I was so excited to find these long pussywillow branches that I did not even think to choose what kind of container to use. My mind simply started imagining what I could create with these branches.

The branches felt good in my hands. I bent, twisted and coaxed them to form different shapes and angles. I was playing and having a lot of fun! Before long, I had an objet in front of me.

Next, the container. The work turned out to be quite big so I decided to use a combination of two suiban containers. The pussywillow branches went to the first container. I did not want to cover the lines so I used very sparse flowers.

I used the second suiban to show water. I let some alstroemeria blossoms float to show a flow from one container to the other.

The image of hana-ikada was in my mind. (花筏 hana-ikada = literally "flower raft". This term is used to describe sakura petals that fall in a pond or river.)

Here is the full arrangement.

I hope you like it. --Miyako