Lines in ikebana arrangements gladiolus and reed lines by Ekaterina Seehaus Sogetsu school of ikebana. ikebanaweb.com

3 Main Elements of Ikebana Flower Arrangements: #1 Lines

In a recent post we introduced the three main elements of Ikebana arrangements: mass, color and line. Traditionally they are all equally important. Well, let me use the words of Gorge Orwell “we are all equal but some are more equal than others” to express my bias towards lines. Of course it is all about the overall harmony and balance but we do have our preferences. You guessed it right: lines in ikebana arrangements are my favorite element.

3 examples of different usages of lines in Ikebana. Sogetsu school. IkebanaWeb.com
Just a few examples: combination of straight lines with curved, building a structure of crossed lines, using leaf surfaces as lines.

I find it interesting how the use of lines completely changes the character of your arrangement. It can make your arrangement static if you use horizontal or vertical lines or can add dramatic movement with diagonal or curved lines. You can imagine all the possibilities!

Ikebana Sogetsu curved branch in a curved container emphasizing the movement.
Single curved branch in a curved container emphasizes the movement.

Even a single strong line in an arrangement makes it into a statement piece, into something, thath catches attention and looks quite different from what you typically see in florists’ shops. With bold lines and a minimal number of flowers you can create arrangements, that will have a dramatic impact on the space where they are displayed.

There are plenty of different types of lines you can use in your arrangements: natural curves of branches, straight lines of reed and bamboo, peculiarly curled stems of flowers just to name a few. And if you add the lines made of artificial materials such as colorful cocktail straws, electrical wires (those could get pretty colorful as well), thin metal pipes … the possibilities are endless. You can combine straight and curved lines, add different texture, create a modern look and test the limits of your creativity.

Sogetsu Ikebana Diagonal Lines with 2 moribana containers IkebenaWeb.com
Bundling several reed stems together for a stronger impression. Containers leaned against each other to emphasize the movement.

Just start experimenting. If your material is really thin such as straw or reed, you can put several pieces together or even tie them together to make a stronger impression like in the above photo. Another trick is using color to make your lines look more pronounced. In the first image of this post there are 2 reed stems, which are painted red. This gives them more visual “weight” and prevents the flowers from overpowering the thin pale reed stems.

Hope this post gave you some new ideas coming from the ancient Japanese art of Ikebana and inspired you to try expressing your creativity through arranging flowers in some new ways. If you make any pictures of your arrangements feel free to e-mail them to me Ekaterina@IkebanaWeb.com. It would be interesting to share those in the future posts.

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Here is another free report for our subscribers Essential Japanese Vocabulary for Ikebana. It is downloadable as PDF document.

Don’t want to miss the next post? Sign up for e-mail updates from IkebanaWEB.com and we will e-mail you a free report “How to keep your flowers fresh, longer”. This report covers many ikebana techniques for prolonging life of your arrangements through different treatments of stems.

17 thoughts on “3 Main Elements of Ikebana Flower Arrangements: #1 Lines

  1. I thank you for a lot of important info for me. And i am satisfied studying your article. The web site taste is wonderful, the articles is truly nice : D. Good process, cheers

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  3. Congratulations on your ikebana site! Thank you for doing this work.

    I also received your article about different ways to keep flowers fresh. Very nice tips and illustrations. I have another tip: to keep tulips fresh you could pierce a little hole just under the flower with a needle. May be you could add it to your list?

  4. Hi, great post!

    I also liked your ikebana pictures – gives a lot of ideas to try. Are those your arrangements?

    And the vases are so different.

    I’ll experiment with lines and will send you pictures.

    K.K.

    1. Thanks Kathryn. All the ikebana compositions and photography on this website are mine unless specified otherwise. I am glad you liked it.

      Look forward to receiving pictures of your arrangements!

  5. Hello Ikebana Web, i’m for the first timе here. I ϲame across this blog and I find It
    really usеful.

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