Basic Design "At Home With Flowers"

Oriental Designs

Buddhists created the very first style to symbolize paradise - beautiful, but simple.

The basic style - the beginning, was called Rikka design and there were at one time seven branches of the Rikka style.  Now, there are only three, because everything became so strict that there was no room for a person's own expression.

The Rikka style of Ikebana is strict and demands the highest degree of technical skill.  The three most basic and popular styles are:

1. Nagiere - slanting and hanging
2. Moribana - piled flowers - free style
3. Ohara  shallow containers and free placement of branches

There are those who stay with the more traditional style yet others who combine styles.

Moribana is much like our designs and can even be so abstract as to not use any plant material at all.

Two basic approaches to Ikebana are:

1. Objective approach - never violates the laws of natural growth
2. Subjective - expressionistic or free style

The most basic principle is Balance

• symmetrical
• asymmetrical - dynamic
• Radial - everything comes from a central point of emergence

Unity and variety are achieved by

1. Using restraint in the number of materials used (one, two or three materials).
2. The design is balanced.
3. All the material in the design is unified.
4. The container, surroundings, background and presentation are all part of the design and play a role.

Nature will be the stimulating factor, as flower heads will smile at the sun and not the person looking at it.