In the past year or so, we have had frequent contact with an ikebanista from Chile. Her name is Ana Luisa Quiñones and she holds a 4th Grade Teacher's Diploma in the Sogetsu School. She is also an orthoptist in Santiago, Chile. Our correspondence started when she purchased some flower containers from us online. Since then she has been sharing many things about ikebana in Chile.
The materials she uses are all very exotic to us. Also, makes us very envious! :-)
In this one below, she uses Chilean palm leaves that she hand-wove into a net. The huge white flower is a King White protea cynaroides and the fluffy material is lichen from Patagonia. The arrangement was her contribution to the Ikebana International Exhibit in Santiago last June, 2012, which focused on the Chilean palm.
More Chilean palm! Very creative use of the palm tree seed pod.
This creation uses vellon patagonico--unspun sheep's wool from Patagonia...still raw and delicate.
Here is a simple one with big hydrangea and some horsetail branches. The flower container is familiar! ;-)
...and this one with small roses and young bamboo leaves. The bamboo provide a light and gentle space for the roses, which almost feel like butterflies fluttering about! The containers look familiar too, by the way! ;-)
Apart from ikebana, Ana Luisa likes to work in the kitchen too. ...and she likes matcha! Aren't the cakes mouth-watering? :-)
Last but not least, she sends us a photo of a familiar figure--our hand-made owl. She calls him the "sympathetic owl". It stays in her clinic and makes her young patients happy!
Thank you very much, Ana Luisa for sharing your ikebana adventures with us!
All photos courtesy of Ana Luisa Quiñones. Used with permission.