The weekends are always a fun time for my children to create ikebana arrangements. In my atelier, there are usually flowers, branches, or leaves left over from class on Fridays. Sometimes, my students don’t use all the materials in their flower buckets and leave a few flowers behind. Other times, flowers may be damaged, so are set aside as they weren’t appropriate to use in class.
Whether they are leftovers, or slightly damaged, my daughters enjoy the challenge of making the most of the materials that are available to them. For me, it’s proof that you don’t need expensive materials to teach ikebana to children, they will happily create beautiful arrangements from whatever you have on hand.
This week, my daughters used leftover flowers and leaves from my zoom International Teacher’s Class with Ilse. Although the flowers were already 12 days old, they were still fresh and my daughters were delighted with the colour.
To emphasis the long, thin lines of the flowers and the Aspidistra leaves, my youngest daughter chose a footed black metal vase. As both Aspidistra and the Gerbera are quite strong and flat, I suggested that she might want to cut out some negative space from the Aspidistra leaves.
She added the leaves to the vase and then carefully selected her Gerberas and placed them in the vase.
Remembering the importance of asymmetry, she added two Gerberas to one side of the arrangement, and one to the other.
Once finished, she covered the kenzan with small black stones.
