January 31st, 2010 by Keith

The new year brought a new challenge for me, and that challenge was leading my very first workshop. Earlier last year I had attended the 8th North American Sogetsu Seminar and took part in several workshops. One of the workshops was “Hana Dome” or “flower fixture”, and I was asked to teach that for the January workshop for the Washington,DC Sogetsu Ikebana chapter. Basically Hana Dome is a method of fixing branch material together, using either wire or nails, to make a fixture that will hold flowers and greens in place without the use of a kenzan.

I first demonstrated Hana Dome made from curly willow branches, and secured it with wire. Using the willow I chose to make a more organic form, something that I think the willow lends itself to. I placed the fixture in a ceramic container and added white calla lilies and a monstera leaf. You can use the ends of the wire as an interesting focal point by covering them with material such as the red hypericum berries pictured below, or simply bend the wires to blend with the fixture.

In part two I will talk more about the process of wiring branches together, and show another example from my demonstration.