January 2026 - Ohara Freestyle

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December Workshop: Multi-School Forms (SOGETSU / ICHIYO)

Our December meeting featured a delicious and festive potluck, followed by a hands-on workshop focused on creating seasonal arrangements with lights.

Leslie Rosinski, a Sogetsu School instructor, demonstrated how to create Compote and Nageire arrangements using fairy lights. 

Liz Larwa, a Junior Master in the Ichiyo School, then taught us how to design a snow globe–inspired arrangement using low flowers and fairy lights.

November Workshop:  IKENOBO - Freestyle Morimono

For our November workshop, Pat Langs, our teacher from the Ikenobo School, taught a lesson on creating an autumn themed Free Style Morimono. 

Morimono is a type of ikebana that uses fruits, vegetables, roots and leaves as part of the overall arrangement.

Congratulations to I.I. Chapters Ann Arbor #183 and Detroit #85

Youmacon is a large annual anime, gaming, and Japanese pop culture convention over the Halloween weekend at the Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan, one of the largest in the Midwest.

With a grant from the Iwaya Fund, our members held an exhibition,  presented ikebana demonstrations and a hands-on workshop, sharing the beauty and harmony of ikebana with Youmacon’s vibrant community.  

It was a great opportunity for I.I. members to share the art of Japanese flower arranging with a younger, anime-loving audience, showing how traditional Japanese culture connects with modern creativity. Isn’t that a lovely booth?

October Workshop:  SOGETSU - Horizontal Style Moribana

Leslie Rosinski, from the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, taught a workshop on how to create a horizontal moribana arrangement suitable as a decorative on a table at home.  

This form finishes the entire composition in a low profile so that people at the table can see each other easily.

September Workshop:  ICHIYO - Contrasting Form

Terre Voegeli, from the Ichiyo School of Ikebana, taught a workshop on how to create a Group Contrast Form. An interesting arrangement that combines three groups of material: 

• straight line
• curving line
• and massed flowers. 

This form does not use single stems or flowers, but combines them into groups for impact, showing how three different materials with separate characteristics and shapes can harmonize beautifully in an arrangement.

August Workshop:  ICHIYO - Summer Basket Ikebana

For our August workshop, Miwa Kameyama, an instructor in the Ichiyo School of Ikebana, taught a workshop on creating flower basket arrangements (Hanakago). These arrangements invite a freer more natural expression. They are light in both form and expression and perfect for summer displays

June In-House Exhibition for Members:   

Our first annual in-house exhibition, held June 19, was a great success! Thank you to all the members who contributed arrangements and to those who worked to make this event happen.

May Workshop: IKENOBO - JIYUKA (FREESTYLE)

Our May program was taught by Ikenobo sensei Cheryl Linck. Ikenobo, the oldest Ikebana school, has expanded into modern forms. Cheryl guided us in creating one of these as a Jiyuka(freestyle) form.  This modern Ikenobo style is based on Shoka Shimputai principles (a form with two main branch elements representing Yin and Yang and a third helper). Following the more relaxed Shoka Shimputai freestyle guidelines, beautiful Ikebana forms were created using three complementary materials - a star, co-star and supporting actor

February Workshop: 

IKENOBO: Freestyle (Jiyuka) With Spring Materials

As we begin our exit of the winter months, Pat Lang, our Ikenobo teacher from the Detroit chapter, led the February workshop with a Jiyuka or freestyle form using Spring materials.

Ikenobo is the earliest style of Ikebana and its first school, laying the foundation for all other ikenobo schools.

The focus of this freestyle Ikenobo upright arrangement are line, surface, mass and dots to create an emotive character between the vase and the floral materials. 

The form is further enhanced through the use of negative space and odd numbers of materials