The New Year's Ikebana arrangement or festive arrangements often uses pine, a material that often renders an arrangement ceremonious. Pine itself refers to eternal youth and longevity, pine used alongside peony symbolize youth and prosperity, pine with bamboo signify prosperity and peace, pine chrysanthemum, orchid or lily stand for joy.
Shoka can be broadly classified into shin, gyo, and so styles. Differences among these styles reflect variations in character and natural growing forms among plants, space for displaying the arrangement and use of different containers as well.
Kenzan are a fairly straight forward tool, however we have some tips for dealing with tricky stems or an elaborate arrangement. Although kenzan perform the same function as floral foam (keeping stems and branches in place for an arrangement), they require a slightly different set of techniques. Once you familiarize yourself with these techniques, you will be surprised how easy it is to use this spiky little friend to position stems much more precisely than with floral foam and make...
