How to spend a rainy day?

How to spend a rainy day? Addis Abeba is known for having a lot of rains. This year the rain season started really early, already in April. If you add quarantine to the rainy season it becomes a challenging affair! So, what do you do if you cannot go out and it is a Sunday? If you have access to internett, it is simple! You give a ikebana lesson to your dear friend!

First we had to choose the materials. In order to choose flowers and branches, you need to know what kind of vase you have. Vases and plants have to be in harmony. Sara had a choice of red gerbera, violet or white chrysanthemum. Since the branches she had were light green, and the vase was a combination of white with tiny red dots, the white chrysanthemum was the best choice. And the color of the middle part of chrysanthemum turned out to be the same as the color of the leaves. As a final touch, baby breath was added to give the arrangement a light, spring feeling.

The arrangement is inspired by variation 4 (Sogetsu school). This variation consists of two elements, a branch, shin, representing heaven, and flowers, hikae, representing earth. In this arrangement the third branch, soe, representing a human is not present. The philosophical message from this arrangement is that the nature can easily exist without us, humans.

Notice how the arrangement changes according to the background! Which one do you like best?

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning!

If you want to learn more about ikebana, you are just a click away! You can buy online version of my book Ikebana – the way of flowers here.

Ikebana – the way of flowers is an introductory book about the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement.