Ikebana floral arrangements- a minimalistic sustainable approach

I love the flowers in my garden! I enjoy watching them grow and display themselves. Each flower seems to have a unique personality, the way a stem may twist on one zinnia while staying straight and erect with no bends on another dahlia. I find myself cutting each of them in a particular way, and then taking them inside arranging them in a way that translates harmony, peace, joy, and love to me. When I feel all these things as I am arranging I stop my process- but that’s not an absolute rule I follow. I just go with what flows for me in that moment.

Arranging flowers does not just start and end with the arrangement. From the flower seed I placed in the ground a time before, to the vase chosen that I threw on the pottery wheel, and to the intuitive process of arranging, it is a place of spiritual connection.

I recently found and article about Ikebana, a Japanese art of minimalistic floral design. I immediately connected with it because many of the elements of the approach was similar to my own approach and I couldn’t help but notice that the results were surprisingly similar.

My minimalistic approach, and being connected to each part of the process, allowing it to be intuitive, can allow that each design come full circle, to its completion- for me. This is my sustainable experience of floral design.