Updates Again

Well.....last night was quite the productive evening, and morning, since I did not get to sleep until 4am.

I trimmed 3 balls and have enough ribbons to finish only one, maybe two more.  When I finish the batch I will be blasting my pictures everywhere. 

Speaking of pictures, the other half of my night was spent editing original photos with new watermarks to erase the old Kanzashi Temple name and move to LilyAshes Emporium.  It should have been more of a priority, but at least it's done.  I am only missing two picture sets, which I am just going to reshoot on Tuesday night when my photographer comes. 

I am also bringing the teapot back as an integral part of referencing how big the kanzashi is.  I also looked over some older ones I had made, and need to remake.  They had come out quite well. 

One last bit of news, I have a major project coming up.  I've been invited to join several other artisans from around the world to contribute to a new kanzashi techniques tutorial book. I was beyond flattered and am really excited about the prospect.  Especially since I have that rose kanzashi tutorial almost completed.   It will be a lot of work, and a lot of photos and editing, but it will be well worth it to be ranked among some of the top kanzashi artisans like Arleen from Wisteria Gardens and Hana-Sakuri and EruwaedhielElleth and many others.  Plus something this big I could never finish on my own.  I don't know if any of the artisans could.  We are too busy creating!

So the sequence goes, get paid on wednesday, get ribbons on wednesday, finish ornaments.  By then my custom order fabric comes in and I have THAT piece to make.  Then I am probably going full into this book thing and not surfacing until november when Christmas season begins.  

I think that is all for now.  I also have some news, my sister is moving back from australia to America, and only 4.5 hours away.  We are talking about starting a business, selecting fabrics, making stuff like fake obi belts and such (she is much better at machine sewing than I am for certain), and opening a different shop on Etsy, depending on what we make.  Then I could sell the scraps, or use them for ornaments or somehting like that. I have always wanted to do more with the shop, but the past few years have been difficult.  With my kids and my health and everything going on, it's just hard to keep up most days.  But next year my son will go to school full time and we will probably quit several of the things he does now.  It will definitely open up my availibility to work and expand my product.  

Growing

Ok so as you can see I am up to 10 ornaments that need trimming.  And I still have a few more in mind while i am held up in bed. I had to spend the ribbon money on a chirimen order this month instead to fulfill a custom order.  I should be back on my feet by the time it arrives. But ornaments will just have to wait.

The last photo shoot i did did NOT come out, so I'm holding a reshoot next week. This time we will make sure we get all the pieces as well.  Look for those hopefully late next week!

I still have 6 finished ornaments to shoot too.

So much to do still, but i can't do much in the way of anything new till i either have my chirimen in hand or October arrives so i can purchase trimming for 10 ornaments.

And I'm running low on my precut fabrics supply.  Which means lots of ironing, starching, and rotary cutting. At least for ornament fabrics. I need to cut lots of chirimen, too, especially when the new order arrives next week.  Ice blue, 2 kinds of pink, wisteria, gold flecked red and gold flecked on black, and more wine red. I had some precut wine pieces, but not enough to do a piece. And i want to remake the lavender and light blue and white "sister kanzashi" I made forever ago. Then probably another couple of lighter colored thyroid cancer awareness pieces in pastels.

And when I finish ALL that it will probably be Christmas.  Lol!  But I still have that silk and nori paste to work with if I finally finish everything I have planned in my head. Which will definitely take a while....

Out of Surgery. ...

Well, surgery went ok. A few surprises, but nothing alarming.
Meanwhile I am stuck in bed and working ornaments.  I finished pinning this one today, and started the third color pattern in this set. After I wrap up that one I have the pink lady to remake once more, since I just gave it to a friend as a gift. And she totally deserved it ;)
After THAT I have set aside another 2 color patterns to do, just in case I finish quickly.  Since my calluses have come back, the work has been going much faster. But I still don't have enough ribbon to cover all the balls I have finished. And i don't have the spending cash to spare with everything else going on lately. Just not this month.
And sadly to say, the photo shoot did not come out.  The pictures are incredibly dark almost like a night shot, even though we had 2 photography lamps and an overhead light. But since we only shot half the pieces, we were going to have to have another session anyway. Which will give time to find a better backdrop, because the yellow in the wall is showing through the fabric and i think that's why I hate most of my own photos. The backdrop always looks dingy and off colored.

Going To Be Out For A While, Again

I've been planning this for several months, but I have an upcoming surgery that I cannot miss.  Therefore I am leaving the shop open, but holding shipping date to 9/24, which is several days after the surgery.  I should be recovered enough by then to head out to the post office, or at least pack items for my husband to drop off.

I haven't had time to do much work other than the stuff I have posted.  So no news there.

Hopefully that will change while I convalesce.

Two More Ornaments.....Ok, Maybe Three

I finished the blue one and realized I need more ribbons than I have to finish off my pieces.  That shopping trip will have to wait a while as I am under a lot of pressure from medical bills.  Just have to budget for it, and with the expense of a brick of pins and other odds and ends, I have blown it for this month.

I still have plenty of materials, and plan on a variety of the bottom one, a pink, aqua, and lavender piece for Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. Seeing as all this goes to someone with thyroid cancer, the color scheme seemed fitting. I might have enough ribbon to wrap that one, but several others are just going to have to wait. I will use up what I can, and then just have to go back to kanzashi. What will I ever do? LOL!

Also I still haven't cut the silk yet, so that is still to come as well.

UPDATES

The picture didn;t come out so well, but you really make out the colors.  Pink with ume, Red with ume, and Orange with gold chinese lions and clouds.  The red I didn;t realize was still in inventory, the orange I always sell so I remade it, and the pink I love, I have one similar but not of the ume print.  The other is a multicolor chrysanthemum print. I have one more that is orchid purple with blue and hot pink, its beautiful, but I still need to finish it.

After those four are finished I will be starting a line of thyroid awareness balls for obvious reasons.  Not only is September Thyroid Awareness Month, but my poor Elizabeth Comer fund is going nowhere again.  We managed to raise a little over 10% of the total she needs.

I am going to be out for a while, I hope.  It is not for certain yet, but I will probably be going back under the knife again, this time for an elected surgery on September 18.  I should only be out for a week or so, and I am not closing the shop.  But I will probably be doing ornaments like mad while held up in bed.  After that it is back to kanzashi.

I already have plans to remake several pieces, I just need to find the time!  With kids back in school my nightly work hours have been cut short. I keep falling asleep before I can get to it! But remakes so far include: sister kanzashi set, butterfly garden, and phoenix, which I started and never finished.  I also want to do some stock pieces, like I never got to before switching back to ornaments.

Tomorrow night I have a friend coming with photography stuff to take pictures of my latest batch of kanzashi!  Maybe we can do the balls I have to photograph still as well.  But truth be told I have a lot of editing to do on the site, to take off the old kanzashi temple theme logo from many of the older kanzashi photos.  I am fairly certain all the ornaments have been updated.  Lots of photo work.  Fun fun!  Still deciding on wether or not to bring back the teapot.  Meh.

And PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! DONATE HERE!  Or make a purchase at LilyAshes Emporium and 100% of sales will go to Elizabeth's Medical Fund.

New Ornaments Finished

I was able to make some unexpected time last night to finish trimming all the new ornaments.  I am out of pins until Thursday or so. It will be a bit before I can take final photos, since my cat peed on my backdrop and tonight I have my kid's school open house.

My nori is supposed to arrive today, so there is that to work with before the pins arrive.  I know I want to start with a kiku, I just have no idea how many layers of petals it will take. Habutai Silk is very thin compared to chirimen weave rayon.  It will be a learning experience.