Curved Lines

Creating arrangements using curved lines is one of the many lessons within the intermediate Sogetsu Ikebana curriculum. The series of lessons are based on the corner stones of Sogetsu Ikebana; line, mass, and colour. Within the Sogetsu lesson on curved lines, students are encouraged to carefully examine naturally forming curved lines. Equally, they are also encouraged to use creative expression and practice bending techniques to form their own curved lines.

Materials

While picking flowers at our local flower farm, we were delighted to discover an abundance of Allium flowers. To our delight, most people had overlooked the flowers with twisted and contorted stems. As we carried our flowers home we discussed what sort of arrangement would best suit the blooms. Straight away 'curved lines' came to mind.

Inserting test tubes into the vase

We were eager to use a vase recently bought at a second hand store. Rather than insert a kenzan in the vase we created stable fixation points by inserting glass test tubes inside the mouth of the vase.

Creating curved lines

Isabel created a mass of curved lines using several stems of Liriope.

Selecting a flower

She then carefully selected an Allium with a curved stem, and placed it in one of the test tubes. Her first choice of flower was a little too heavy for the arrangement, however, with a bit of trial and error she finally found the right flower.