Bamboo Bow Tie

My friend has a small design business. In the past he has designed lady's bags; but recently, he has delved into men's fashion. His first project -- a bamboo bow tie. A very unique and beautiful item that combines the Japanese aesthetic of nature with the Western style of men's fashion. I love it!

He asked me to be the model for the bow tie. I said sure and put on several of my best "model" faces and posed for the camera. We had a lot of fun taking the pictures!

Tiger Bamboo Bow Tie with my "pensive" face

My "serious/mean" face with the Studded Bow Tie

After we were done taking the pictures of me wearing the bow tie, we took some photos of just the bow tie.



I curved the stem of a calla Lily to fit inside this black serving dish


To see the finished product, check his site SHUU Japan.

Now I just need some event to go to so I can wear one of his beautiful pieces.

Flower Artist Azuma Makoto -- Amazing!

I think of ikebana as an art form, one that has been in practice and development for over 500 years. What originally started out as an offering to Buddha has evolved into an art form for the modern age.

Azuma Makoto, a Japanese flower artist, has taken the art of flowers to another level. He has approached the world of flowers as an artist, not someone who does ikebana. He has truly created a new art form that expresses the beauty of flowers in new and unusual ways. One word to describe his work -- amazing!

add campaign for AQUOS tvs*

frozen flowers*

frozen flowers with a pine tree suspended in a metal frame with wire*

a moss instillation*

exhibit for the Shanghai Exhibition last year*

He is also a performance artist. Watch this mesmerizng video of him arranging flowers, all behind a screen, so all you see is the shadow.



Click here for his site to see more pictures and videos. Simply amazing!

*all pictures taken from his site

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a great time over the holidays.

I had a wonderful time at home in Arkansas over Christmas -- lots of shopping and eating and visiting with family, and a relaxing new year here in Japan. I've had a little over three weeks off from work and have enjoyed every minute of it. I hope I can remember how to teach when I have to go back to work tomorrow. . .

The first ikebana that you do for the new year is called 初生け, hatsu ike. Usually, I don't do much during this time of year. There are no lessons, and I'm usually too busy relaxing to do anything. But this year, a friend of mine asked me to do something for his shop window. I had never done anything like this before, but I thought it would be a good challenge for me (I want to challenge myself more this year in ikebana) and get the new year started off right.

For New Year, pine is a popular item to use. It is a long lasting material, strong in the cold weather, and green during the white winter. I thought that I would use three different types of pine to make an arrangement. My friend had a beautiful vase that his grandmother had made, and I thought it would be perfect for the arrangement.

Finished?

After finishing the arrangement, I thought that it looked good, but it was missing something. It needed a little something to make it gorgeous, to show it off for the New Year. I went home and made a small pick of gold to go in the arrangement. I used some gold paper to fold a couple of fans and then used mizuhiki to make some bands of gold to go along with it.

Finished!

I think the little bit of gold sets off the arrangement and gives it the special "New Year" feel. I have to admit, I have driven by the shop several times to see the piece in the window. You don't often get to see your works out in the public like this. Kind of exciting!

It was a good experience for me and got me motivated to do something at home.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Day with the morning light on the flowers

While home for Christmas, I also did a few arrangements.

Mom's dining room table

Five little arrangements along the table runner.

The red lamp was my father's mother's lamp.

I also went to my grandmother's house to decorate her table for her.

View from above

Circular Form with calla lilies

I think I have started the year off right. I plan on challenging myself more this year and hope to grow more in my ikebana.

I hope everyone has a great New Year! May the year bring you family, friends, laughter, and love.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmas -- my favorite time of the year.

Gathering with family and friends, good food and delicious desserts, the way that everyone becomes a little nicer and a little more thoughtful (something that I wish lasted throughout the year), and all of the decorating -- from the tree to the door, to the presents under the tree and the flowers that liven up the space. How could you not love Christmas?


Each year for one of the ikebana lessons in December, we do a Christmas arrangement. But to me, there is always something lacking, something that makes it not look quite Christmasy. This year, I decided that I would try to do something for myself.

