Sticks and Stones may hurt your bones… but they are fun for ikebana. Patti will gather various sticks and stones and use them to create interesting ikebana. The possibilities are limitless.

February 25 Workshop

Fee: No charge

Gather your own sticks and stones and bring your materials to create a fun arrangement to share with the group. It will be interesting to see everyone’s creativity for this theme.

Haiku is a short form of poetry originating in Japan which typically uses common language and simple uncomplicated images to convey emotion. A haiku poem is the sharing of a moment of sensory illumination which carries a subtle yet often profound emotional resonance. Ikebana uses carefully selected blossoms, greenery, and other flora to convey a specific feeling or emotion to an observer – just as a haiku, painting or sculpture might.

In a slide show I will show examples of different forms of haiku bringing this ancient form into current practice. In Japan, haiku are traditionally written as a single line, while haiku in English often appear as three lines, although variations exist. The 5/7/5 rule was made up for school children to understand and learn this type of poetry. I will share some of my recent haiku and haiga which have been published in journals. Haiku and visual art in combination are called haiga. This form is the closest to what we will be doing in combining our arrangements with haiku.

I will also create one arrangement and write a haiku.

"white stork walks for peace"

I will be doing Moribana -Landscape arrangements. Moribana - Landscape arrangements are the backbone
of the Ohara School. The demonstration will include the three perspective
views of landscape arrangements, far view, middle view and near view.

April 22 Workshop

Fee: $14 - $10 to be donated to the Folk Art Center. $4 materials.

The workshop will continue the theme for the day which will be simple Moribana - Landscape arrangements. Members participating will bring their own plant materials of which I will give suggestions. These will be mostly from their grounds with a few flowers that they will need to purchase at their local venue and will be simple to find. I will keep in mind grocery stores and such for this.

We all love ikebana in our own way. We all make a choice to formally study a particular school or not. For those of us that decide on the Sogetsu School, our curriculum now has five texts. All four schools represented in our Ikebana Chapter, have texts to teach about the basics and rules for planning from simple to complicated arrangements in similar ways.

The first two Sogetsu texts teach us the basics, the variations, the rules, the proportions, while we also learn the nature of each piece of plant material we use. The next three texts focus on deepening the understanding of ikebana studies by proceeding to the curricula which are mainly the three elements of Line, Color and Mass. Each lesson has a particular theme, to be interpreted by the student in Free Style.

The photo I am showing here is an example of a “vertical themed” arrangement. The “Line, Color and Mass” are clear. Once students finish all themes one by one, given in the three texts, they traditionally repeat arrangements they have done but their experience aids in making better arrangements and possibly further promotions.

May 27 Workshop

I will be making a handout for those who wish to take my workshop on “Themes”. Each participant will choose a theme from the list and arrange the materials that they bring to the meeting. The chosen theme should be obvious for me to guess.
Workshop cost $15.00. Class limit: 20.

Join us to see how Ichiyo, Ikenobo and Sogetsu Schools have fun with Leaf Manipulation. Sue Grier, Candy Gallaher and Jane Irwin will demonstrate contemporary techniques of shaping, snipping, cutting, folding and more in order to use leaves as a creative force in Ikebana designs. Leaf manipulation is a technique used to add texture, shape and visual interest to Ikebana designs.

June 24 workshop

Must sign up ahead so leaf materials can be ordered. Price TBD from leaf cost.

Ikebana arrangements showcase the different characteristics of contrast and harmony. Thick/thin, big/small, sharp/soft, etc. We will explore these contrasting characteristics of the plant material and highlight their unique qualities using seasonal material from the garden.

July 22 Workshop

Fee: $15 Class limited to 15 students

The demonstration will be a tour of the various Ohara styles. I will start with what is considered a beginner's form and with each arrangement the styles become more advanced.

Registration form to come soon.

Registration form to come soon.

Registration form to come soon.

I will focus on current trends in the Ichiyo School of Ikebana based on the fourth headmaster Naohiro Kasuya’s monthly online lessons for instructors since 2020.

No Workshop

An overview of Ikenobo Styles highlighting plant materials from our region.

October 28 Workshop