Holiday Origami Workshop

Added on November 26, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Updated Dec 7th, 2014:

Thank you to all who attended the workshop. We hope you enjoyed. These two young ladies certainly did! :-)

Updated Dec 2, 2014, 4:00 p.m.:

The 3:00-4:00 p.m. workshop is also now fully booked. Thank you all!

Updated Dec 2, 2014, 10:00 a.m.:

The second workshop (3:00-4:00 p.m.) is confirmed! We have a few spaces left. Thanks and see you soon!

Updated Nov 29, 2014:

The 1:00-2:00 p.m. workshop is now fully booked. Thank you very much!

We will start accepting bookings for a 3:00-4:00 p.m. workshop. We will have the second workshop if we get a minimum of 6 participants.

Wait-listing (in case of cancellation) for the 1:00-2:00 p.m. workshop is also welcome.

We are planning an origami workshop in the first week of December where we will make some Christmas ornaments. We will also string them up and maybe add some ribbon and beads.

Date: Dec 6th, Saturday
Time: 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Venue: our studio (right above the shop)

Cost: $7 plus HST per person. All materials are included.
Max 10 persons. Advanced registration is required. First come, first served!

Please call or email to book your spot.
Tel (902) 407-0487
email: shop@theikebanashop.com

If we get fully booked and more people are registering, we might open another workshop at 3:00-4:00 p.m. But this is not guaranteed yet.

Hope to see you soon!

Postage Stamp Gift Tags...Free!

Added on November 25, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Back by popular demand! :-) The postage stamp (yes, they're real stamps!) gift tags are free with any purchase, while supply lasts.

We get a lot of postage stamps from Japan through the year and so we collect them and make them into little gift tags for you!

Thank you for shopping with us!

Ikebana At The Japanese School Of Halifax

Added on November 23, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

We spent an enjoyable morning with the little ones at the Japanese School of Halifax. We were happy to introduce ikebana to the little ones!

It was a great opportunity for the children to connect to a part of their cultural heritage even whilst they are very far from Japan. Everybody did a great job!

We are also conducting workshops for the older boys and girls. But this group is the cutest of them all! :-)

Hal-Con 2014

Added on November 10, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at Hal-Con!

You kept us very busy! :-)

We at the ikebana shop strive to introduce Japanese culture and aesthetics to you. Anime, manga and kawaii are very much part of it and so we are very thankful to the Hal-Con Sci-Fi/Fantasy Convention for the opportunity to be part of this great event!

Here are some of our favourite cosplays. We're sure we missed a lot more...maybe we'll see you next year!

Ninja!  He had good moves! — Ninja! He had good moves!

Princess Mononoke & Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul

"Sō" Magazine October 2014

Added on November 4, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Miyako's demonstration at St. Mary's University last February was featured in "Sō" (「草」) magazine, Oct 2014 edition. "Sō" is the official publication for the Sogetsu Teachers' Association. Thank you!

In the photo, (L-R) Dr. J. Colin Dodds, President of St. Mary's University; Miyako Ballesteros, ikebana artist; and Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Consul General of Japan at Montreal.

The demonstration was part of Japanesque, an event showcasing Japanese culture at St. Mary's University, Halifax NS.

My Ikebana: Not So Hallowe'en

Added on October 25, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

I thought I'd make an arrangement appropriate for Hallowe'en. Something spooky. This bare mountain ash branch devoid of berries looked ghoulish enough, I thought.

I put more weight on the dark side of my black-and-white container to show asymmetry.

But the chrysanthemums and eucalyptus branches looked more cheerful than "scary"!

So it became my not-so-Hallowe'en arrangement!

I hope you like it. --Miyako

Nocturne: Art At Night 2014

Added on October 20, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Once again, on one magical night, our shop was transformed into a little ikebana gallery.

It was hard work to put all the merchandise away and set the stage.

But it was harder work to design the arrangements! All worth it.

On October 18th, 2014, from 6 p.m. to midnight, we were there to show and explain ikebana.

We also served some cake to show our appreciation. :-)

Here are the work of Miyako and her students.

