Long time no see friends! Sorry for the delay in posting. Between visiting home for Christmas and preparing the end of the Japanese school year I have quite busy. Never fear though as I have continued taking ikebana lessons and I will continue to share them will you.
In this arrangement, I had a difficult time figuring out what to do with the long sweeping branches. I tried to create sort of a circular wind-blown shape. I am still afraid of stripping branches like these of their leaves. I am always worried I will make an irreversible mistake. So this time I left the branches as they were.
This week lesson taught me how not to be afraid of stripping leaves from branches. Sensei taught me how to create and utilize negative space in arrangments. For longer, fuller branches I shouldn’t be afraid to strip the middle sections of leaves. When I leave the branches as they are they draw the eye away from the pink roses that are meant to catch your eye. It gets in the way of the roses instead of balancing the arrangements. It’s like they are fighting each other to be seen. So the lesson of the week is: Less is more.
Holm is this Way 
Love the arrangement!
Less is more can be applied to a lot of things in life. What a nice way to learn that.