Ichiyo Ikebana Bamboo Lesson

Green Bamboo used in Ikebana.

 Working with green bamboo:

Gaby with tools in hand.

Our Greater Chicago Ichiyo Ikebana Branch had our meeting this week. Our topic focus was bamboo. We were each given a 4 foot length of green bamboo to cut up, drill and design with. It was very fun since we got to use power tools!

Gaby has cut a section of bamboo and is cutting a slot in it
to hold plant material.

We used small saws to cut sections to be used as feet for containers, longer lengths to stand up as a holders for the flowers to be designed in, or longer pieces to fit across the top of containers either as a decoration or to support flowers.

Janet our instructor and Gaby are cutting in slits with a small saw.

Holes are drilled completely through the width of the bamboo in specific areas to hold plant material in the finished design.

Tess is using the drill to create holes.

Here are some of the finished results......

A length over glass with plant material inserted through.

A large hole can be drilled so the bamboo can be slipped over the neck of a vase.

Another is used as a strong straight line standing in the center of a footed vase with iris inserted through holes. The brown line in the bamboo shows where the dividing segment will hold water for that section.

This cool color themed moribana shows lots of  cool water, soft lavender allium and other purple tones.

My finally picture is a great use of vine in a design- Great Job Gaby!

National Hosta Show in Milwaukee

Today was very green - from small to tall - Hostas abound!

That has to be the biggest hosta I have ever seen!

Hosta growers and enthusiasts from all over the states. Over 600 were expected for the opening banquet! Wow, wish we could get that kind of turn out for a National Garden Club Convention.

Little baby ones!

They keep getting bigger and bigger!

In the judged competition there were leaves of all sizes - from miniature to monstrous. One table had the in a row of graduated sizes.There were green one, bright green ones, gold ones, and blue toned ones. All very interesting. They even make their one hybrids.

Representing the theme - Escape to Wisconsin!

There was a tour around Milwaukee of areas and homes specializing in hosta gardening. They participated in competitive floral design featuring hosta leaves in their arrangements. In one competition there was a display of miniature hosta fairy gardens in hypertufa planters.

And they had two rooms of venders! Besides hostas, hostas, and more hostas, there was garden art and a woman who made jewelry out of dried corn kernels naturally grown in many colors and sizes.

I came home with "Praying Hands" and 3 miniature or small varieties for future flower shows, and besides they're super cute!

Olbrich Botanical Gardens

The sun was finally shining with no threat of rain, rather than spending the day gardening, I jumped in the car and headed to Madison's Olbrich Gardens for the second time in a week. I love to go there to walk through the gardens, but this usually happens after a Saturday visit to the farmers market on the Square. Today was Tuesday and I am heading there for the first Ikebana demonstration of the summer. The Madison Club #28, offers these classes as free community education.

I arrived before the visitor center and conservatory was open. I had made great time on the freeway.

Here is the hours for the gardens.

This giant plant greets you and it is a dwarf!

The Wisteria is in full bloom!

A cool resting spot surrounded by climbing roses.

Refreshing water features.

A view of the water as you enter the "room".

And the view the other direction

A place to reflect - such a wonderful memorial to a couple,

Small ponds surround the pathway.

Some carnivorous plants in a hypertufa container. 

Lovely color! Can I take it home?

The entire wall is lined in different varieties of coleus.

An edible container planting of Swiss chard
and kale.

Sneaking in a little peak here and a little peak there, I  found some true treasures of the garden and made for a fun day! Check it out soon.

Judges Council Miniature Flower Show

 
The Southern Wisconsin Judges Council Garden Club which includes Flower Show Judges from both the Madison and Milwaukee areas held a Petite Small - Standard Flower Show titled "A Child's Garden of Verse" which had an Alice in Wonderland Theme. This schedule called for 5" and 8" examples of small and miniature designs and horticulture from small, dwarf or miniature plants which works out perfectly to be held in a home.

