Mass Line

The goal of this mornings lesson is: for mass to emphasize line and line to emphasize mass. One way I look at this statement is to think about both the line and the mass to have equal weight (value) – by which I mean that when you look at the pieced at a first glance your eye does not know where to look first, the mass or the line.

Mass is a large group of flowers or materials grouped together to make a large group. Mass is often very dense, in some sense this is the exception to the rule of less is more. Here more is the goal.

Mass can be used to make a form. An oval, a dome, or another form perhaps organic in nature. With mass it can sometimes be difficult to know where the edge of it is. The nature of the materials we use tend not to create a clean edge.

One way of using line to emphasize the mass is to use one line around to provide a border (boundary, bounding box) for the mass form.

Another way is to have a line come out of the mass.

Critique lessons learned (Mass/ line):

• Do Not create circles, squares or triangles with your line. These shapes lend themselves to being flat and taking away one of the principles of Ikebana the use of depth to make a 3 dimensional sculpture.
• Avoid having the mass become a part of the line. Or using the mass to make a line.
• In this lesson, be careful not to show the flat surface of a leaf, because that leaf can add a flat plane into the design.
• If you are having a line outside of the mass and not using it to define the mass, you need to be careful to have the line go through the mass, not on the edge or to the side, etc.
• The tips of branches creates a very good point and cutting that point is to be avoided.
• Some branches are think and when you cut a branch off you can leave a flat cut surface, try to avoid having this surface facing the viewer.