In spite of the cold wintery weather 27 members of the Chapter and 3 visitors attended the Saturday afternoon workshop on 13th July. The leader of the workshop was Chieko Yazaki, the head of the Shogetsudokoryu School in Melbourne. The theme she chose was arrangements using Aspidistra leaves. These leaves are the traditional material used in classical Seika arrangements which are the signature style of the Shogetsudokoryu School. Chieko demonstrated the basic Seika style with five leaves and explained the names of each leaf and its symbolic significance. In the previously prepared Seika with seven leaves, shown above, Cheiko had added a small number of burnt orange chrysanthemums. When flowers are added they must be very subtle as the leaves are more important. She also pointed out that a dying leaf in this Seika is used to express the season and although leaves in this case were not perfect the arrangement was still graceful. Chieko then went on to demonstrate a number of techniques to manipulate the leaves for use in modern ikebana styles. In this case she showed how to partially shred leaves to create elegant lines. Here is her completed arrangement Her next demonstration showed how to create wavy lines in the leaves... ...using wire attached with tape on the back of the leaves. This example and the next one are using this technique. In this example the amber coloured leaves have been allowed to dry naturally over a couple of months. Another technique demonstrated was the use of scissors to change the shape of the leaves as shown in the example above. The following photos are of ikebana created on the day of the workshop. As usual, in their exploration of this material, the members created a great variety of ikebana. The editor regrets that the names of the individual ikebanists were not recorded.