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Ikebana Demo & Workshop At The Lord Nelson

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Updated June 5, 2014

Due to unavoidable circumstances, the schedule has been changed as follows:

  • Jun 8th (Sun), 1:00-3:00 p.m. ikebana demonstration by Miyako at the Halifax Public Gardens.  Open to the public.
  • Jun 10th (Tue) 6:30-8:30 p.m. Beginner ikebana workshop* at The Lord Nelson.

*Advanced registration for workshop is necessary.  Please contact Halifax Public Gardens directly.

Our apologies for any inconvenience.  See you there!

In celebration of the Nova Scotia Gardening Week, we are working together with the Halifax Public Gardens to present an ikebana demonstration and workshop at The Lord Nelson Hotel (1515 South Park St., Halifax NS) on June 8th, Sunday, 1-4 p.m.  The workshop is suited for those who have never tried ikebana before!

The cost for the activity is $30.  You get to bring home your arrangement!  We will prepare the containers and flowers but participants are asked to bring with them their own floral clippers (your regular gardening clippers are OK!)

Advanced registration is required.  Please contact Halifax Public Gardens directly by phone (902) 490-4518 or email.

We hope to see you there!

 


Etegami Workshop At The Bedford Library

Added on by the ikebana shop.

That was a lot of fun!  Thank you very much to all the participants of the etegami workshop last Saturday, May 10th, at the Bedford Public Library.  Everyone did wonderful work!  We hope you all enjoyed!

Special thanks to the Halifax Public Libraries for making this possible!

Find out more about our etegami workshop here.

Bloom Exhibit

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Once again, we are working together with our friends at Argyle Fine Art (1559 Barrington St., Halifax).  This time the exhibit is called Bloom, showcasing the beautiful floral paintings of Twila Robar-DeCoste.  In keeping with the flower theme, Miyako will put up some ikebana arrangements around the exhibit.

BLOOM: New and Recent Works by Twila Robar-DeCoste 
& Ceramics by Emerging Artists brought to life by The Ikebana Shop

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, May 10th, 1:30-3:30pm
At Argyle FIne Art, 1559 Barrington St., Halifax NS

We'll let the Argyle Fine Art press release speak for itself...

(HALIFAX)- Please join Argyle Fine Art in downtown Halifax for an afternoon filled with ART and FUN for the entire family. We’re launching a new body of work by artist Twila Robar-DeCoste in a show entitled BLOOM, which is fitting as all 14 watercolour and acrylic paintings are celebrating local SPRING flowers that we can all hardly wait to poke their heads out of the ground and greet the SUN. Let’s hope for lots of that too, on Saturday, as we’ll also be showcasing a selection of ceramics by emerging artists that will come to life with living floral arrangements by the talented Miyako Ballesteros from The Ikebana Shop. All artists will be in attendance. The show will continue until May 21st at Argyle Fine Art and online once the show has launched.

Twila Robar-DeCoste has exhibited work throughout Atlantic Canada and Ontario, and her art can be found in many corporate and private collections in North America and Europe. Twila was juried and elected to the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) in May of 2009. Inspired by the beauty and diversity of nature, Twila creates realistic paintings of natural subjects; birds, butterflies, flowers, landscapes and seascapes. Her paintings are created in watercolour, acrylic and ink. Her work is found in many private and corporate collections in North America and Europe. Twila Robar-DeCoste has illustrated numerous books and publications for such clients as N.S Tourism, The Nova Scotia Museum of Natural history, Agriculture Canada, Ducks, Unlimited, Canadian Geographic and the Municipality of the County of Kings to name a few.

 

All images provided by Argyle Fine Art.

Added May 11th, 2014: 
See photos of  the exhibit.

Thank You, Leonora!

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Our good friend, Leonora, from Ottawa sent us a photograph of her work.  This was her contribution to Momentum, the Ikebana International Ottawa Centennial Chapter 120's exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature. 

The brittle & dry branches, the smooth & soft leaves, plus the wrinkly and shiny foil.  Three different textures combined into one beautiful piece! 

And the icing on the cake... a sign was displayed beside the work.  A place of honour. Thank you!

The Momentum exhibit is on-going until March 23rd, Sunday at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.  Please visit if you can!