It is difficult here in Japan to find nice Christmas greenery, one of the problems when doing an arrangement. I was lucky enough to find some holly and red berries. I also bought a potted poinsettia to add to the flowers. Poinsettia are not usually used in arrangements because they don't drink the water and die very quickly. I have some "magic" medicine that seems to make any flower last longer, so I thought I would try that on the poinsettia and see how they do. I think I ended up with some nice Christmas ikebana.

This is called "yosoi" or combined form.

The top is a form known as Radial Form, which stretches out from left to right, emphasizing the beauty of the branches.

The bottom is called Circular Form. This form can be viewed from any angle -- front, back, left, right, and even from the top. When viewed from above, it looks more like a wreath -- perfect for Christmas!

One of my favorite things to do for Christmas, decorate the Christmas tree. I try to do something new each year, and try to do it without spending a lot of money in the process. I think making the ornaments adds a bit more magic to the tree and makes each season's tree unique and special. I wish that I had a bigger apartment or even a house, and I'm sure I would do much more decorating. But my small Japanese apartment only allowes me to have a tree and a few assorted decorations here and there.


I love to work with paper. It's cheap and there are loads of colors and textures to choose from. I thought that this year, my theme would be circles and I would use Christmas colors only -- red, green and white. I bought several sheets of different shades and textures of the colors and started cutting circles big and small. The tree skirt I had didn't really mach the theme of circles, so I made one out of paper, too! The final effect, a whimsical and playful tree that makes me happy just to look at it.

My circle tree. The white balls of light are ping-pong balls that I cut a small X in and put over the tree lights.

The paper tree skirt. I think it looks very whimsical.



A close-up of the ornaments.
(Sorry, once again I can't figure out how to rotate the picture!)


Now if only it would snow.



Then, it would be perfect!

芸術の秋 -- Autumn of Art

Here in Japan, autumn is often refereed to as 芸術の秋 (geijutsu no aki), or autumn of art. On November 3rd, it is national Culture Day, a day for the promotion of culture and the love of freedom and peace.  Many towns and cities have a city wide culture exhibition where people can show different works of art they have created, including Japanese calligraphy, bonsai, ikebana, water color and oil paintings, and other traditional Japanese arts.

Every year, I take part in the city culture festival here in Hanamaki. This year, I teamed up with another ikebana student to do a large arrangement. At first, we had some beautiful black leaves and purple carnations. We thought the combination was beautiful, a little dark but also a little colorful with the carnations. We decided to keep it in that color palate and create a One-Row Arrangement using 3 white vases. We took up the space that was reserved for the both of us, so it ended up being quite large and noticeable. We both liked the finished product, and I think the people who came to the exhibition enjoyed looking at it, also.

One-Row Style -- Black Leaf, Carnation (5 varieties), Rainbow Dracaena, and Japanese Bitter Orange spray-painted black

There is also a prefectural ikebana exhibition held around the same time each year in the prefecture's capital, Morioka. I like to do something a little different for the one in Morioka. This year, I wanted to use autumn colors, so I went to the local flower shop to see what they had to offer. I found some leaves that had a very beautiful back of fiery red. Usually, the backs of the leaves are not used, but I couldn't pass up showing off the beautiful red of the Croton leaves. I found some red branches to go along with the leaves, and I began to play around, trying different ways to display the leaves and branches. The resulting piece, a Free Style Arrangement with movement.

View from the front

View from above (sorry, i couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture on here.)

And then a couple of weeks ago, the Morioka Chapter of the Ohara School of Ikebana held it's 65th Anniversary Exhibition in Morioka. Around 280 people, including children and adults, participated by doing an arrangement. I volunteered to help out and spent two days helping out with the preparation and two days greeting and showing people around the exhibition. A total of 7,500 people came to the exhibition, exceeding the number of people who we thought would come by a very, VERY large margin. It was a fun four days, but very labor intensive and busy. It was a very good experience for me, because a large exhibition like that doesn't happen that often. Here's the arrangement I did for the 65th Anniversary Exhibition.

View from the front



Circular Form, view from above

 November has been another busy month, but it was filled with flowers, culture, and a lot of fun!