Bamboo Revisited: Trial and Error

I was looking forward to this bamboo lesson. How shouldn't I? I have seen incredible, sculptural, over-sized Ikebana arrangements from Sogetsu School using bamboo in amazing ways lately and I was more than ready to get some hands-on experience. You can see a few examples here showing the masters' work.

One of the end results of my trials and errors can be seen in the picture. The bamboo I used was a little bit drier than ideal so I couldn't get the curves I really wanted and had to content myself with what I could achieve.

I put two photos below to show you the hand tools we use to cut and separate the bamboo.

In addition to my struggle with bamboo, the beautiful flowers of ginger I happened to choose for this week was proved to be a difficult one to use. Anyhow, I am content with the process and the arrangement. 

For other bamboo arrangements you can check this earlier post and this one from 2013.

Bamboo cutting tool and hasami

Bamboo cutting tools