New Year's Ikebana and Winter Ikebana

Well, it has been over a month since I have posted. The only excuse, I was having too much fun getting ready for Christmas and then spending Christmas with my family back home in Arkansas. I ate and shopped and ate and shopped and ate and shopped. . . you get the picture. I always have a wonderful time at home, spending time with family and catching up over the past year; but, I also look forward to coming back to Japan so I can rest a little!
I guess I'll just jump right into the ikebana arrangements I did.

This year, once again, my friend asked me to do an arrangement for his shop's window. I was more than happy to have the challenge/experience again, so of course I said yes. Last year I used different types of pine to make the arrangement, with a couple of gold fans and some gold mizuhiki to add a bit of color to the arrangement.

I thought that I would do something a bit more traditional this year. Pine is a staple of New Year's material, and so are chrysanthemums. I found some young pine branches and some beautiful white, spider chrysanthemums. I thought that a touch of red would also look nice -- here in Japan, for celebrations, red and white are used as celebratory colors -- and bring in a celebratory feeling to the arrangement. I found some Senyro, which is also used during the New Year, and that added the red that I wanted for the arrangement.

I did the arrangement in a black vase, in a variation of the upright style. Because of the constraints of the space of the window, I couldn't extend some of the branches and flowers out to the front like you should for the upright style, thus a variation. I also had a small red and white New Year's decoration that I tied to one of the branches of the pine. That added a little more celebratory feel to the finished arrangement.

view from the front

view from the side

While I was home for Christmas, I also did an arrangement for my mother's table. I wanted to make a little forest on her table, and hopefully, it would be something that would last into January for her, or until she gets tired of it!


I looked for some little trees at different stores, but had no luck in finding any. Just when I thought I would have to do something different, I noticed some small pine trees outside of the Lowe's that is just down the road from where my parent's live. I whipped into the parking lot and took a look at them. They were originally $9.99 each, but were on sale for $2.25 each -- lucky! I scooped up 9 of the little trees and then found some small blue pine that were on sale for a dollar each. How lucky was that!

I found some containers at home, all of them green, that I thought I could use to make the arrangement. I thought I would do a forest in a one-row form down the center of the table. In Japan, I would use some kenzan to hold the trees in place, but I didn't have any with me. So, I ran to the local WalMart and picked up some floral foam, and right beside it, they had some small bags of moss. I knew that I could use that as the ground cover for the forest, so I picked up a couple of bags of that, too. Everything was falling into place. I had some red Hypericum and Baby's Breath, so I was ready to make my mother a forest.

I built up the forest with the pine trees, spreading them out along the table to complete my one-row form. I then added in the blue pine to give it some texture and add a denseness to the forest. I had some old branches/twigs that I inserted into the arrangement to give the feel of bare trees in the winter. I spaced out the Hypericum to give a little color and some variation and rhythm to the arrangement; and finally, I added in the Baby's Breath to make/give a sense of snow in the forest.

view from above

right side
the baren spot in the front right of the large container and the baren spot on the small container to the left
form connect the two parts of the arrangement and also give the illusion
of a clearing in the forest

the left side
the dense forest continues to the left of the large container

view on Christmas morning

the light shinning through on Christmas morning

a bright, happy forest

 
I also did an arrangement for my grandmother's table this year, too.


Last year, I did a circular form using Calla lilies. This year, I did a radial form using different greenery and white carnations. This arrangement can be viewed from any side, so the material on the left and the material on the right are different, giving more texture and variation to the arrangement. I used white carnations in the middle to bring a focus to the arrangement, and then filled in the middle with Baby's Breath, using a little on the right and left sides to connect both sides of the arrangement. Finally, I added red spray carnations to have the tri-fecta of Christmas colors -- red, white, and green. My grandmother was happy with the arrangement which put a smile on my face and hers, too!

view from the front (beautiful lighting!)