"Drink Me"

When floral art is done in this manner all the materials should be to scale, so if you took a picture of it you would not realize it was only 5 or 8 inches tall. Think of a doll house verses a real home.

Through the Looking Glass - 5" design staged on a hand mirror

In "Through the Looking Glass" the designs were displayed on hand mirrors. Three acrylic stands displayed other classes of designs- "In Character" an all around design inspired by Alice's adventures where the designer must name the selected character, "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" a small design with two containers, and "Drink Me".

"Tweedledee and Tweedledum"
Look across to the window to see 4 other entries displayed.

We all had a fun time thinking small in this competitive floral event.

Even the ribbons are small!

Mobile Learning

Just attended 2 days of a 3 day "Tech Academy" at Waukesha County Technical College focusing on the theme Mobile Learning. (I would have attended all 3 days but I needed a paycheck from my other job.) Because I am a part-time instructor, I am able to take advantage of these wonderful classes that the school offers each year for free.They are held for the instructors to keep them informed of what's going on with  technology both on and off the campus. Because I am a non-credit arts instructor, I do not routinely use emails to correspond with students and staff, nor record and report grades, use on-line learning, webcasts or group link ups. I do (personally) want to do my best to stay current with what's happening in my world which involves technology.

We always get a great bag with some good snacks !

 The opening session was on how, even beginning in high school, lectures and homework have flipped. Teachers are putting their lectures online so the students can view them at their leisure, learning at their own pace. Assignments and homework are now done in the classroom, allowing the teacher to be available for questions and help with projects. Students are learning and retaining more because they are setting their own speed at which they receive the information whether it's sitting at a desktop computer, or viewing it from a laptop, tablet or smartphone.

We also saw how mini tablets can be put on a special stand and will actually follow you as you record. A live chat was also shown where two people were sharing the same information of their computers to work at the same time on the same project. Very cool. This is not for my floral design students (now anyway) but students are doing this everyday!

My first class was on the latest version of Power Point. I have done the introduction to all my classes on Power Point but sometimes it's difficult for my classroom to have a "smart cart" with computer so I usually don't use them and stick to the "show and tell" intro. I do like this class as a refresher since there are so many thing to do with the program that I might use on another level. We covered inserting video's, recording narration, and other up grades rather than how to make things images fly in and out. Very helpful.

Next was Outlook. Done this one before, too. This is working with Email - responses, out of office, signatures and inserting logos. Always useful.

Wednesday was the fun day, "Geeze Louise, my phone is smarter than me"  was very fun and educational. Rhen Rodee did 3 hours (and we needed more) on Android phones. He always makes learning fun. I didn't know I could do a Power Point from my phone...... He not only covered the basics like Apps and Widgets, but security and where to find settings, how to download music and there is a difference between a power cord and a cord to transfer information.

Rhen showing another instructor how to play music from her phone.
That's his phone on the screen.

My final class was on OneNote. This is a really creative way of organizing information of any type- typed, drawn, clipped, recorded, video, photos, anything. You can also put it in the cloud to share and collaborate with others.

OneNote is like multi-sectioned binder(s) used to put "stuff" in. The great part is you can search for it later in a search bar. There were thirty of us working on one "page" at once and you could see who was doing what, we could all change what others had added and it "saved" all by itself always reopening to where you had left  off at. Some possibilities would be to store information from meetings, in-progress works, recipes, wedding - home building- remodeling project lists, and I found lots of stuff for attorneys already created available for download on the MS Office site. I am hoping to have lots of fun with this in the future. Can't wait to see what the team will offer next year.=!

Being a Decorating Diva

Last week my class and I attended a seminar put on by a high end interior designer about bringing out your designing diva.  I  collaborate with the designer that presented the program and do a significant amount of floral design work for her. Cheri Ware is the most organized designer I know. She always has a book with all her samples, swatches, colors, diagrams, furniture layouts and dimensions for every client. This is the important information I need to determine the size, form and design of the arrangements she specifies for each area in each room to achieve the feeling and style of the arrangement needed. I try to get this same information from all my custom clients which is not always easy.

