Terrariums In Glass

Mini garden in glass

Colorful plants in glass - a new entry to my terrarium collection.

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The Peony Kiss - Ikebana Sogetsu Lessons Book 5

The Peony Kiss 

What seems to me special about Ikebana Sogetsu is how the plant materials are arranged in a vase  in incredible positions.
There is a system of crossed and splitted stems that allows the branches lay in a certain way.

The flower's stems are shorten for this securing technique.  That makes the total look of composition floating in air.

I called the arrangement "The Peony Kiss", not just because I love the flowers, but also for the blessing of my Floral Angel and inspiration sent to my way for creating this. 

The other composition makes the vertical line with the same wood branch. The branch with a mass on the top like the one on the photo will fall down from this position when simply put in a vase. The secure system makes the impossible things possible. 

These Ikebana compositions with peony show how how to arrange heavy flowers in a tall vase.

Made at our Ikebana class, Ikebana lesson Book 5.

More Ikebana Sogetsu lessons Book 5:
Born In The Rain - Ikebana Design  
Sogetsu Workshop 2017

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Sogetsu Ikebana Workshop - 2017

A big event is holding here now. It's a Japanese and Russian Culture Festival. 

The one of the Festival activities is the Sogetsu Ikebana workshop by the japanese teachers, Takako Nishimura-sensei and her team from Hokkaido. Few years ago our local Ikebana group became a Studio Group officially recognized by Mrs.Akane Teshigahara and Sogetsu School in Tokyo. So each year we are visited and cared by our teachers from Japan. 

These last days in June made a wonderful meeting with the flowers and art. Inspite of my ability to attend only 2 of 4 lessons, I got a real pleasure to study. We learned how to create a vase for the floral arrangements by weaving a sphere vase with thin rotang.

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Sogetsu Text Books:

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Ikebana workshop was held in Chekhov Museum. The hall with a photo exhibition was turned to the classroom.
The photos on the wall are by japanese artists sharing their vision of the Russian land. 

Our studying group. We started with making a paper sphere.

Learning how to make knots

My rotang sphere is done!
It can change the form to oval or whatever when sinked in water and pressed for a while

Teachers explain the process and some tricks of the weaving

Love my sphere : ))

The next step is to create an arrangement.
 I like this shot. Think you agree with me that it's important to surround yourself by a beauty

I choosed plants for my design

The idea is brought to life

This is how the details make a melody

Ladies at work

Minna no shyashin
A must have photo :)

The teachers show what else you can do with the spheres. 

Nishimura-san got an ecochic hat 

With friends.
The outdoor ikebana installation in front of the art museum

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Eco Fashion And Ikebana Show 2017

The Sakhalin Art Museum, the main art space in the city, has turned to the blooming garden for 3 days in May 2017.

You know that I am a part of the local Ikebana community. We float from one exibition space to the other to bring more beauty to the world. This time the Ikebana community celebrated the 15th anniversary of Ikebana Sogetsu school in our city.

People who follow my blog might remember that I live on the island called Sakhalin. It is in the Far East of Russia and very close to Hokkaido. We are historicaly tied to the japanese culture here. So Ikeana floral art organically came to our life.

"Spring Catchers" ikebana installation

For this big event I created a floor instalation which I called "Spring Catchers" with using the north bamboo, spring plants and flowers. The painting on the wall is a part of the installation.

Preparing the material and creating the fans of the north bamboo in the workshop

The painting and the plants

Specially for the event I have created a dress of the flower packing materials to show up in the Eco Fashion Defile (here is the link for Eco Fashion 2011). Thanks to the model Angelina for making the look.

Angelina 

Eco Fashion models

Watch the video from the Show and Eco Fashion Defile:




Oh that's me trying on the dress while making it:

I hope you will like our eco friendly designs

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There Is Something Apart From Carving

A practice of floral design, and I suppose my love to cute things has brought me to the things I am enjoying to do now. These are florariums and mini garden in the bottles.

These mini landscapes in the vases look like pieces of nature you can keep on your desk in the office, or in your home in the city. While viewing the mini gardens you get a desire to become a tiny one to get inside the bottle  and examine  the things in there, the caves, the wood, and the paths.
Sounds like something that can relax you and bring a peace to your heart.

Inside the bottle

Succulent landscape



For cactus lovers



Mini garden in the bottle in the proccess

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