My sweet grandma. Can you believe she is 84? Beautiful!

three beautiful women -- my aunt, grandma, and mom

 
So, there you have it. That's what I've been up to since the last post.


I hope all of you who read the blog have a wonderful new year full of family, friends, laughter, and lots of love! Happy New Year!

Christmas Ikebana in the Snow

Twinkling lights, smells of cinnamon and spices from the kitchen, smiles on people's faces, familiar songs on the radio, decorations everywhere you look, and the hope of snow -- yes, it's that time of year again, Christmas!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. There is just something about the season that brings out the best in people, it's a time when wishes are granted, a time of magic, hope, love, and giving. Who wouldn't love that?

It also means it's time for some Christmas ikebana. It's difficult to find what I think of as Christmas materials, cedar and pine branches, the traditional evergreens of Christmas, here in Japan. The thought here is that if you have any kind of green and red, you have Christmas. But it just doesn't feel right to me. Yes, it is pretty, but it just isn't Christmas without the traditional Christmas boughs.

A couple of weeks ago, the Morioka Chapter of Ohara-ryu Ikebana had a small exhibition, a みんなの花展 (Minna no katen). It was the beginning of November, but everyone wanted to do a Christmas themed exhibition. I felt it was a bit too early, but some of the others pointed out that in ikebana, using materials and themes earlier than their time is a common practice. So, we decided to have a Christmas exhibition with the sub-theme being Christmas Wish, trying to bring a bit of magic and hope to the people of the area after a devastating year hear in Japan.

I knew once the theme was decided that I wanted to do a circular form arrangement and use some candles, something a bit westernized. I began to make some plans about what I wanted to use -- Christmas evergreens, white spider chrysanthemums, white carnations, maybe even some poinsettia? I also wanted to make it look as if it was in the snow, so I began to look for some snow on the Internet.

I couldn't find anything I liked and just happened to stumble upon a picture of some snow in a jar surrounding a candle; and the snow was, believe it or not, some Epsom salts. On one of my outings to the grocery store, I tried to find some Epsom salts, but they don't have that here in Japan. So, I tried to look for some big crystal salts, which proved difficult to find, too. I ended up back on the Internet and found some beautiful salt from Nepal. I ordered a couple of kilograms and was set to go!

The week or so before, I began to look for the Christmas evergreens that I wanted to use. Close to Christmas it is difficult to find that kind of material; it was even more difficult to find it in the beginning of November. Outside of the school that I teach at, there are a few Christmas evergreens, so I snipped a few branches from the bushes. I was lucky enough to find some suitable evergreens at a flower shop in a local grocery store, too. And I even managed to find some eucalyptus to mix in with the other evergreen branches. I think I had 5 different green materials by the time the exhibition rolled around. The white carnations and spider chrysanthemums were easy to find, too; but in the end, I decided not to use any poinsettia. I wanted to use only white flowers and use a few red ball ornaments to add a splash of color to the arrangement.

I made my circular form using 5 small jam jars that I had been saving for quite a while. (I knew they would come in handy one of these days.) I had a large candle stand that I placed in the center of the arrangement with a large white candle, and I covered the base of the arrangement in my salt "snow". I thought it looked very cold and frosty, but with the red ball ornaments, it still had a happy feeling to it. When viewed from above, it looked like a wreath, but I had used 5 containers with the materials spreading out in a circular motion -- a perfect combination of eastern ikebana and western Christmas.

Circular form

A close-up -- you can see the "snow" and the way the materials reach out in a circular form.

I also added a few pine cones to give it a more natural feel.
I thought the spider chrysanthemums also looked like snowflakes.

A close-up of the "snow".

View from above, a wreath. (Sorry, not the best picture. I took this one with my phone.)

The exhibition was held in a hotel lobby, and it put a lot of smiles on people faces as they walked around looking at all of the beautiful flowers. I think the magic and hope of Christmas was felt by everyone who attended the exhibition. I certainly felt it, and it warmed my heart.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think, or any of your favorite Christmas memories.

