Somehow, the bluish-purple container just begged for the lavender roses. Nothing fancy, just a simple upright or ascending arrangement with lots of negative space. (In everyday parlance, we would say “empty space”) There are negative and positive aspects in Ikebana, sort of like yin and yang in Chinese thought. In Japanese, these are in and yo respectively.
Ikebana arrived in Japan after a Buddhist monk made a pilgrimage to China and learned the way of the floral offerings in the temples. He returned home, continued his study of floral gifts, and instituted the original Ikebana style, Ikenobo. Given these origins, it makes sense that Ikebana would incorporate the in-yo concept.
That’s enough history for now. Let us move on to a second arrangement using flowers a bit differently from the first one to the left.
The second arrangement below employs airiness and gives the illusion of a bloom floating. Another interesting feature is the slanting wax flowers, which make the focal point rose even more expansive though anchored by a piece of petrified wood, which stabilizes the entire design. Not only can one find main stems or line material around the house, rocks, figurines, and other interesting items abound. Undoubtedly, they will pop up in arrangements here periodically.
Ikebana arrived in Japan after a Buddhist monk made a pilgrimage to China and learned the way of the floral offerings in the temples. He returned home, continued his study of floral gifts, and instituted the original Ikebana style, Ikenobo. Given these origins, it makes sense that Ikebana would incorporate the in-yo concept.
That’s enough history for now. Let us move on to a second arrangement using flowers a bit differently from the first one to the left.
The second arrangement below employs airiness and gives the illusion of a bloom floating. Another interesting feature is the slanting wax flowers, which make the focal point rose even more expansive though anchored by a piece of petrified wood, which stabilizes the entire design. Not only can one find main stems or line material around the house, rocks, figurines, and other interesting items abound. Undoubtedly, they will pop up in arrangements here periodically.
This bountiful bouquet yielded yet a third arrangement in which the design is more traditional. I’ve used one of those little containers with the built-in kenzan (secured by a powerful unidentified adhesive) and arranged the materials in the traditional odd number grouping of three. By convention, we usually use odd numbers of materials in Ikebana. Numbers might be a subject for a later post.
Speaking of threes: You might say, “there are only two snake plant lines here.” That is correct, the third main line or stem is the lighter foliage of the wax flowers. Don’t you think a third snake stem would have overpowered the small container? I made that decision by “eye”, but just now I measured it and found that the outer diameter is 5” and the inner diameter is 3.5.” After years of handling living flowers, one does a lot by “eye.” Think of playing music by “ear,” it’s a skill similar to musical improvisation.
Yes, there are more than three blooms. Again, by “eye,” consider that we have three clusters of flowers. View this small arrangement by starting from center front, move diagonally left, and then and vertically to the right. Three groups. Now, if we had larger blooms or a larger container, three separate blooms would have been feasible and quite lovely. The flowers have spoken once again. Let the conversation continue….
Arrangements from One Bouquet
Until next time,
Henderson
Henderson
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