Author: belinda jelf

Our exhibition is on Tuesday 17th October at our usual venue Brompton Oratory hall when we celebrate the Magic of Autumn. This is a unique chance to see how the different ikebana schools respond to the season via their distinctive arrangements plus  the opportunity to talk to members of each of the represented schools.

Entry for visitors is from  12pm and the exhibition closes at 15pm.

We were delighted to welcome Mary Marques and her daughter Linda, who both came over from Zimbabwe just to do our demonstration. Mary is a Sogetsu teacher and demonstrator. Her cv however revealed she has a long and distinguished history.She started learning in 1970 and was president of ii Harare chapter from 1988-94 (which has now sadly closed and has demonstrated and run many workshops at home and abroad.
Her theme was ‘on the wild side’ reflecting her profound belief that animals are fellow travellers on earth to be valued and respected in their own right.

Mary evoked her theme by a wonderful set of arrangements that represented different African creatures  and environments. The first three shown here from  right to left are waterhole, impala and meerkats.

 The waterhole, a place of danger as well as life used two large flat containers with strelitzia as egrets among the reed. (many thanks to sogetsu london to lending us vases )
Impala emerging from the early morning mist used a tall two cup vase with a cascade of gypsophia and a set of silver horns (in reality wine                                                                           bottle holders!)

The meerkats family was based on the ingenious use of nespresso packaging to enable stems to be placed upright at different heights reflecting their characteristic alert pose

We then had an elephant using lilies and palm leaves as the head , whilst grey mosquito netting wrapped around the vase was the body,

Everyone’s favourite was probably the dung beetle, small but vital to the environment. Here mary made a ‘dung ball ‘out of moss on oasis bases with orchids, adding a sense of movement from some cane circles (not to be confused with the planet Saturn )

The two arrangements on the right area a  colourful chameleon and then the snake.  Maybe they are less popular creatures. but are sadly declining and deserve their place. The chameleon is represented by brightly coloured anthuriums on a palm mat. Mary showed her ingenuity with the  snake arrangement using a circular bird feeder as the base and then ginger flowers as lookalike snake heads.

Finally I leave you to guess the last arrangement. Hint – it is a prickly creature whose spines were made  into the backing screen by mary.

We were delighted to welcome Mrs. Ruriko Kojima, President of London Ohara England Chapter. This was the first time she has demonstrated for II and her demonstration was much enjoyed and good fun.

The theme was “Early Spring” basic to landscape in Ohara style. Ruriko first demonstrated two basic Ohara styles which a beginner should learn as an Ohara student.

The first was the simplest style with pussy willow and tulips. The second showed more of a slanting style, with stems rising upwards to reflect their beauty and freshness

Then we had two moribana arrangements, a style at the heart of the ohara school as this was first originated by the founder over 100 years ago to represent landscape in miniature .

Materials used were plum and narcissus with moss brought specially back from Japan. The arrangement covered 2/3’s of the water   to signify Spring

This was inspired by coastal scenery and used a few red berries of yabukopi as contrast.

The last landscape was an exquisite arrangement based on the ancient art of rimpa and always uses a fan shaped container

Finally ‘Hanamai’ ie dancing flowers style consisting of two simple adjacent arrangements, using any container style, positioned so that they crossed and could be appreciated from all angles