This Friday, before Valentine’s Weekend, join me for Ikebana, the Japanese Art of Flower Arranging. This workshop will be held via Zoom.
During this workshop, you will learn The Basic Rising Hana-style and Freestyle arrangement.
Traditionally, ikebana requires a suitable container, a kenzan or “frog,” for securing the flowers, and hasami, a specialized cutting implement.
The kenzan literally translates to “sword mountain” and is often simply referred to as a frog. It is often circular, though comes in other shapes as well, such as a half moon or a square, and serves to support your arrangement, as a cluster of needles directed upwards receives the stems and shafts of your plant material.
The hasami are a special kind of shears.
I can provide links for anyone who is interested in acquiring these tools. I’ll post separately about them.
For this workshop, however, I want to invite you to substitute these traditional tools (unless you happen to have them already) for some more-readily-accessible equipment.
Instead of the traditional tools, we’ll be using green florist foam, available at Michaels, your local florist, or Amazon. This link to Amazon will get you a pack of foam for $7.99.
We’ll also be using ordinary garden clippers.
You’ll also need a suitable container. I would recommend a bowl, the deeper the better, but even a soup or cereal bowl will suffice. Many arrangements are done in shallow containers, but the deep bowl will help to hide the florist foam and that will be preferred.
Lastly, I would suggest a hot glue gun, if you have one or you’re willing to get one. The green florist foam is nowhere near as stable as the kenzan because it is so lightweight, so the flowers tend to fall over in the foam. In my experience, the hot glue is sufficient to secure the foam to the bowl while you arrange the flowers. Once you add water, the glue releases its hold, but the water makes the foam heavier and voilà, it works. Fingers crossed, of course. This is a delicate art form and we might encounter problems along the way. That’s all part of the learning. And, I’ll be there to help problem solve as we go.
Here’s a look at the tools.
As for the bowl, I’ll let you hunt around. Use your intuition. A simple bowl is great, but you might find an unusual container that’s just perfect.
As for the flowers, I’ll be posting a video of good floral candidates on my Instagram account over at @leilacurrah_art so please follow me there. You might start thinking about flowers you have a strong affinity for, and certainly, if you have a garden, that’s the first place to look. Remember, any plant material that looks interesting is a potential addition to your arrangement. I’ve found some of my favorite additions outdoors by taking a walk and simply keeping my eyes open. Sometimes you can find plant material that way that you would never find at a store, e.g., branches, reeds, even clippings from a hedgerow. Talk to your neighbors if something catches your attention in their yard. Most people won’t mind sharing if they know what you’re doing. You could even surprise them by giving them your arrangement when you finish it.
Also to bear in mind, any size and variety of flowers or plant material will work for the freestyle arrangement. For the Hana arrangement, you will need an “object” and a “subject” variety. The object sits low in the arrangement and the subject rises. The subject usually includes two stalks. Greens work well here, but flowers can certainly be used, too. The object can include one or more. In the example above, the red gerbera daisies are arranged as a pair.
I hope this helps to get you somewhat oriented. We’ll be diving deeper into the rules for the Hana arrangement in the workshop, and I’ll share all my tips for creating a freestyle arrangement that captures that spacious “feel-good” quality you’re looking for.
To review, this is what you’ll need to gather in preparation:
- a container
- green florist foam
- garden clippers
- hot glue gun (recommended)
- flowers and/or greenery
Please register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qf-2srDIoH9y8I2lnWmSlvOyAzCWhsGIz
Donations can be made to my Venmo at @leilacurrah
All proceeds to benefit IDHHB
May this effort be for the benefit of all beings everywhere.