Tuesday Iemoto Class - Horizontal Arrangements

I thoroughly enjoyed today’s Master, Mr Ken Katayama, whose style of arranging is very much to my liking, remembering his work from the Iemoto’s Seminar, one in particular where his arrangement gave the impression of jumping/springing. My next quandary was how could I relate that to the lesson set theme: – Book 3 Lesson 2, Horizontal Arrangements.

The first lesson, using Birds Nest ferns and orange ball like Orchids in an orange rectangular container; my arrangement looked more like a hungry crocodile than an elegant ikebana. The Master thought otherwise saying the power of the green and orange with strong lines coming from the container worked to my advantage and especially filling the second opening of the container added another dimension.

The second lesson for the day was very different to the ‘hungry crocodile’ this new arrangement was more like springy music. I used small Alum flowers not quite open and Bulrush in a black ceramic container. The curving stems of the Alum lent to a fun horizontal form but the challenge was how to make it stay at that angle because the stem is extremely brittle, problem solved half by using a cross bar and half by adding wire for length. To contrast with the curvy lines I made angled forms with the Bulrush, another problem to solve because I didn’t have wire long enough to form the angles, I had to make extremely small pins to hold work in place.