Ikebana Lesson #3 Basic Slanting

So this one is similar to the Basic Upright but there are some marked differences...

First off, the frog goes in the back right corner to adjust for the slanting of the flowers across the vase. There is no seasonal change on this one at all. On the frog itself the heaven, earth and mankind are on the front and right leaving only the back left quadrant as negative space.

The heaven is placed left shoulder forward by 45 degrees instead of 20 degrees, and the earth is placed at right shoulder back (which is the first time we have seen any go towards the back) at 20 degrees. Lastly, mankind is place right shoulder forward but at 60 degrees.

In the case of slanting arrangements, using a shallow walled container (suiban) is recommended since these arrangements are much wider but less upright than the previous ones.

The length of heaven (and hence all the other elements in comparison) is shorter. Instead of using the width of the suiban plus depth times 2, you are using the width of the suiban plus depth times 1.5.

In this arrangement, we used dark purple Chinese bellflower, peacock flower (aka aster) and pink peonies.

Unexpectedly, we used the asters as the main heaven, earth and mankind, with the peonies as the supplement and the bellflowers as filler.

I really liked the final arrangement...you can't see the bellflowers very well in here but they really did all compliment each other quite nicely.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Really, Who Gives a F*ck?"