One of the features of Sogetsu Ikebana is the use of unconventional or man-made materials. As a result, interesting arrangements can be made with minimal plant material. The plant materials chosen for this lesson were liriope and gerberas. Both are inexpensive and easy for children to cut. Gerberas are one of my favourite flowers for children’s classes as their soft stems are easily cut under water and they come in a variety of fun, bright colours.
For this lesson, I challenged my daughters to try and make an arrangement using items found in our kitchen. I have often had friends lament that while they would like their children to create ikebana arrangements, they don’t want to risk their precious vases being broken. As a result, to add to the challenge, I also asked my daughters to try and find something in our kitchen that could be used as a vase.
My eldest daughter chose some kitchen funnels and an empty Ramune bottle. Unlike the old-fashioned Ramune bottles, the plastic tops on modern day Ramune bottles screw off easily. For very young children, I would recommend removing the small glass marble inside the bottle.
My daughter set to work balancing the funnels on the bottle. She then intertwined the liriope leaves to help to stabilise the third funnel.
Once she was happy with the placement of the liriope she added a single flower. She placed the flower stem through a hole on the side of the funnel and used the tension created between the funnel and the flower to help maintain balance.
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