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The Art of Ikebana: Try this clean, simple style of floral design at home

Love floral design? It’s time to try the art of Ikebana.

Move your floral styling to the next level by trying a Japanese style of floral design called Ikebana. This method really captures the eye. It is meant to reflect nature, harmony, peace and beauty. The design formula is easy to achieve and fun to play with!

Ashleigh Rose shares the concept of Ikebana.

Find more ideas from Ashleigh on Instagram, @monalisafair.


 

Try Out the Art of Ikebana

My favorite thing is to bring home a bouquet of fresh flowers from my neighborhood florist or the weekend farmers market. It’s great to quickly throw them into a vase, but why not elevate things using simple techniques from the Japanese artform of flower arranging, Ikebana.

Almost any mixed bouquet you buy will have enough elements in it to make an Ikebana arrangement they can be ornate or quite simple.

One tool is universally used in this Japanese art form and that is the floral pin holder, or as it’s commonly known, a pin frog or flower frog.

Floral Genius, the only US manufacturer of metal pin holders and pin cup flower frogs. The business is owned and operated by sisters, Stephanie Duncan and Jessica Hall. The sisters also own and operate, Harmony Harvest Farm with their mother, a flower farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that ships bouquets and bulk flowers nationwide. The flower frogs are made right there on the flower farm! This tool is essential for Ikebana.

The reason you need a flower frog:

  • These tools allow you to perfectly place your stems at precise angles as many times as you’d like — unlike floral foam that will leave holes if you remove the stems to reposition them.
  • Flower frogs allow stems to stand straight upward rather than falling to the edge of a vessel.
  • You can also remove stems for a trim allowing them better uptake of water extending the life of your flowers!

True Ikebana has many different sub disciplines that follow strict rules but we can simplify making art with our flowers when we stop and look at the shapes they make and try to accentuate each of those to bring balance to our arrangement.

We want to have our tallest stem in the middle that represents heaven. One stem or grouping of stems midway in our arrangement that represent earth, and lastly the lowest stem in our arrangement representing human.

Source: Mai-ko.com

We’ll place our longest stem in the middle just 10° to our left.

The next stem a little bit further out on the left closer to 40° and lastly our shortest stem that represents human off to the right side dramatically at 70°.

After you get these three flowers placed you can take your pieces of greenery and filler flowers and add them in for a more full looking design, while keeping the focus on those three main spots. Or simply break up your bouquet and place a three stemmed arrangement in as many rooms as you can!

Grab a flower frog and use your creativity to design something beautiful and unique practicing Ikebana next time you bring home fresh flowers!


Ashleigh Rose began working with flowers in the back of her grandmother’s flower shop on Main Street in Bountiful, Utah. Under her grandmother’s tutelage, she learned how to design flowers, forage for natural elements in the outdoors and care for cut flowers plus how to make anything beautiful. Ashleigh is a painter, sculptor, photographer, mother, best wife ever and last but not least — an evangelist of flowers! She wants to share her knowledge and help others appreciate the divine creations that are flowers. Find Ashley at @monalisafair on Instagram.

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