Golden Fall Ikebana Exhibition

It's that time of year again -- time for the fall ikebana exhibitions. Yes, that's right, exhibition"s".

This year, the two exhibitions were held at the same time. One of them is the local one in my city, but the other exhibition is the prefectural exhibition held in a city about an hours drive north of where I live. The prefectural exhibition is held in two parts over four days. I was lucky enough to take part in the second half, so I didn't have to worry about trying to do two different arrangements in two different cities in one day. Whew!

This year, I wanted to use something gold in my arrangements. I always think of gold as a fall color. I bought some petrified willow, which has great shapes and movement. It's not really petrified, but it is very hard and will not bend, hence the name. I left them out of water for about a week, and then I got out my can of gold spray paint and sprayed away. The golden effect was achieved.

I also wanted to use some type of colored leaves in my arrangement -- it is fall, after all. But most of the leaves that you can use do not last a long time. And the place where the exhibition is held gets quite warm, causing the flowers to wilt or fade faster than usual. I went to the flower shop to see what they had, and they had the perfect material -- colored hypericum leaves. Usually, hypericum has small red or yellow berries, but these didn't have any berries, and the leaves had turned wonderful fall colors. Perfect! I had my two main materials. Now I only had to decide what I wanted to do.

For the exhibition here in my city, I wanted to do a Hanamai arrangement. It is my favorite style, you know (it is the name of the blog, after all!). I thought that I needed some type of large leaf to go with the line of the petrified willow, and I thought a punch of green would made the colored leaves stand out a bit more, too. I ended up using a small banana leaf. Instead of doing a rising form of Hanamai, I did an inclining form of Hanamai that showed off the movement of the petrified willow.

Hanamai (view from the front)   Petrified Willow, Hypericum, Banana Leaf

view from the right

view from the left

I thought that the arrangement turned out well, except for the horrid background of the old, dirty, peg board. Just don't look at that part of it!

For the prefectural exhibition, I wanted to do a basic form, the Inclining Form. Usually at an exhibition, the arrangements are very big, using lots of flowers and different kinds of materials. I wanted to do something simple, and really show the beauty of the line of the petrified willow. I chose a bright yellow chrysanthemum for this arrangement. I wanted a beautiful brown/yellow one, but they didn't have any at that time. The one that I did choose is very big and almost balls out when opened. Many people thought that it was a Dahlia, but no; just a beautiful chrysanthemum.

Inclining Form    Petrified Willow, Chrysanthemum "Anastasia", Hypericum

You can't tell in the picture, but the vase also had a nice texture to it that added a bit of weight to the arrangement.

It was a busy four days, but I think the arrangements turned out well. Both of them were simple, yet had interesting lines and textures to bring out the beauty of the materials.

*Now, this coming weekend, I have another exhibition. It is a little early, but it will be a Christmas themed exhibition. I have some thoughts on what I want to do, but haven't quite made up my mind, yet. I will post pictures later and let you know what I did.

Ten Original Works by Ten First-time Students

The trial lesson has come and gone, and I can say that it was a success!

The cut off date for registering for the event was the Friday before, September 30. On Friday morning, I had four people registered for the classes, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. By the time I had gotten home from work, around six, I had 10 people signed up for the classes! I would have five in the morning and five in the afternoon. I thought this was the perfect number of people for my first time -- not too many and not too few.

On Saturday morning, I went to the flower shop to pick up the flowers for the classes. I had told the flower shop that I wanted to use New Zealand flax and ping-pong chrysanthemums. I went in all happy and ready to pick them up. But much to my surprise, they didn't have the New Zealand flax! I began to panic a bit in my head, trying to figure out what I could use instead.

In September, there was a large typhoon that went through the southern part of Japan. It was extremely slow moving and dumped large amounts of rain on the area. Along with the strong winds that come with the typhoon, many of the flowers ready to be picked for selling were destroyed. The flower shop had called around to different flower shops and distributors to find the flax, but they had no luck. What was I going to do?

