Workshops with Mr. Tetsunori Kawana
- Posted: 27 June 2009 (Permalink)
Written by Margaret Hall
Mr. Kawana visited us in Sydney after a very spectacular instillation and demonstration in Melbourne, celebrating 50 years of Sogetsu Ikebana in Australia. After Melbourne he held a demonstration in Canberra at the Japanese Embassy.
Four workshops were conducted in Sydney on 22nd and 23rd May 2009 held at the Canada Bay Club.
The first session’s subject was Intertwining materials, book 3, lesson 16. We struggled, some of us producing more surface and line than intertwining in 3D, taking care not to be too “crafty”.
The afternoon session was To be viewed from all angles. Mr.Kawana encouraged us, exhorting us to respect the living material with which we work – not to desecrate it with the hasami – not to cut the life out of the material. He urged us not to cut a line short – but if it needs to stop then to tear it naturally, not to cut it dead.
On Saturday morning, the subject was Disassembling and re-arranging the material. Mr.Kawana felt most of did not go far enough with the disassembling of the material – reducing it to its basic element. Then we had to re-arrange the separate elements in a totally new way. It was a very revealing lesson – we learnt new things about our material.
The last session was To be viewed from above, book 4 lesson 15. This subject produced some imaginative free style arrangements and Mr. Kawana was most complimentary.
