END OF YEAR MEETING

The final meeting for 2017 of the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana International was held on Tuesday 14th November. The guest speaker was Mr Masashi Sato of Ito En Australia, a company that produces green tea for export to Japan. Mr Sato gave a demonstration of making both hot and cold green tea which is quite different to the preparation of matcha, which is used in traditional Tea Ceremony. 

The ikebana theme for the meeting was: Ikebana celebrating in an Australian style. 

Lee Johnstone gave a demonstration using Banksia and gold coloured eucalyptus leaves and 'gum-nuts' in a nageire vase. 

This first arrangement was made by a visitor Rosemary Seacombe. Below are arrangements made by members on the day.

Aiko Nakada.

Elizabeth Angell. 

Emily Karanikolopoulos.

Pat Hetrel.

Betty Karanikolopoulos.

Toula Karanikolopoulos.

Thea Sartori.

Rosemary Hordern.

Philip Keon.

Judy Hajdu.

Kim Ng.

Lucy Papas.

SAKURA PICNIC DAY

Sakura picnic Day was held at Banksia Park in Bulleen on 15th October 2017 from 11 am to 2 pm. It was a fine warm day and 50 Cherry trees were in full bloom.

About 1500 people came to enjoy various aspects of Japanese culture including: Tea ceremony, Koto performance, Kendo demonstration, Bonsai display and origami.

The art of Ikebana was also there to be experienced by the visitors to the park.

 

Aiko Nakada, Head of the Ohara School and Chieko Yazaki, Head of Shogetsudokoryu School created Ikebana in a demonstration representing Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter.

The Cherry Trees in Banksia Park in the north eastern suburbs of Greater Melbourne were the gift of Prime Minister Ohira on his official visit to Melbourne in 1980 to the people of Victoria.

Further images from Sakura Picnic Day.

OCTOBER MEETING

At the October meeting with the theme of Japanese Day, our guest speakers were from Kasasagi Fine Arts, specialists in fine incense imported from Japan. They spoke of the varieties of incense available and its uses including for meditation practise.

A workshop was held on a simple method of tying mizuhiki which proved to be of great interest to the members. 

Here, Chieko Yazaki is explaining about some of the large variety of uses and symbolism in the complex knots made with mizuhiki.

Lesson one for beginners. 

        

These two photos show examples of the simple knot taught in the workshop and used for presentation of a simply wrapped gift. They were prepared by Reiko Ito who also made beautiful gifts for every member of small mizuhiki rosettes. The new expert in mizukiki knot tying is our member Kyoko Imai, who in addition to researching techniques on Youtube also bought a large supply of mizukiki strings for the meeting on her last trip to Japan.

The photos below are of ikebana arrangements inspired by the theme of Japanese Day.

Philip Keon used part of a tea-set that had belonged to a favourite uncle of his.

Margaret Wilson

Marcia Lamrock

Elizabeth Angell

Lee Johnstone

Lucy Papas

Betty Karanikolopoulos

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Beverley Webster

Thea Sartori

Toula Karanikolopoulos

GROWING CLIVIAS and using them in IKEBANA

The focus of the the meeting on Tuesday 12th October was the plant, Clivia, which is endemic to South Africa and Swaziland. This herbaceous evergreen is very hardy and, as an understory plant, prefers shady positions. The similarities of climate between South Africa and south eastern Australia mean that it is easy to grow in Melbourne. 

Our guest speaker was Dr Peter Haeusler of the Melbourne Clivia Group, who spoke with great knowledge and enthusiasm about the cultivation and propagation of this robust plant.

Following our guest speaker, Emily Karanikolopoulos gave a demonstration, creating two ikebana arrangements using Clivias from her own garden.

In her nageire arrangement she wrapped clivia leaves around a ceramic cylinder in which she arranged orange clivia flowers.

Emily also made a small arrangement using ingeniously rolled leaves of clivia and one clivia berry in a quirky vase.

This is a bird's eye view of the arrangement.

Below are clivia arrangements by members.

Sally Wilkinson

Betty Karanikolopoulos

Margaret Wilson
   

Chieko Yazaki

Margaret Leung

Nicole MacDonald

Beverley Webster

Thea Sartori

ANNUAL EXHIBITION

This year our annual exhibition was held in the lobby of the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins. This is a very large space which, in addition to having the front desk of the hotel, also functions as gallery for a variety of different types of contemporary art practice. The lobby has very large windows that look into a glass-roofed internal atrium over six stories high. The three large works set on the wide window ledges on the left of this photo were created by teams of ikebanists. 

                    

This photo is taken from the opposite side of the atrium and shows the three windows that were used for the three large works. These ikebana installations were visible from the cafes which are at a lower level on the floor of the atrium.

This work by members of the Ohara school was created by Aiko Nakada and Kid-Ching Ong. It featured bamboo, pine and 'moth' orchids.

Kaye Wong and Naomi Cullen from the Ichiyo school used large baskets and bamboo poles as principle design elements of their installation.

Christopher James and Kyoko Imai from the Sogetsu school created a large-scale work in a Shigaraki pot with driftwood, gymea leaves, chrysanthemum and painted agapanthus stems.

Most of the ikebana by individual members of the branch are shown below. Unfortunately some could not be photographed because of the lack of a backcloth.

Julie Ayers, Ikenobo school.

Chiemi Daly, Shogetsudokoryu school.

Felicia Huang, Ohara school.

Robyn Unglik, Sogetsu school.

 Kim Ng, Ohara school.

Emily Karanikolopoulos, Sogetsu school.

Judy Hajdu, Ohara school.

Trish Ward, Sogetsu school.

Chieko Yazaki, Shogetsudokoryu school.

Margaret Wilson, Sogetsu school.

Elizabeth Angell, Sogetsu school.

Elishia Zhang, Ichiyo school.

Helen Novic, Sogetsu school.

Stella Gan, Ichiyo school.

Lyn Wong, Ohara school.

Nobuko Kobayashi, Ichiyo school.

Toula Karanikolopoulos, Sogetsu school.

Qui Nguyen, Ikenobo school.

Lee Johnstone, Sogetsu school.

Yoshi Arai, Shogetsudokoryu school.

Lisa Yazaki, Shogetsudokoryu school.

Olive Cheng, Ohara school.

Ivy Loo, Ohara school.

Kim Louey, Ichiyo school.

Betty Karanikolopoulos, Sogetsu school.

Kayoko Hayashi, Ohara school.

Katrina Cunningham, Ichiyo school.

Lorraine Langley, Ikenobo school.

Kid-Ching Ong, Ohara school.