My Attempt at Ikebana

I have made a go at a new hobby..Ikebana. Ikebana is a Japanese art of flower arranging. I forget the name of the school of thought I am learning, but it is a lot of fun. There is a formula to the design which includes lots of angles, triangles and measurements. It is right up my alley.

For my first class (I go twice a month with my friend Sara), I had not purchased my bowl yet, so I had to use a mixing bowl from the kitchen. The flowers were pretty, but I knew I had to get my bowl.

This is my New Year's Arrangement. The New Year holiday is very important here in Japan. Jan 1-3 is a holiday from work. Everyone goes to the temple at sunrise on New Year's Day to pray and ring the temple bell 108 times. My flower arrangement has 5 yellow round flowers which symbolize the rays of sunshine. Sorry you can't see them all, the flowers are now in the entry hallway so that they do not die from the heaters in the house, so there wasn't enough room to stand back far enough to capture all of it. It is fun to greet our guests with the pretty flowers right by the door.

This is a close up of some of the flowers. I do not know their name, but I thought they were interesting looking.