Once again, on one magical night, our shop was transformed into a little ikebana gallery.
It was hard work to put all the merchandise away and set the stage.
But it was harder work to design the arrangements! All worth it.
On October 18th, 2014, from 6 p.m. to midnight, we were there to show and explain ikebana.
We also served some cake to show our appreciation. :-)
Here are the work of Miyako and her students.
The outside installation was a collaborative effort by Miyako and Val Spencer. Hemlock greens, magnolia & willow branches, spray mums and bamboo.
The big willow branch was actually given to us by a friend last winter. She said her neighbour's tree had fallen in a storm. She thought we might like it so she hauled it all the way to our shop. That was probably a good 3 blocks away! Thank you Joan!
Left:: "Autumn Happiness" by Patti Vaison. Patti could not join us on Nocturne so she had prepared her arrangement in advance using dried material: Chinese lantern, cattails and eryngium. Glass beads on blue glass containers gave calming balance to the vivid orange!
Right: "Paintbrush" by Val Spencer. Anthurium and hosta stems. Now, you couldn't have guessed those "sticks" were from hosta, right? :-) A couple of sheets of square paper underneath may seem inconsequential but they complete the picture.
Left: "Moonlight" by Avril Yu. Stargazer lilies and alder branches. Like a bright moonlit night!
Right: "Kabu-Wake" (That's the style of arrangement having 2 "islands" in one moribana container) by Jean Henshall. Yellow roses and pincushion protea.
Left: Basic upright moribana by Randa Bdeir (L) and Abeer Sabanekh (R). Pink anastasias, alder branches and eryngium. The two friends' works had been done separately but came together perfectly as a pair!
Right: "No-Mind" by Miyako. Dendrobium, yellow mums, grape vine and Japanese rose branches. For this arrangement, Miyako said she wasn't thinking at all. Her hands just moved!
Left: "Discord" by Miyako. Silver Dollars, dried hydrangea and hemlock. We don't know what the branches are. We picked them up on the sidewalk after a storm had blown by! This arrangement went through countless iterations as if there were opposing forces pulling it back and forth.
Right: "Hope" by Miyako. Mountain ash branches, Japanese rose hips and craspedia. It looked like it just crested a steep peak!
Left: "Tall Gladiola" by Sydney Feng. Gladiola, cattail leaves and pine. The heavy vertical presence of the gladiola was contrasted by the light sprinkling of pine needles.
Right: "Dawning" by Val Spencer. Begonias and climbing hydrangea...and meticulously sculptured branches!
We thank everyone who came all the way to Quinpool to visit us...even as the bulk of Nocturne festivities were happening in downtown. We hope you enjoyed our little exhibit. Time flew by very quickly!
Thank you to the ikebana students who participated. We hope you also had an enriching experience. Everybody loved your work!
A more complete set of Nocturne images can be found on our flickr album.