NOVEMBER MEETING

 

The final meeting of the Chapter for 2023 was held on the 14th November and attended by 29 members and two visitors. We were also pleased to welcome our patron Mrs Shimada, the wife of the Consul General of Japan.

The guest speaker was Dr Miriam Ford the President of the Australian Plants Society Victoria.

Dr Ford gave a highly informative presentation about Australian native plants and the specialist nurseries that grow them as well as some florists that stock them. She also recommended visiting the Cranbourne, Melton and Kawara (Kalorama) Botanical Gardens, as well as the Marilyn Sprague garden (Manangatan) and the Philip Johnson garden in (Olinda). The latter two being private gardens.  Her presentation also covered vulnerable and endangered species.

The demonstration at the meeting...

...was given by Akemi Suzuki, a Sogetsu teacher, who made two arrangements using some Australian native materials.

The native material featured in her first ikebana was some branches of Eucalyptus. To these she added two exotic, pink Anthuriums.

Her second ikebana featured long branches of Geraldton Wax flower which comes from Western Australia. To this material she added a central focus of Peony buds.

Below are ikebana arrangements made by some members at the meeting.

Betty Karanikolopoulos

Chieko Yazaki

Emily Karanikolopoulos

Helen Marriot

Jenny Loo

Karen Thode

Lara Telford

Lucy Papas

Margaret Leung

Thea Sartori. 

Sorry, Ikebanist not identified.  (Ed.)

Annual General Meeting

On Tuesday Ikebana International Melbourne, Chapter 29 held its AGM which was attended by 35 members. Also in attendance  was Mrs Shimada, who with her husband, the Consul-General of Japan in Victoria, is Co-patron of the Chapter. At the meeting some new members were elected to committee.

As is the custom, the Heads of the five Ikebana Schools in Melbourne presented a demonstration of their ikebana. The demonstrators worked concurrently and later spoke about their ikebana. Below are photos of the Heads of Schools and their completed ikebana.

Felicia Huang, Ohara School.

Felicia's completed two vessel ikebana.

Naomi Cullen, Ichiyo School.

 

Naomi's ikebana.

Chieko Yazaki, Head of Shogetsudo koryu.

Chieko's modern interpretation of the Seika style.

Yuko Braun, Ikenobo School.

Yukako's Rikka Shimputai.

Christopher James, Sogetsu School.

Christopher's ikebana.

Below are photos for ikebana arrangements created by members of the Chapter at the meeting.

Jenny Loo.

Judy Hajdu.

Sally Wilkinson.

Marjorie Campkin-Smith.

Nicole McDonald.

Emily Karanikolopoulos.

Katrina Cunningham.

Akemi Suzuki.

Susan Healey.

Jo Tan.

HIROSHIMA PEACE DAY

On the 6th August the Melbourne Chapter of Ikebana participated in the annual commemorative service in recognition of Hiroshima Peace Day. As is customary, the service was held at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. The Consul-General of Japan, Mr Shimada lit the Hiroshima Peace candle and gave an address to the congregation.

The team from the Sogetsu School created a large installation. They used Magnolia branches, Acanthus leaves and white disbud Chrysanthemums in a large urn, which was flanked by three large Gymea leaves suspended from black frames.

This year the Shogetsudo koryu team created the smaller of the two arrangements. They used a variety of materials including Magnolia branches, Oriental lilies, green and pink Chrysanthemums and Monstera leaves.

JULY WORKSHOP

The meeting on 8th July was a workshop on the theme of using previously unseen materials which were provided by the Melbourne Chapter. 

I.I. Branch member and senior Sogetsu School teacher Emily Karanikolopoulos provided a demonstration of two arrangements with materials that she herself had not seen until arriving at the venue. That meant she did not have the opportunity to plan and prepare the demonstration in advance. 

Her first demonstration was in a tall nageire vessel using long bare branches of Manchurian Pear, Disbud Chrysanthemum and Hypericum berries.

Her second ikebana was in a suiban using Umbrella Fern, red Tulips and Alstroemeria. 

Emily had asked the 25 participating members to bring both a suiban and a tall nageire vessel so that they had two options for how they could best work with their materials.

Below are the ikebana arrangements made by the members.