About the service
I build ikebana arrangements for living rooms, offices and small halls - not a bunch of flowers stuffed into a vase, but a composition that holds its shape and lives beside you for weeks. Three lines carry it: a tall one sets the direction and the sense of growth, a middle one answers that movement, and a low one anchors everything to the vessel. The emptiness between them does as much work as the branches themselves; air around each line lets the eye rest and makes a small room feel wider. That is why a good arrangement is rarely dense, and why it uses far less material than most people expect.
I start with the place, not with the flowers. I come and look, or ask for photographs of the corner where the piece will stand, and study the light, the background and the eye level. The vessel follows from that: a low wide dish for a coffee table, a narrow neck for a windowsill, deep stoneware for a niche that is seen from below. In a shallow dish the stems sit on a kenzan, a metal pin holder; I cut each stem at a slant and set it at the angle the line needs, sometimes with a hidden brace, so the branch does not straighten out overnight. In a tall vessel a small cross of twigs does the same job.
Material is seasonal and lawfully sourced - garden cuttings, market flowers and greenery, branches from my own pruning. Nothing from protected or red-listed species, nothing torn out of a forest. Spring brings flowering branches and the first green, summer gives grasses and garden blooms, autumn seed heads, fruit and coloured leaves, winter dried stems, cones, bare wood with a good curve. Stems are cut under water so that no air enters the channel, and I show you how to top the water up and when to change it.
What is included:
— a visit, measuring the spot and choosing the vessel for its light and background;
— buying the material and assembling the composition on site;
— fixing the lines on a kenzan, slant cuts made under water;
— a short care note for the days between visits;
— a subscription: a new arrangement every week or every two weeks, with the vessel stripped, washed and refilled with fresh seasonal material.
Timing: a single arrangement takes two to four hours on site and can be done the same day as the shopping. On a subscription I come on the same weekday each time, so the room never has a tired composition standing in it.
I start with the place, not with the flowers. I come and look, or ask for photographs of the corner where the piece will stand, and study the light, the background and the eye level. The vessel follows from that: a low wide dish for a coffee table, a narrow neck for a windowsill, deep stoneware for a niche that is seen from below. In a shallow dish the stems sit on a kenzan, a metal pin holder; I cut each stem at a slant and set it at the angle the line needs, sometimes with a hidden brace, so the branch does not straighten out overnight. In a tall vessel a small cross of twigs does the same job.
Material is seasonal and lawfully sourced - garden cuttings, market flowers and greenery, branches from my own pruning. Nothing from protected or red-listed species, nothing torn out of a forest. Spring brings flowering branches and the first green, summer gives grasses and garden blooms, autumn seed heads, fruit and coloured leaves, winter dried stems, cones, bare wood with a good curve. Stems are cut under water so that no air enters the channel, and I show you how to top the water up and when to change it.
What is included:
— a visit, measuring the spot and choosing the vessel for its light and background;
— buying the material and assembling the composition on site;
— fixing the lines on a kenzan, slant cuts made under water;
— a short care note for the days between visits;
— a subscription: a new arrangement every week or every two weeks, with the vessel stripped, washed and refilled with fresh seasonal material.
Timing: a single arrangement takes two to four hours on site and can be done the same day as the shopping. On a subscription I come on the same weekday each time, so the room never has a tired composition standing in it.
