Ignite: The Art of Japanese Floral Design

Margaret Oldham met me at the National Gallery in Ottawa, we went for a bite to eat and then to the opening night of Ignite, the four day Ikebana show highlighting the art of Japanese floral design.

The Canadian Museum of Nature was the venue. Large flower arrangements were on the ground floor and in the gallery, around the edges were the smaller arrangments.

Margaret has the advantage on me, having taken some classes in this art. She has the eye for the design -- no flower at the same level, groups of 3's and 5's, etc.

I only love flowers, think they are exquisite when they are on a dining room table and want to arrange them for that purpose when I see them growing in the wild or in my own garden. I was looking closely, wondering where to buy the vases, the frogs, the clippers, and the wire.

Hard not to see something like this and want to get your hands right in it. The most innovative use of materials was the woman who went to Lee Valley Tools and bought the product that you put in your garden to kill slugs. They try to crawl through it, get trapped and die. You can imagine what it looks like if you imagine stretching a Brillo pad out to its longest form.

Many of the flower arrangements were done in the stumps of logs. I am going out to collect a few of those when I am in B.C. this spring.

Arta