Ikebana and us

 August 13th 2022 Our August meeting at ABK had 14 members participating. Senior sensei Meenakshi Sarin demonstrated on “Structures” and Mrs.  Bhuvana Shivasankaran demonstrated in glass containers. For her first arrangement Sensei Meenakshi Sarin started by arranging beautiful pieces of drift wood and used ceramic container behind them to arrange Indian almond tree leaves and  colorful Lagastromia flowers, Halyconia and gypsophila.  It was a beautiful creation. For her second arrangement Sensei Meenakshi used a combination of black and white fibre glass containers and a structure made with straws with  black and white pattern commemorating the chess tournament which was recently held in the city. The neat straw structure was made by  Mrs. Shylaja and Mrs Bhuvana. Indian almond tree branches were used beautifully in both the arrangements made by Sensei Meenakshi. For her first arrangement Mrs. Bhuvana used a beautifully woven palm leaf inserted in a gla...

16 July 2022 Sogetsu Chennai members' face-to-face meeting was convened at ABK DOSAKAI after a COVID break of 2 years.  After meeting online, 16 members attended the first face to face meeting in several years!  The meeting began on a sombre note, as we paid respects to the memory of  two inspiring individuals;  Shri Pandurang spouse of our dear mentor Mrs Malathi Pandurang and former Japanese PM Mr Shinzo Abe. We began with a 2-minute silent introspection in their memory. Mrs Malathi Pandurang then welcomed Mr Kenji Miyata, Deputy Consul of Japan in Chennai. His wife Christi is also an Ikebana artist.  Mr Shankar Ramamurthy and Mr Kannan specializing in traditional floral artistry,  invited by Dalley Varghese to do a demonstration  on “Man and Plant materials of Tamilnadu”  were received warmly by Mrs Pandurang and the members.    Mrs Pandurang invited Chelvi Gopinath and Bhuvana Shivshankaran to read out  accounts and activitie...

April 16th 2022 Eighteen members of our group got together online for our last meeting of the year, via Google Meet.  This would also be the election meeting.  We were all excited, to be electing the first committee of the Branch. Here is the list of new office bearers: Director - Mrs Malathi Pandurang - nominated by Prerana Mehta, and unanimously accepted. Deputy Director - Mrs Chitra Rajan Nominated by Ambika Seconded by Prerana. Second Deputy Director  - Mrs Divya Selvam Nominated by Meenakshi Sarin seconded by Ms Pushkala  Programme Director - Mrs Meenakshi Sarin Nominated by Mrs Malathi seconded by Mrs Bhuvana. Director of Branch Accounts - Mrs Trishala Vaishnav Nominated by Mrs Malathi seconded by Prerana. The election meeting was followed by a Q&A session with Sensei Malathi and a demonstration to highlight artistic space - an area where there were many queries. In her first composition, Sensei Malathi handled an interpretation in nagiere, with a naturalis...

 23rd March 2022 Our March meeting was on 23rd at 11.30 am via Google Meet, and included an  online demonstration by sensei Mrs. Molly Cherian. Theme for her demonstration and the subsequent Workshop was “ Nagiere, with vertical bar fixture, lesson Variation 4.  Also called the "missing style", without the Soe line, it lends itself to beautiful compositions.  16 members gathered online to watch. Sensei Molly, in her usual quiet manner, was well planned and methodical.  She explained how she chose this topic as it is important to use a vertical bar, to control the angles in a nagiere, and it is a good practise for all of us. She began with a brown ceramic vase, and showed step by step, how to set up the vertical bar.  It was a great help to all the students. Her first arrangement was Variation 4 - Upright, reversed style, with Jasmine branches from her garden and chrysanthemum flowers. She then explained that she will demonstrate slanting style in Variation ...

 18th and 28 March 2022 In the midst of a  scorching Indian summer in mid March 2022, Sogetsu Chennai Branch was invited by Ms. Miyuki Inoue,  Culture Head, Japanese Consulate, Chennai to conduct an interactive Ikebana demonstration for the Hello Japan program showcasing Japanese Culture to senior secondary school students  Freestyle exhibits by Chitra Rajan and Divya Selvam at Velammal Vidyalaya school Sogetsu Chennai director Mrs Malathi Pandurang deputed Sensei Divya Selvam and Sensei Chitra Rajan to conduct a demonstration for students of two higher secondary schools Velammal Vidyalaya school and Sethu Bhaskara Matriculation higher Secondary School at Chennai, India. In both the demonstrations the  senseis  showed basic upright and basic slanting style on a Moribana container and then invited a few students to try out the same. The demonstration was viewed with great interest by staff and students and the students enjoyed the interactive session too. Be...