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.