Autumn Ikebana for Children

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons. In Madrid, the mornings are cool and crisp with warm sunny weather later in the day.

Materials

To celebrate autumn, we decided to create an autumnal arrangement using dried Monstera leaves and Chrysanthemum flowers left over from my ikebana classes.

Placing the cross-bar fixation in the vase.

Once my daughter had selected her vase, she chose a leaf and decided on a cross-bar fixation (Jumonji-dome) to hold her material in the vase. Although I encourage my daughters to measure their own fixation sticks, for safety reasons, I usually cut the sticks for them.

Placing the leaves in the vase.

Once the stick was cut to size, my daughter placed it in the vase herself. She put the dry Monstera leaves in position and added the Chrysanthemum flowers.

Cutting the Chrysanthemum in water helps keep it fresh for longer.

After adding the second flower she decided that the arrangement needed more depth and added one more Monstera leaf at back of the arrangement.

Adding a leaf at the back of the arrangement, for depth.

With simple leftovers she was able to create a beautiful autumn arrangement filled with movement and depth.