Ikebana for Celebrations with Elizabeth and Helen

December 12, 2021 Ikebana Wellington

Helen added Mizuhiki cord to her Christmas arrangement

We met as usual at the Khandallah Town Hall for our final workshop of the year. The theme was “Ikebana for Celebrations”. Elizabeth and Helen showed us arrangements using Mizuhiki cord of different colours. We all chose some cord to suit our individual work.

Afterwards we gathered at Sandi Hurnard’s place where we got together over a celebratory glass and toasted the end of 2021. There were a variety of drinks and delicious, tasty nibbles plus a huge bowl of delectable strawberries! Everyone had a relaxing time.

Elizabeth arranging lilies, alstrameria, berris and Mizuhiki cord in a bag for a gift

Elizabeth arranged alstrameria and muehlenbeckia with Mizuhiki cord and lights in two vases

Helen arranged red carnations and painted muehlenbeckia in an interesting vase

Helen hung Mizuhiki cord from a flax branch

Choosing coloured Mizuhiki cord for our arrangements

Misako arranged berries, cones and gold cord in a small white vase on a round ceramic plate. Looking down.

Misako's arrangement from the front

Masako arranged Canterbury bells and pine branches with purple Mizuhiki cord in a tall black container

Kathy arranged pine sprigs with pohutukawa flowers and gold Mizuhiki cord on an interesting container

Kathy arranged ivy, red berries, white pohutukawa and gold Mizuhiki cord in an interesting red container

Julie used pohutukawa flowers with gold Mizuhiki cord in two different vases

A pine branch with pohutukawa flowers and green Mizuhiki cord in a narrow-necked vase

Tall white agapanthus arranged with cones and Mizuhiki cord in an opaque glass vase

Pink peonies and greenery with pink Mizuhiki cord in a low container

Satomi used a pine branch with zinnias, peonies and pink Mizuhiki cord in her own raised pottery vase

Yoko used pine branches with red roses, pink chrysanthemums and highlighted with pink Mizuhiki card

Rengarenga, hydranga and kokako berries arranged in a low black container

Adriana used hydrangas highlighted with Mizuhiki cord in a low vase

Nicole used red roses and muehlenbeckia with gold Mizuhiki cord in a low vase

Nicoleused flax flowers and pohutukawa in a tall red vase

Erris used rewarewa branches and flowers with gold Mizuhiki cord in a low red container

Sandi used pohutukawa flowers and greenery highlighted with gold Mizuhiki cord

A workshop with Sandi on Freestyle arranging with Roses

November 14, 2021 Ikebana Wellington

Sandi arranged a variety of homegrown roses with vine in a ceramic vase

Sandi Hurnard led our November workshop at the Khandallah Town Hall. Sandi provided the following notes for our members:

“We will start the session with a 'Bring and Buy Sale of containers'. The tradition is that about 20% of the value of the sale is donated to STA. Do start looking at your container collection for anything you might like to part with.

The second part of the meeting will be on the theme ' Freestyle Arranging with Roses'. For those of you who have access to roses in the garden please use these. You may like to try out a vase for sale. Because of the time pressure, Sandi will demonstrate a few quick arrangements using garden grown roses.”

Sandi used a garden rose with muehlenbeckia in a tall vase

Sandi used wisteria vine nd florist roses in a double container

Sandi used vine and 3 varieties of garden roses

Nicole received her certificate from Sandi

Alyson receives her certificate from Sandi

Many and varied vases for sale

Nicole used Fourth of July garden rose and unidentified native

Elizabeth used larkspurs, sweetpeas, blue campanella with several homegrown rose varieties and cherry tree stems

Helen used florist roses, alstromeria and hosta leaves

Setsuko used 2 rosevarieties with hydrangea

Sarah used roses, hydrangea and camellia leaves

Satomi used grapevine, wild sweetpea and cream and purple roses

Misako used florist roses, leaves and willowstorks

Masako used homegrown Dublin Bay roses, white buds of pohutukawa and yew branches

Maria used purchased roses, magnolia and cordyline leaves

Maria used one garden rose in a glass container

Kathy used garden roses with flax leaves

Kathy used Compassion roses in a raised container

Kathy used Compassion roses in a tall container

Kate used florist roses and greenery in a white rectangular container

Helen used 2 florist roses and asparagus fern in a glass container

Julie used pohutukawa branches, asparagus fern and garden roses

Alyson used garden roses in a pair of ceramic vases

Together Setsuko Kennedy and Masako Crawford gave a workshop using only one kind of material

October 10, 2021 Ikebana Wellington

Masako arranged pine in a tall shell-case container

Due to the latest Covid lockdown, our Ikebana Exhibition as part of the Spring Festival at the Botanic Gardens was cancelled but we were lucky to have two teachers team leading our October workshop.

Setsuko Kennedy who has been a teacher for some years, but hadn’t led a workshop for our group and Masako Crawford who gained her teaching certificate earlier this year demonstrated using ‘Only One Kind of Material’ from Sogetsu Book 4, pages 68-69.

Setsuko and Masako gave us this guidance beforehand:

“In this lesson, we can use the keen observation of the materials we have learned by picking up the unique feature of the material. We refer to Mr Sofu Teshigahara’s Principle 33, “Select a container that accentuates the beauty of the ikebana arrangement”. Unusual vases or addition of stones or driftwood could enhance the arrangement.”

It was a great to get together in a safe spacious venue and everyone enjoyed doing ikebana together.