Wauk Blog Star: Ikebana Week {ONE}

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Ikebana Week {ONE}

I love this class for so many reasons but mainly because of our teacher Soho Sakai.

I am enrolled in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. For those that don't know, Ikebana is a Japanese flower arranging style. It focuses on beautiful lines, it's really a "less is more" type of arrangement. It's stunning in it's simplicity and it takes years to actually be any good at it. Soho has the highest degree in this art form and has been doing if for a very loooong time. She claims 50 years(!) but she doesn't look a day over 50 so the math doesn't add up....She looks too freaking good! She has such a great attitude towards life and flowers and I am very honored to take her class.
I hope to earn a diploma in this style and have oh, about 3 years left!!!
But it's alright, I'm not going anywhere :)

Here is a demo that Soho made for us. She put it to the side and you know I snatched up a picture the first opportunity I got.

Just everyday materials from her garden. The same stuff the street is lined with but somehow it looks gorgeous once it's placed just right in this long container.

Here we are in the classroom and you can see the placements of where the stems should go in the background. This is our refresher lesson since a lot of us have done Ikebana before but there were a few brand new students in there taking her course.

This one belongs to an artist in our class. I'll have to ask her name and credit her because this girl is talented. She actually is a painter and takes Ikebana classes because she says that it has helped her develop lines in her art and it has blown open a creative side to her painting and she is working on her three dimensional effect.
You can see she has an eye for color and detail.