Dried and bleached materials never interested me much. They seemed too stiff and unnatural. However, I’m finding my way with them.
Having passed into my “grade 4” book of lessons in Ikebana, I am expected to “disassemble and reorganize” a wider and wider range of materials, live and dried. “Convey your feelings for the plant materials boldly and in a free fashion,” I am told. This requires stretching on my part. At the same time, I recognize “permission” in the admonition to “create, play, enjoy and express.” I am curious to see what happens.
Putting dried materials with water reconstitutes them in much the same way freeze-dried food is reconstituted. Soaked in wet newspaper for two to three hours, the branches become malleable. In their softened state, they can be fashioned into all manner of shapes that they retain as they dry again.
In this week’s arrangement, a circular movement is evidenced in the whirls of the one type of branch and in the twining and twisting of the others. Both have lightness and a different quality of substance which offer some interesting and unusual effects when combined with fresh materials for contrast.
The real advantages of the dried and bleached materials have shown up over the long term. Even as the pastel-colored flowers in the original arrangement faded, dropped their petals and were replaced with new ones from the corner flower stall, the three-dimensional form created with the dried materials retained its vibrancy.
The appeal of the dried material has grown on me. It has come with time and really seeing the arrangement.
Flowers keep me in touch with process. They change and so do I.
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