As we get closer to the holiday season, I thought I'd point my ikebana towards the season's colours. I used mainly red dogwood and holly (ilex) branches.

The container I chose was a bright red-orange one with an interesting elongated C-shape.

I curled three of the red dogwood branches to match the shape of the container.

Did you notice that the holly branch was not coming out of the mouth of the container? Holly could last for quite a bit even without water; so I merely placed it on the outside. Sometimes, working with material without the restriction of having to put it in water is a pleasure!

I wanted to highlight the container's shape so I used only a minimum of plant material.

Here is the whole arrangement.

I hope you like it. --Miyako