As I perused Ikebana International, San Francisco Chapter’s recent Ikebana Exhibition, I tried to guess the schools to which the different compositions belonged. I can’t say I had much success, but I had fun looking for patterns among the displays. Tuesday I posted photos of Sogetsu ikebana – below are images Ikenobo, Ohara, Aratame, Wafu, […]
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Ikebana International – San Francisco Exhibition 2013
Maybe ten or fifteen years ago, I happened upon my first ikebana exhibit. I was surprised by how intrigued I was by the displays. Long familiar with flower arrangements, I had no idea how evocative and beautiful the displays could be. Due to a combination of poor timing and ignorance about the ikebana scene, I’ve […]
Developing young pines
Last week I wrote about starting trees along a path that would yield either large, medium or small bonsai (see “Wiring 3 year-old black pines“). I have a number of black pines that are now turning nine years old. Based on the curves in the trunk, I’m now deciding if the trees will make better […]
Pine cutback basics
For as much as I’ve written about pine care, I haven’t said much about cutback. Cutback can be tricky as there are many reasons to remove or not remove branches in given situations. Different teachers approach the topic differently, and often multiple approaches can yield good results. Ignoring any complexity for the time being, I’ll […]
Wiring 3 year-old black pines
Once black pine seedlings have developed a bit of a trunk, typically after two or three years, it’s time to start wiring. Following Daisaku Nomoto’s advice that young seedlings should develop slowly, I skipped repotting and wired the trees in their current 3″ pots. First I stripped away the lower needles to facilitate wiring, then […]