April Greetings Flower Friends🌸
The month of March was an exciting and challenging time for myself. I was honored to be invited by Louise Worner who is the Chairperson of the Sogetsu Study Group Madrid, Spain. She had organized an online workshop for her members and their host was Paola Belfiore. Paola lives in Vietnam, she has presented in-person Ikebana demonstrations for the Japanese Embassy, in Hanoi and an online demonstration for Ikebana International Ecuador. In 2021 she participated in the 102nd Sogetsu Exhibition at the Sogetsu Kaikan in Tokyo, Japan.
Paola was the recipient of the 2018 Seventh Term Everyone’s Sogetsu Silver Moon prize. Several of her arrangements have been included in the Stichting Kunstboek publication (2020), Masterclass Ikebana.
Paola’s 40 minute workshop was on using Black, white or even coloured melted plastic, a technique for which she is renowned for. I have included some of her arrangements showcasing this technique.
My first challenge for this workshop was acquiring the acrylic sheets, we can purchase large industrial sized sheets which costs a few thousand rands but we managed to source some smaller sheets at Leroy Merlin. I really wanted coloured sheets but my only option was the transparent acrylic.
Now the technique included the use of a heat gun something which I have never used before and I was lucky my husband who loves woodworking had a heat gun for me to use.
It was rather relaxing heating a material and then molding it into a form or structure. My acrylic sheet was a bit too thick so it took some time to heat it to a point where I could mold it. And over heating it also lead to creating bubbles in the material which in the end I actually liked the effect of the bubbles.
I have included my first rough arrangement which I used a clear glass vase and connected and balanced the pieces around it.
And finally my completed arrangement which I submitted to Louise.
At the end of March was our monthly meeting and for this the theme was Easter table arrangements but with a twist of including a lesson from our textbook, book 4 lesson 9 (disassembling & rearranging) Using eucalyptus leaves, we carefully removed them, then threaded them onto thin wire to create a half moon shape and finally using small flowers to decorate.
Please diarize the Monday 25th April for our next meeting. I will send out a note regarding our theme for that morning.
We welcome visitors/new comers to our mornings so please feel free to contact myself should you wish to join us.
Blessings to you all over the upcoming Easter weekend - be safe 🐣
Love
Catherine