Lights!

Great lighting ideas seen during my travels.

Hotel ceiling has fringe.

Birch, burlap and crystals.

Wholesale house.

LAX terminal bar.

A "fun" chandelier hangs over the sweetheart table.

Ariella Chezar Workshop on Maui Feb. 23 - 25, 2016

I have been a fan of Ariella Chezar's work for quite sometime.  I think she was living in California at the time that I "discovered" her beautiful creations and attending one of her workshops has been on my bucket list for some time.  So I am very pleased to share photos of my recent experience on Maui.

Day one begins under the giant mango tree with white crown flower leis.  Some of the ladies began telling their floral stories.

More ladies.

After our introductions, we walked to our work space.  This incredible site is where we got to do our designing for three days!

The Haiku Mill is a an old sugar mill which has been restored to incredible beauty.  It's hard to take a bad photograph here.

Some of the gorgeous flowers and foliages that we used for our workshop.

Our first project was a "small" arrangement in a footed container.

Ariella demonstrating her technique.

We broke for lunch which was a feast for the eyes too.

Super healthy!

Day 2 began with a demonstration of a "medium" size arrangement in a cut glass compote.

Ariella's finished arrangement.

Sachi's finished arrangement.

After lunch we began work on wedding bouquets.  These are Ariella's choices for her "pink" bouquet.  We had a choice of pink or yellow flowers to work with.

Ariella beginning her demo on a hand-tied bouquet.

The class working on their pink bouquets...

...and yellow bouquets.

The amazing Jose Villa shooting our bouquets with professional models in beautiful gowns.

Day three and final day began with a demo on designing in a large urn.

My finished urn.

After we finished our urns, we began  to prepare for the final night dinner.  Ariella explained her inspiration for the entire final night "look."

Her inspiration came from this gorgeous wallpaper.  Photo by Ariella.

Jason Murakawa of Small Masterpiece set the most beautiful tables for us.

Our chairs had name cards with the wallpaper design and were decorated with Lantern Ilima and fern.

Our final night group shot.  It was a pleasure to have experienced this magical time with these ladies.

Sogetsu exhibit the "Art of Flowers...NOW" at Neiman Marcus Honolulu

The Sogetsu Ikebana Exhibition with Linda Hamasaki, Sensei and students was held on March 11 - 13, 2016 at the Honolulu Neiman Marcus store.

Dorothy Nitta and Barbara Masumoto worked together to create this lovely flowing creation.

Side view

Back view

Gail Atwater and Jan Tucker

Debbi Barrett Holt (Front)

Debbi Holt (Back)

Marlene Tom

Linda Hamasaki

Priscilla Growney

Joyce Tomonari

Closeup of Joyce's piece.

Joyce Tomonari cut the leaf part off and just left the veins.

Close up

Linda Hamasaki

Close up

Priscilla Growney, Leila Diamond, Erin Choy, Tracie Iha, Joanne Chang, Zsuzsa Rastegar, Liliko Sakima collaboration.  Influences by Per Benjamin.

Tina Semenza and Bertie Lee

Linda Hamasaki