Last month the Sogetsu Azalea Study Group held their biannual ikebana exhibition at the Botanical Gardens in Meise, Belgium. The exhibition coincided with school holidays in the Walloon region (the French speaking part) of Belgium. As a result, I had to juggle Ike-komi alongside holiday childcare. My daughters are no strangers to attending Ike-komi. I still have vivid memories of setting up an arrangement for an exhibition at Floriade in Canberra, Australia while trying to settle, my then new born, daughter to sleep. Now that they are much older they were put to work, helping Study Group ..read more

Creating arrangements using curved lines is one of the many lessons within the intermediate Sogetsu Ikebana curriculum. The series of lessons are based on the corner stones of Sogetsu Ikebana; line, mass, and colour. Within the Sogetsu lesson on curved lines, students are encouraged to carefully examine naturally forming curved lines. Equally, they are also encouraged to use creative expression and practice bending techniques to form their own curved lines. While picking flowers at our local flower farm, we were delighted to discover an abundance of Allium flowers. To our delight, most pe ..read more

For the past few months, I have been working on a collaboration with AMA Girafe to create an Ikebana Adventure for French speaking primary school children, both internationally and here in Belgium.   AMA Girafe is a not-for-profit organisation, linking French speaking schools across many African nations, France, and Belgium. The aim of the organistion is to unify children across cultures and break down socio-economic divides. AMA’s goal of empowering children through education, whilst encouraging them to develop a deeper affinity with nature, resonates with my own approach to children ..read more

Last week we visited the Hallerbos forest in Halle, Belgium. For a period of just two weeks a year the forest bursts into a carpet of purple with the blooming of the wild hyacinth. Although there are several forests throughout Belgium that have beautiful displays of wild hyacinths, the Hallerbos Forest boasts the largest area in Flanders. My daughters were mesmerised by the beautiful sea of purple as we strolled through the forest on a warm and sunny Saturday morning. Inspired by the beautiful contrast of purple against a backdrop of vibrant green leaves my daughters searched through ..read more

Within the Sogetsu Ikebana curriculum there are many interesting lessons covering a variety of topics. Once students have studied the basics, they move on to creative freestyle arrangements, where they are able to study in depth the interesting aspects of various plant materials. One of the interesting topics for children is the lesson using only leaves. Children are naturally inquisitive, so this particular lesson gives them the freedom to explore the characteristics of different types of leaves. Examining the different shapes, textures and colours of leaves enables children to discover ..read more

Easter always provides fun and creative opportunities for children to make ikebana arrangements. Eggs often feature in most Easter traditions, as they represent new life and rebirth. During the Medieval period, it was forbidden to eat eggs during Lent, and so it was a treat to eat eggs on Easter Sunday*. Here in Belgium, chocolate eggs are a large feature of Easter (Speculoos eggs are a favourite in our house). However, Easter branches are also sold in supermarkets and are adorned with an array of brightly coloured hanging eggs. This year, to celebrate Easter we created a homemade vase out ..read more

After a long dark winter, spring has finally arrived in Belgium. The warmer weather has brought about a flush of new growth and blooms in our garden. Surveying our garden and planning our arrangement for the week we decided upon Daffodils, some of the first flowers to appear. However, our joy soon turned to dismay, as the warmer weather had also brought with it an army of hungry slugs and snails. In just one evening the slugs gorged themselves on all of our beautiful blooms. Not to be discouraged, we forged ahead with our plan to use the Daffodils, using the remaining parts of the flowers ..read more

There are many approaches to introducing ikebana to a younger generation. Last month's Madrid Blooms Floristry Convention provided me the arena for introducing ikebana to an eager young community already in love with flowers.  The education orientated floral design convention, was held in the Spanish capital, in conjunction with the Madrid Design Festival.   It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the relevance of ikebana in contemporary floristry. As a passionate educator of ikebana to a younger generation, I embraced the chance to educate young florists in the virtues of ikeba ..read more

In Japan, Hina-matsuri (雛祭り), Girls’ Day/ Dolls’ Day, celebrated on March 3rd with elaborate displays of Hina-Ningyou dolls on red-covered tiered platforms displayed in homes. Our display is a lot less elaborate, however, my daughters still take great pleasure in setting up our modest display of Emperor and Empress to celebrate the day. Hinamatsuri is one of the five seasonal festivals (五節句), gosekku that are held on auspicious dates. These include 1 January (New Year's Day), 3 March (Hinamatsuri), 5 May (Boy's Day/Children's Day), 7 July (Tanabata), and 9 September (Chrysanthemum D ..read more

This year we celebrated our first Valentine's Day in Belgium. The temperatures are still crisp, and after a very wet and soggy winter we finally have blue sky and no rain. Due to the wet weather, I was late getting my bulbs in, however, as a sure sign that spring is on its way, they are all starting to sprout. We are looking forward to the burst of colour that will appear after a long dark winter, and to the numerous varieties of tulips that we planted in our garden. In anticipation of the flowers that are soon to bloom we decided to create a Valentine's Day ikebana using my daughters' favou ..read more