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