HYDERABAD: Flowers form an important part of decoration of the house and to make the art of flower decoration more lively, Ikebana, a Japanese art form is being widely practiced in the recent times. Instead of just putting multi-colours together in a vase, Ikebana also emphasises on other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, and draws emphasis toward shape, line, form. To make children acquainted with the art, Rekha Reddy, first master, Ohara Ikebana, hosted an exhibition where the children from the age group of 8-18 participated.
The annual exhibition which is held usually during Children’s Day was based on the theme games and toys this year. While a few decorations came with a social message like promoting the use of handlooms and discouraging keeping the birds in the cage, the others were in the shape of games like hopscotch. “The kids have used toys that were readily available at their home to make the decoration,” says Rekha.
“It was the love for flowers that has attracted me towards the art,” says Nandini Prasad from Chaitanya Vidyalaya. While people are inclined towards using cars and bikes for travelling, she made a bullock cart and arranged flowers over it. “80 per cent of Indian population comes from villages. Therefore, I wanted to represent them through my exhibit,” she says.
The flowers like birds-of-paradise were used in the exhibit. “I have used an open cage with bird over it and flowers inside it. The message I want to pass on is that as the flowers are allowed to grow freely, even the birds should have their own freedom,” she adds. What keeps the art closer to her hearty is the beauty of flower even when its dried.
Ishika Ranjan from Vidyaranya High School encouraged usage of handloom products. She used Bamboo sticks representing handloom machine and tied put tri-colour thread around it. The formation was such that it made an Indian Flag. “I have used bird-of-paradise and Orchids in my exhibit,” says Ishika.
Shloka Reddy came up with exhibit which reminded everyone of Kondapalli dolls. “I have used orange Heliconia as I like the colour of it,” she says. A Kuchipudi dancer, Shloka presented a theme song choreographed to represent her exhibit.
Rushda Babukhan from Nasr School made hopscotch using bamboo sticks, Gerbera and Anthuriums flowers in a bowl of water.
As kids are more interested in toys and games, the theme this year revolved around it. The kids attended a workshop conducted by Rekha before participating in the exhibition. “Having fasination towards flowers, I did not follow my degree but decided to pursue my passion of arranging flowers in different forms. I got trained under Meena Anantnarayan and later went to Japan to perfect the skill,” Rekha informs.