The outside installation was a collaborative effort by Miyako and Val Spencer. Hemlock greens, magnolia & willow branches, spray mums and bamboo.

The big willow branch was actually given to us by a friend last winter. She said her neighbour's tree had fallen in a storm. She thought we might like it so she hauled it all the way to our shop. That was probably a good 3 blocks away! Thank you Joan!

Left:: "Autumn Happiness" by Patti Vaison. Patti could not join us on Nocturne so she had prepared her arrangement in advance using dried material: Chinese lantern, cattails and eryngium. Glass beads on blue glass containers gave calming balance to the vivid orange!

Right: "Paintbrush" by Val Spencer. Anthurium and hosta stems. Now, you couldn't have guessed those "sticks" were from hosta, right? :-) A couple of sheets of square paper underneath may seem inconsequential but they complete the picture.

Left: "Moonlight" by Avril Yu. Stargazer lilies and alder branches. Like a bright moonlit night!

Right: "Kabu-Wake" (That's the style of arrangement having 2 "islands" in one moribana container) by Jean Henshall. Yellow roses and pincushion protea.

Left: Basic upright moribana by Randa Bdeir (L) and Abeer Sabanekh (R). Pink anastasias, alder branches and eryngium. The two friends' works had been done separately but came together perfectly as a pair!

Right: "No-Mind" by Miyako. Dendrobium, yellow mums, grape vine and Japanese rose branches. For this arrangement, Miyako said she wasn't thinking at all. Her hands just moved!

Left: "Discord" by Miyako. Silver Dollars, dried hydrangea and hemlock. We don't know what the branches are. We picked them up on the sidewalk after a storm had blown by! This arrangement went through countless iterations as if there were opposing forces pulling it back and forth.

Right: "Hope" by Miyako. Mountain ash branches, Japanese rose hips and craspedia. It looked like it just crested a steep peak!

Left: "Tall Gladiola" by Sydney Feng. Gladiola, cattail leaves and pine. The heavy vertical presence of the gladiola was contrasted by the light sprinkling of pine needles.

Right: "Dawning" by Val Spencer. Begonias and climbing hydrangea...and meticulously sculptured branches!

We thank everyone who came all the way to Quinpool to visit us...even as the bulk of Nocturne festivities were happening in downtown. We hope you enjoyed our little exhibit. Time flew by very quickly!

Thank you to the ikebana students who participated. We hope you also had an enriching experience. Everybody loved your work!

A more complete set of Nocturne images can be found on our flickr album.

My Ikebana: Mountain Ash And Mums

Added on October 12, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

The big branches were from a mountain ash tree that had been felled by a recent storm.

I put together the red berries of mountain ash with bright yellow chrysanthemums to show a contrast.

The hips on the Japanese rose branch are turning orange--a preview of the coming autumn.

Here is the whole arrangement.

I hope you like it. --Miyako

My Ikebana: Dried Pine and Horsetail

Added on October 5, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

Another pine branch I had picked up last winter was all dried up. All the needles were gone. The tiny bare branches looked like sparklers to me!

I cut up this branch into smaller pieces and re-assembled it around the vase. I used the horsetail to show some movement.

Then, to further emphasize the fine patterns of the dried pine twigs, I embedded some roses among them.

Here is the whole arrangement.

I hope you like it. --Miyako

Japanesque September 2014, At SMU

Added on September 30, 2014 by the ikebana shop.

September 28th was a beautiful Halifax Sunday afternoon. The organizers of Japanesque decided Mother Nature's offering of good weather was too good to pass and the event was moved to the gardens of The Oaks on the southern tip of the St. Mary's University campus.

Japanesque was co-organized by the Japanese Language and Culture Program, Department of Modern Languages and Classics of St. Mary's University and the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal, with the support of the Japan Foundation.

Festivities were opened with a taiko performance. That got everyone's attention!

The event was graced with the presence of Dr. David Gauthier, Vice President, Academic and Research at St. Mary's University and Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Consul General of Japan at Montreal.