Photos courtesy of Leonara Duffield.

 

The Origami Workshop Was Fun

Added on by the ikebana shop.

A big THANK-YOU to everyone who participated in our origami workshops last Saturday (Mar 15th).  We had only planned one session but had to add one more to accommodate everybody!  We hope everyone enjoyed.

Until the next workshop, please continue with your origami pursuits!

If you missed it and wish to be informed of future origami workshops, please give us your email address and we will put you on our "origami mail list"!  

Find out more about our origami workshops here.

 

Photo by the ikebana shop.  All rights reserved.

Ikebana At The Speech Contest

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Our ikebana activity this weekend was at the 16th Atlantic Canada Japanese Language Speech Contest held at St. Mary's University last Saturday, March 8th.

Ikebana, of course, was not the main event.  It was a speech contest!  But we were happy for the opportunity to create ikebana arrangements for the event.  The speech contest was co-organized by St. Mary's University and the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal, with support from the Japan Foundation and Mitsui Canada.

Miyako called some of her advanced students to help create a few arrangements.  Here they are in action!

Val Spencer

Patti Vaison

Patti Vaison

Jean Henshall

Jean Henshall

And here are their works, displayed in various places around the Scotia Bank Theatre in the Sobey Building.

Val Spencer

Patti Vaison

Jean Henshall

...and two more.

Miyako.

A collaborative effort by Miyako and Susan Robertson, who could not be there during the actual preparations.

As the contestants battled it out, we hope the flowers made the battleground a bit more welcoming.  :-)  We salute all the students who joined the contest.  Their speeches were high calibre, made even more commendable because we knew they had not been learning Japanese language for a long time...and we could only imagine the efforts of their teachers to help them reach such a high level!  Congratulations to the winners!  

Speech contest winners with Consul General Tatsuo Arai.

Our special thanks to Dr. Alexandre Avdulov  of the Japanese Language and Culture Program, Department of Modern Languages and Classics of St. Mary's University, for giving us this opportunity.  

Thank you Val, Patti and Jean for your time and wonderful work!  Like all true ikebanistas, we know you enjoy creating arrangements...whenever and wherever!

 

All photos by the ikebana shop.  All rights reserved.

March Break Origami Workshop

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Learn something new during March break!  Come join us for an early afternoon origami workshop on March 15th (Saturday) 1:00-2:00 p.m.  

We've added a second session 3:00-4:00 p.m. to accommodate more people!  

 
20140315 origami workshop.jpg

We are going to learn how to make a wreath of tulips.  Then we'll string up a few pigeons and you can hang them like a mobile.  Finally, we make an origami whale greeting card.  It's going to be fun!

The workshop fee is $7 (plus HST) per person.  This includes the cost of materials.  It will be at our studio...right above the shop!

Workshop is limited to 10 participants.  Pre-registration is required.  Call or email us to book your spot.  See you there!

 

Japanesque at SMU

Added on by the ikebana shop.

The annual Koshogatsu (Little New Year) celebration at St. Mary's University has evolved into Japanesque, a Japanese cultural festival.  With the new format comes more flexibility as the event can now be celebrated at different times of the year and not be tied down to the Little New Year (which occurs at the first full moon of the year).  This year 2014, the inaugural Japanesque was held last Sunday, Feb 2nd at SMU's Sobey building.

Dr. Alexandre Avdulov, coordinator of the Japanese Language and Culture Program, gives the opening remarks.

The event was organized by the Japanese Language and Culture Program, Department of Modern Languages and Classics of St. Mary's University, with the support of the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal.  Members of the local community also shared their time and skills.  Plus, the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Exchange Society of SMU was involved too. 

There were many cultural demonstrations and workshops...

We were honoured to give the demonstration of ikebana.

L-R: Dr. J. Colin Dodds, President of St. Mary's University; Miyako Ballesteros, ikebana artist; and Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Consul General of Japan at Montreal.

Thank you to all who joined in the activities.  We hope you enjoyed the afternoon!  Thank you to all the organizers, supporters and sponsors for making this happen.  It was a wonderful event and we hope to see you again next year.

All photos by the ikebana shop.  All rights reserved.