Cheri with her gals!

Cheri's team came to set up for the program the day before. Rather than a screen she used a 50 inch flat screen to show her power point. There were a couple of design boards showing samples of paint, fabric, wood finishes, counter tops and hardware for two rooms. There was also a grey parsons chair and a traditional and a contemporary framed print. They also set up a lovely table for treats and a special drawing giveaway.

The next night Cheri did her presentation for about 60 people of which 6 were from my floral class. Community education is a great way to get customers informed and involved. She gave tips on finding your personal style. Her clients fill out a 15 page profile on every thing from what color car they prefer to what color clothes they have in their closets.

Tonight's audience had to choose a celebrity they most closely relate to - Jackie Kennedy, George Cloney, Kate Middleton, Johnny Depp, or Mariah Carey and that helped decide what style they related to traditional, contemporary, classic, etc.

Contemporary Art

She stressed doing a sample of your paint color on a wall in the room you want to use it in and watch it throughout the day to see how the natural light effects the color as it changes brightness. Some colors look more green at times or washed out. And another note on color - yes, you can paint small rooms dark colors. Bathrooms, mudrooms and laundry rooms are places that you can play with bold looks.

Her "grey chair" exercise was to show that neutral furniture pieces can go either traditional or contemporary depending on what accessories it is paired with. This is where she showed how we work together to pick elements of a floral arrangement I would put together for her.

Classic floral

 A home should flow room to room instead of being a collection of disjointed themes. Big ticket items should be neutral finishes not this years fashion statement. She spoke of how important scale is when choosing furniture. She had a picture of a sofa wedged in an alcove. Not every wood piece needs to be the same finish - not matchy, matchy-  for interest it is okay to mix dark woods, metallic woods and painted furniture finishes. Another important point is the home should not look like a page from a magazine. It needs heart- personal elements that fit your lifestyle.

Cheri during the presentation

The formula for a good design is personal style plus life style plus budget equals master plan. Keep this in mind next time you want to update, remodel or build.

Cheri and Ann at The Front Porch before the Class

Ikenobo Demonstration and Workshop

Kazuko Rand, 3rd Grade Assistant Professor in the Ikenobo School of Ikebana,  gave a demonstration at Havenwoods Environmental Center in Milwaukee. She began with a talk on people's connection with Ikebana and it's being a temporary art form, not like a painting or sculpture.

The artist must be at peaceful harmony with the plant material as they design because it is an expression of the mind. Because it is living material it must be treated with respect. Once it is cut from nature it must be arranged more beautifully than it was originally grown. The artist must make a psychological and spiritual connection with the material. The plant material is most often trimmed to bring out the beauty of the line. In Ikenobo Ikebana there is a "clean" area of stem rising about 3" above the container rim signifying "new life". All the stems of the design are arranged in a row to emphasize this one point of emergence. The tops of the stems are placed to flow right and left, forward and backward creating width and depth to the design.

Single material front view

Single material (Sansavaria)  side view

 In Kazuko's demonstration she focused on Classical Shoka Style (Heaven, Man and Earth) using first only one material, then two and then three. These are ascending or upright forms usually arranged in a tall style container. The plant material is held in placed by a kenzan, or needle pin holder sometimes called a frog. All the plant material is placed as if it were growing towards the sun either to the right or to the left. There is a sunny side and a shadow side to the design.

Two materials

The classes version

Three materials

Kazuko followed her demonstration with a workshop featuring Sanshuike Style. This style of flower arrangement was introduced as a modern Shoka Style in the 1950's adding to the previous Classical Shoka Style. This Free Style floral art includes three types of plant material. Shoka Style gives one the opportunity to learn how to use limited materials in an effective way while not losing the classical sentiment.

The others on display

Mine


Even thought I study Ichiyo Ikebana ,
I enjoyed these classes very much.

My first attempt  re-done at home