Wonderful to see so many of our members attend the ASTA meeting today. Possibly for two reasons, firstly Hiroko Prado was demonstrating ‘how to manipulate leaves’ – a favourite with many. Secondly I think we all miss the camaraderie of meeting up to chat and share ideas. Whichever it was we had fun trying our luck at some of the new techniques Hiroko showed us.

One skill that had several of us flummoxed while others found it quite easy was to French plait the fonds of a palm left. Not to be defeated with French plaiting and feeling they just did not have enough fingers to do this technique chose to intertwine, weave, twist, knot etc leaves or part of leaves. Not one arrangement looked like another, yet the topic was all about intertwining or rather manipulating leaves and soft branches.

Thank you Hiroko for a great workshop and giving us another idea to practice and add to our repertoire of skills.

Keep well and we all look forward to continuing practicing Sogetsu Ikebana