Most of us had finished our Ikebana lessons in early December, so it is often hard after Christmas festivities and holidays, to think about Ikebana again. 2020 is going to be a very full and interesting year for us in Wellington. The teachers were invited to do arrangements for the new Emperor’s birthday party dinner, organised by the Embassy of Japan. We have workshops by Christopher James from Melbourne in April, Takako Martin in July, the usual Botanic Gardens exhibition in Spring, the biennial Japan Festival in November, not to mention the special New South Wales 60th Celebrations in Sydney also in November. Lots to look forward to.
Our first Sogetsu workshop for 2020 was advertised as “Spontaneous Ikebana”. Instructions read… “Bring a container and a bunch of materials. These will be swapped among the members, so everyone can work spontaneously.” I personally took the instructions to mean that the vase, and flowers you picked for the vase, would be swapped with another workshop participant who had bought the same. In actual fact, there are several ways the swapping could be arranged, and there were some discussions about this as we set up the room. Our teachers also had some ideas and it turned out things were going to be really random.
The vases were lined up on a table and numbered. As we drew corresponding numbers from a dish for vase allocation, our senior teacher Elizabeth, reallocated the flowers, branches and vines, according to what she thought would suit each vase. As several people had bought extra materials, it was said that these could be taken on an “as needed” basis. There was the full range of vases from a modern clear round glass one, to the more traditional Japanese moribana style, and several quirky ones with holes in them. The material was mainly from people’s gardens, rather than shop bought flowers and included lots of different coloured Hydrangeas, Agapanthus, Dahlias, Lisianthus, Tecomanthe vines, branches and various leaves eg Aspidistra leaves We collected our randomly allocated vase, flowers and foliage, and set about creating our arrangement. Some arrangements materialised very quickly, while others took much longer. Apprehensions disappeared as neighbours offered advice to each other.
When everyone was finished, we cleared away the debris and placed our arrangements for display. We went around the room, asking each person to explain the inspiration for their creation, and our teachers offered comments. It is a true test of our experience and abilities to be able to create something wonderful from materials we are randomly given. Check out the photos for the results.
Everyone enjoyed this session despite some initial misgivings and it would be good to repeat this idea sometime in the future. We were also lucky to have Swedish Sogetsu Ikebana practitioner and teacher Elin Dahlin present as our guest for this session. She and her husband had just arrived in Wellington for a holiday the day before the workshop. Elin had not come across the idea of “Spontaneous Ikebana” before, and worked with everyone else to create a very beautiful arrangement in an unusual white vase.
On the Tuesday following the workshop, a small group assembled in a local café to host Elin and George for lunch. We had an enjoyable couple of hours discussing ikebana obviously, how different groups operate, past and up and coming exhibitions and workshops, but also sightseeing suggestions in the city. This is the third time Elin has visited our Sogetsu group in Wellington. We always appreciate benefitting from the experiences of overseas Ikebana practitioners and hope that they can learn something from us as well. We look forward to seeing Elin again sometime in the future. Julie Middleton
Spontaneous Ikebana with Elin Dahlin as our guest
Sandi and Helen received their Sogetsu Teacher’s Course First Grade, Somu
