Iemoto's Class 10th March 2016

Two themes today and I choose to follow the format because I wish to learn as much as possible and very Sensei has something new to learn.

This morning’s theme was Variation #2 Slanting. I selected to work with Magnolia and to harmonise the colours I picked Stocks, a material I find difficult to work with because the stems tend to be brittle and the heads can be thick and heavy.

I used a vertical fixture (Tate-no-Soegi-dome) my favorite method because the material can remain quite secure. The Master demonstrated both cross bar and vertical saying either is correct. I was happy with my arrangement but the Hikae was a fraction long and needed to be shorten though it did create the Stocks to form a mass.

The second lesson of the day was Simplified Arrangements, and certainly not an easy arrangement to do. One often thinks a single flower in a container is simplified but the real art is what material needs to be removed to highlight the beauty of the remaining part. The container always plays a significant part in this arrangement but should not over power the beauty you are showing. The Master demonstrated a Simplified Arrangement in a coloured glass bowl then inverted another glass dome over the existing arrangement thus magnifying the simple arrangement. Many of us did two Simplified arrangements and we were asked to display them together, an interesting concept and the arrangement still looked simplified.