I scrambled around the flower shop and finally decided, about an hour later, that I would use a Japanese willow, Kouri willow, instead of the flax. It was a more difficult material to work with, but it was the only thing that I thought would work and would still be in my budget for the price of the flowers. I hoped that it would work out in the end.

On Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early and got ready for the classes. I ran by the flower shop, picked up the materials, a headed over to the place where the classes would be held. I got the room ready, set out the containers and materials, boiled some water for tea and coffee for after the class, and was ready for the trial students to come.

The morning class went well, but as I had thought, the willow was a bit difficult to use. Everyone used the same materials -- three willow branches and two ping-pong chrysanthemums -- and same containers, but everyone had an original arrangement by the end of the class. For a first-time student, they all did a great job!

M-san's work

S-san's work

T-san's work

A-san's work

E-san's work

The afternoon class also did a wonderful job. Again, all the same, but all a little different.

H-san's work

H-san's work

R-san's work

M-san's work

M-san's work

A local newspaper also came to the afternoon class to do a short story on the class. Nothing like this has ever been done in this area before, so the journalist was very interested in the class.

For those of you who can't read the article, it says that I am a wonderful teacher and have magic hands when it comes to ikebana.

Just kidding! It talks about the class and what we did during the class. It is a very nice article about the event.

I had lots of positive feedback on the classes and have four people who want to start taking lessons. Because of the positive feedback, I have decided to do another trial lesson this month on October 22. But this time, I'm going to do the classes in Japanese. I thought there might be some people who would like to try ikebana, but they don't want to do it in English.

If I get 10 students again, I will be very happy!

Ikebana Classes

For the past year, I've been teaching a small ikebana class once a week. I started out with three students, a woman from Ireland and two Japanese women who live here in Hanamaki. After the big earthquake and tsunami, sadly, the Irish woman decided to go back to Ireland, so I've been teaching the two Japanese women since March.

It has been a wonderful experience for me. I teach the classes in English, but Japanese slips in every once in a while. Sometimes it is easier to explain something in Japanese, and sometimes it is easier to explain something in English. Explaining why we do something the way we do has been the biggest challenge.

Here in Japan, the typical teaching method would be to do what your teacher says and not question why -- Why do you cut the flower short? Why does the branch lean out to the left? Why is the flower pulled down to that angle? Why do you put a short flower here? Why is the large flower placed low in the arrangement? and the list goes on and on. . . 

I think that being an American, I have always been taught and encouraged to ask, "Why?" Now that I look back on when I first started to take ikebana lessons, I'm sure I was quite the headache for my teacher with all my questions about "why"! But, I learned a lot by asking why, and I think my teacher also learned a lot by having to explain the reasons why.

I've really enjoyed teaching the two women. They have both grown over the past year and make some very beautiful arrangements. They don't ask a lot of "why" questions, probably because I explain why before they have a chance! Once in a while, they ask a good question that I really have to think about and explain to them. I think it helps them, and it also helps me as a teacher.

I have decided to try to teach a few more classes starting this fall. I have a year under my belt and feel more confident in my ikebana teaching ability than when I first started out. Eventually, I would love to be a full-time ikebana teacher, but that dream my take a while to achieve. I think starting out slow, like I have, I will be prepared when that day comes.

On October 2, I am going to have a small English ikebana event. I've rented a room for the day and will teach two introductory lessons, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Hopefully, the people who come to the event will enjoy the lesson and want to continue with me. A friend of mine made a wonderful flyer, and I've order 1,000 of them to put in one of the local papers. In a city of around 80,000 people, 1,000 isn't that many, but I think it will be a good start. If I get one person to come, I will be happy. If 20 people come, I will be very happy, but my knees will probably be shaking, too!

*If you are interested in the lesson, please contact me at the address on the right side of the page by September 30.