Ikebana and us

  Members of the Ikebana Branch Chennai met for High Tea at Fisherman’s Cove. It was a wonderful time full of fun and frolic. The food was great and the members present enjoyed each other’s company. Thank you Malathi  Ma’am and friends for a lovely evening. Commemorating the Emperor’s birthday the Consulate of Japan in Chennai hosted a celebration at the Taj hotel on Feb23rd. Our Chairperson Mrs Pandurang was assisted by members in making two ikebana arrangements for this event.

The 12th Annual Ikebena exhibition of Chennai Sogetsu Branch took place at the Malayalee Club on 28th and 29th of January 2023.    The theme of the exhibition aptly titled “Man and Plants” gave the participants the opportunity to express their relationship with plants through creative free style Sogetsu Ikebana exhibits. The  exhibition was inaugurated by Mr Masayuki Taga, Consul General of Japan (Chennai). During the inauguration ceremony on 28 Jan 2023 Mr Taga the chief guest spoke in length about the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindernath Tagore visit to Kobe, Japan and his short open Haiku on flowers. He mentioned that beauty lies in the heart of the flower.  Other special guest Mr Berne Joann Jessie, curator Theosophical Museum, Adyar and Mr M R Ranganathan Chairman ABK, AOTS, DOSOKAI . Mr Johann Jessie spoke about the Ying and Yang principal of balance in nature and it’s application to Ikebana. Many Japanese officiers    from Japanese Consulate...

  Our December workshop was held on Saturday the 17th December at ABK and twelve members were present. Sensei Chitra Thiagarajan gave us a demonstration on variations 6,7,8. Sensei Chitra’s work was recently published In the book “Ikebanists around the world”. We congratulate her for the same. Sensei Chitra started off with the "combined style” using two ceramic vases.She used anthuriums and garden leaves. A cluster of  unripe bananas added beauty to the arrangement.Thus variation8 was effectively demonstrated by Sensei Chitra.                                            For demonstrating variation7 Sensei ChitraT had stacked an enamel platter with water on a glass bowl with water.  For this floating arrangement Chitra combined a lotus flower and garden leaves and a palm font.                         ...

On a chilly monsoon morning, 13 members braved the rainy weather forecast to assemble at ABK Dosokai for another revision session. This time it was Sensei Grade 2 Sanyo and Jonin Sanyo Dalley Varghese who effortlessly demonstrated the intricacies of Basic Variation 4 and Variation 5 supported by her daughter Susan. The demonstration was highlighted  by expert comments from Riji Mrs Malathi Pandurang.  The first demonstration was basic Variation 4 or the missing style without Soe in  Nageire style using  an elongated ceramic black vase with a wide rim on a circular rustic wooden tray.  The plant materials were deftly assembled by Ms Varghese who showed the beautiful curve of a lemon branch as Shin in the drooping style complemented by delicate cream colored roses tinged with pink as Hikae and Jushis. The second demonstration a basic Variation 5 on  white fiber glass moribana vase using branches of African princess shrub, some lovely chilli hibiscus stems wit...

 In the October month workshop, attended by 14 members, Mrs Malathi Pandurang, Director of Sogetsu Branch Chennai demonstrated 4 lessons from Sogetsu Textbook 1 She used just a few materials from her garden to show different styles and their variations. Watching her demonstrate and explain how to achieve balance and coherence between the main lines and jushis, we were able appreciate the right position and proportion in placement of jushis to bring out the asymmetrical nature and the three dimensional aspect of ikebana arrangements. Her demonstration also emphasised the appropriate choice of materials for main lines and jushis to compliment them. She worked with the same material, across the arrangements, in order to explain the fundamental positions of the lines, and the arrangements should be viewed as lessons. Basic Upright Style Moribana and Variation 1 Upright Style Moribana - Materials used Birds Nest Fern, green button chrysanthemums in a plastic round trays.  While dem...

Our September meeting was held at ABK on the 24th. Sensei Mrs. Molly Cherian and Mrs. Luna Bose gave us a wonderful demonstration on  Abstract arrangements. For her first arrangement,  Sensei Molly aesthetically placed a bark of a tree on a pin holder and t hen arranged strips of cane, heliconia flower and asparagus fern and used a steel net as unconventional material in the arrangement. For her second arrangement.  Sensei Molly placed a ceramic vase on a wooden board.  A silicone cup cake mould and steel wool were the unconventional materials used to create  A beautiful arrangement with dried umbrella palm branches which were made into many geometrical designs  and  heather and chrysanthemum flowers to complete it. For her third arrangement Sensei Molly used a nagiere metal container with a cross bar and . A wooden bark was propped against the container.  Philodendron leaves and a sunflower were arranged beautifully with stalks of wild rose berri...