Filtering by Category: ikebana

My Ikebana - Holiday Mass & Line

Added on December 1, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

When making a mass-and-line composition, my usual habit is to start with the mass and then work on the lines to add a certain flow and movement. Mass is "easy" to tackle first because it is static...almost stoic and uncomplaining while a line is more hard-to-please!

Anyway, with this work, I started in reverse and formed the lines first. The beautiful dogwood branches had much to offer. The vase I had chosen turned out to be too small so I ended up using the outside of the vase. Do you see the "star" amidst the dogwood branches? That was not intended! I noticed it only while putting the branches together.

The vase, by the way, is not a traditional ikebana vase. It is actually a candleholder! I liked the shape and the clear crystal reminded me of ice (and the cold of winter!) It went well with the shiny green of the oregonia and the deep red of the carnations.

I hope you enjoy this arrangement.

Miyako

My Ikebana - Keeping It Natural

Added on November 16, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

Recently, I have been concentrating my ikebana studies doing "formative" creations. That is to say, the works were designed to form a certain shape that I had envisioned. I took apart leaves from branches and put them together again!

This time, after looking at the branches available, I decided that a "natural" style of arrangement would be better. I had 2 kinds of branches--alder and an unknown one with little black berries (Does anyone know?) and two kinds of mum--yellow cremon and green pom-pom.

I chose a wide suiban container because I wanted to show the height of the branches. First I put together the skeletal frame of branches. Next, where to put the flowers? I wanted to keep the focal point of the arrangement up top so that's where the flower went. At the same time, I showed a clean base (notice that the branches seem to sprout up from one origin as opposed to being all over the place) leaving it stark in order to further emphasize the top focal point. I removed all the leaves from the mums except for the 2 leaves of the cremon in front. By doing away with the leaves, the slender lines of the pom-pom mums could be clearly seen, adding flavour to the arrangement. Lastly, I created some space by adding that branch on the left. It helped give the arrangement a sense of motion... to prevent it from looking like it was only sitting idly on the vase!

I hope you enjoyed this arrangement.

Miyako

See more of Miyako's work here.

Ballroom Arrangement

Added on July 7, 2012 by post@theikebanashop.com.

Some weeks ago, we had the honour of putting up an arrangement for a speaking engagement. It was at the Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, Halifax Ballroom...the best ballroom of the hotel!

The client gave us a free hand and only asked that the flowers should be equal in stature as the speaker on the podium. We hope we did not disappoint.

Have a closer look.... Lilies, sunflower, carnation and weigela.

Ikebana On Stage

Added on April 1, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

f you attended the Nova Scotia: Our Strengths, Our Future community forum event at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, you would have seen our ikebana arrangement that graced the stage. We are honoured to play our little part in the success of this event!

"...how beautiful the floral arrangement was on the stage. Very dramatic but not overbearing. Whoever handled that piece of 'set design' gets my bravo."
-- John M., NSCAD

How Was Your Valentine 2012?

Added on February 15, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

Hope the lady who received this arrangement had a great 2012 Valentine's Day.

Pink dendrobium orchids and lilies. The lilies are still buds. In a few days, they will bloom and the arrangement will transform into something new again!

This was a custom order arrangement.

Anastasia And Eucalyptus

Added on February 9, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

This arrangement is on display now. The shop smells good with the fragrance of the eucalyptus leaves!

New Year Display: Hanamochi

Added on January 3, 2012 by the ikebana shop.

Our New Year shop window display is inspired by hanamochi.

hana = "flower"

mochi = "sticky rice cake"

In the colder, snowy parts of Japan, where there are no flowers in the winter, people attached pink & white sticky rice cakes onto willow branches for their New Year decoration. This is also called mochibana.

In this arrangement, we used wisteria branches that had been given to us by a customer last summer. We also used Play-Doh instead of o-mochi sticky rice! (^-^) Here is a closer look.

And here is the view from outside. Please come and see it. The real thing looks much better than the photographs!

Heliconia and Aspidestra

Added on November 16, 2011 by the ikebana shop.

Ikebana student, Marina creates a "wall" with aspidestra leaves. The way she places the mass of foliage and flowers heavily onto one side of the container makes the space interesting. Also, if we look more closely, we see the faint lines on the variegated aspidestra combine very well with the faint yellow outlines on the perimeter of the heliconia flower. A very well thought out arrangement!

To see more of our students' works, please visit our flickr gallery.

Nocturne 2011

Added on October 16, 2011 by the ikebana shop.

This was our second year to participate in Nocturne: Art At Night. Miyako and five of her students prepared our ikebana exhibit for the night.

We are older (just a little bit) and wiser! And it showed in the creativity and profundity of the works of the students. The more one looked, the more one saw interesting details and gained more insight from the arrangements. One visitor commented that last night's exhibit showed more maturity compared to last year's.

We thank everyone who took time to visit us (despite Quinpool being a bit removed from downtown where most of Nocturne took place.) We also thank those who came to see Miyako during her ikebana demonstrations at Pier 21. (Thank you Pier 21 for inviting us again!) And of course, we thank ikebana students: JB, Lien Cayer, Marina Sokolenko, Valerie Sokolenko, and, last but not least, Val Spencer for taking time on Saturday to make the wonderful arrangements. We know it wasn't just an afternoon's work...everyone probably had had some excruciating hours of planning before the actual day of exhibit! Special thanks to Val who helped us take the shop apart and put it back together again the following day...really appreciated. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't do it, but we're sure you can make Humpty Dumpty whole again! (^-^)

And of course, we thank the organizers of Nocturne for making this happen. You put Halifax on the map!

See you next year!

Please enjoy some photos of the exhibit on our flickr gallery:

How To Appreciate Ikebana

Added on October 14, 2011 by the ikebana shop.

Here is a little slide presentation that we prepared for Nocturne 2011. We are in Zone 4, #68 in the guidebook. (http://www.nocturnehalifax.ca/)

We hope it will make the experience of seeing our ikebana exhibit more interesting. Please visit the shop on Oct.15th (Sat), 6PM - 12 midnight. See you!

Also, Miyako will be performing live ikebana demonstrations at Pier 21 - Canadian Museum of Immigration.

http://www.pier21.ca/home

Tentative demonstration schedule: 7:30, 8:30, 9:30.

This slide presentation was prepared for our exhibit at the Nocturne 2011, Art At Night event, Oct 15, 2011, 6PM-12 midnight, Halifax NS. Acknowledgements: * All Japan scenery photos were downloaded from Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/), a free stock photo website. * The basic upright arrangement (depicting "heaven, earth and man) is the work of Heather Schellinck.