottery? Could we use the workshop to highlight unusual containers? Mrs Sandhya Ravi Shankar, a potter who has  studied at Sanskriti - Delhi Blue Ceramic Centre, shared with us her journey and learnings in the exciting world of working with stoneware, and the process of creation and the element of the unexpected and the imperfections. Ten of the Study Group members were present.  Originally scheduled for the 15th, it was re-scheduled due to the forecast of heavy rains. Sandhya took us through an absorbing talk, speaking about the historical and cultural  role that pottery has played, across the world, and the various kinds of pottery, from terracotta to stoneware to porcelain.  She also shared...

In a recent trip to Bangalore, Malathi sensei was able to meet her Ikebana teacher, Mrs Uma Rao, as she does every time she goes to the city.  She looked well, and continues to have a twinkle in her eye!  She was happy with all the updates on the Chennai Sogetsu Group, her Ikebana friends and our families.   "I owe my Ikebana interpretation to her as much as to my School. It is the most fortunate gift I have got", shares Malathi sensei.

For our pre-deepavali october workshop, the theme agreed upon was "All-Leaf".  The challenge for us Ikebana artistes was to create compositions, using only leaves.  Of course, in hot and humid Chennai, leaves are in abundance, and in a sense collecting material was not a problem.  However, using them together, to complement the vase and to maintain the principles of Ikebana, that was the challenge Twelve of us gathered on Oct 14th at the ABK hall to try our hand at this, with sensei Trishala demonstrating first off.  Her first composition was a moribana .  She used a large eart-coloured suibin, with a beautiful jade interior. Combining Clearodendron, Dressina, Pandanus and using the Crotons for a contrast in colour, the all-leaf omposition showed a lot of water, and the inner colour of the vase also formed part of the composition.  For her second composition, Trishala used a ceramic nagiere vase.  The vase had an interesting ...

Sept 13th 2017 We gathered for our Sept workshop at the ABK hall.  Ten members attended.  This was our second workshop on the monochromatic colour theme, with the experimentation with tints and hues. Demonstrating this time was sensei Janaki, who did a splendid job exploring pink and white in her two compositions. A beautiful composition exploring the various hues of pink, in a deep pink straw basket.  The anthuriums were placed  providing depth, the jerberas reflected the colour of the basket and the orchids brought balance. Another view "Signs of Spring" was sensei Janaki's title for this composition in white, with chrysanthemums, anthuriums and baby's breath.  The tint of green in the anthurium stamen and stems of the flowers were the tint that was highlighted. Chitra Rajan worked with purple with lagerstroemia branches expanding the scale of the arrangement, exploring the darker tint with the croton leaves that she used lower down ...

19th August 2017 The Chennai Study Group took on an interesting, challenging theme for the August workshop.   The theme was working with a single colour, and its hues and tints. The vase and composition were in effect to be monochromatic, with tints of shades in the same colour spectrum. Sensei Molly, despite running a flu, demonstrated this theme, with three different colours and textures for her vases. Thirteen members were present and we also had a Japanese guest in Ms Megumi Shimada and her husband.  Megumi san is a research scholar attached to the Japanese Consulate and has come to the city recently. For this beautiful rust coloured vase, sensei Molly tried using red initially, but then created this beautiful composition that reminded one of autumn, with the various tints of rust and brown.  The same arrangement from a slightly different angle She then moved to a delicate tall glass vase, with a light shade of pink.  For this ...