Lessons
You can start with a single lesson. No previous experience is needed, and you need bring nothing with you.
- Tuition
- One-to-one tuition in Shōka and Jiyūka
- Taster lesson
- 60 minutes, CHF 30Arranged to suit you
- Lesson
- 2 × 60 minutes, CHF 70
- Materials
- Bring your own if you likeOtherwise charged at cost, usually CHF 10 to 20 per lesson
- Times
- Thursday 6–8 pm
Friday 9.30–11.30 am
Saturday 10 am–noon and 1–3 pm - Where
- Gempenstrasse 13, 4104 Oberwil BL
- Next step
- Send an enquiry
The taster lesson
One hour, 60 minutes, CHF 30. There are no fixed times for it. We arrange a slot that suits you.
You work on an arrangement of your own and take it home. Over the following days it changes, and you watch it happen. That part cannot be shown in a lesson.
How a lesson works
A lesson lasts two hours of 60 minutes each and costs CHF 70.
We begin with the material and look at it together before anything is cut. Then you work. I sit beside you, say little and rarely intervene.
When several people are given the same flowers and the same task, the results are usually quite different. Character shows in an arrangement.
After about three lessons most people notice something in a plant that they would have walked past before.
What to bring
I can provide tools, a vessel and plant material. Material is charged separately, usually CHF 10 to 20 per lesson.
It is better if you bring your own. Choosing what to carry along means you have already begun to look before the lesson starts. A branch from your own garden brings more questions into the room than one I have picked out.
What you learn
Shōka is the slimmer of the two classical forms. It uses no more than three kinds of plant material and puts the emphasis on naturalness and on the character of the individual plant. It rests on three main lines named shin, soe and tai. It is a set of rules, and once you command them you may depart from them. Freedom grows out of discipline.
Jiyūka is the free form, with no fixed structure and no restriction on material. Here your intention and your handling of it decide.
Shōka comes in a traditional and a newer version: shōfutai and shimputai. Which one you begin with we decide after the first lesson.
Going further
If you have practised ikebana before, you do not have to start again from the beginning. Tell me in your enquiry where you have got to. We will work it out together in the first lesson.
Languages
Lessons are held in English, German or French. Tell me in your enquiry which comes most easily to you.
Send an enquiry
I usually reply within five days.