Shop Vacation and Project Updates

This is the second piece of the bouquet set.  I decided to keep it as is, with the addition of two large leaf pieces and 3 buds.  Thread wrapped in 40wt Rayon in sage green. 

I kept off the shidare and bira bira attachments to keep it closer to the original, but improved slightly.  The blossoms were all completely disassembled and re-gathered with thread wrapping.  And it has a better hair fork, since the ones I started out with really pull your hair.



I am closing up shop tomorrow for my Lupron vacation (if you want to call it a vacation).  My first injection is imminent, so I am taking the initial preparatory steps.  Anouncements today, closing tomorrow, and my first injection by the end of the week. 

I still have all those hairbands to work on, and many are complete, but I have a whole bunch more to go. 

 And i still have deviantART updates to do.

And I am working temari again!  I made a mari for the first time in years.  Hopefully that will keep me busy in the car line. 

Thats my notes for today.
:)

Remade Kanzashi Notes

Old flowers, new set!

This piece really wasn't too difficult to do since all the blossoms were already made.  The real challenge was straightening the wire out and working with the extra short stems.  I added 3 leaves and 2 buds, plus the shidare. Left is a metal hair comb, right is a 4 inch hair fork.  Still works great for a bridal or wedding piece.  BUT I am probably sending these off to the TZARTISAN Store soon.  I have one or two more pieces to fix up before I send them off.
Both are thread wrapped in a pale sage green.  The hair fork is actually pointed to the left so it can be worn on the right side of a bun up updo in the back of the head. 

I also have about 50 hairbands in the works, half are for the shop, and half are for another project.  (as if I didn't have enough.)  Some are prints I did not get to sew because I ran out of black backing, so they are repeats.  I have a ton of the chrysanthemum arabesque gold print ones now, at least 5, though I am keeping one for myself.  I need to advertise after all.
Right now they are through with the first round of sewing, and now I am closing up the sides before the top stitching for completion (and reinforcement)

But with both my kids going full time to school next year, life is going to really open up and hopefully I can finish most of this stuff by the time that medical procedure comes around. Luckily I have something to help me manage my pain now, and that is going to help get a lot of these projects done.  (Can't sit in a chair at a table or sewing machine when in pain.)

Inventory Refresh and Reworking Pieces

No more

Every now and again, an inventory refresh is necessary.  It helps cut down clutter (where I have boxes of kanzashi in 5ft tall stacks) and I am forced to visually inspect them for damage, or poor workmanship. 

Many of my pieces have been taken down to be reworked.




This one was wired poorly, and sat in inventory for years.  3 years actually.  It needed to be redesigned and thread wrapped, as it still had it's original wire wrapping under a billion layers of tape. 

As you can see, I am working on rebinding it with several leaf and bud pieces.  It is also getting a green thread wrap. 

One of these will be going to the TZARTISAN STORE  and the other is going in my shop


I have also been doing other work on inventory refreshing, website updates! DeviantART was sorely lacking in information for some of the older, originial files.  Many still have the Kanzashi Temple logo.  Many were shot on the fly, as quickly as possible, and now have better photos to represent them properly.  So, I am starting in the original files and moving up. 

Most of these pieces I am working on will not be available till after September. 

I am still planning on shutting down the store for the month of September as I recover from my medical procedure.

Ornament Photos Complete!

I have been pretty busy, all my ornaments have been rephotographed, and are posted on the site. Even the holiday ones

Next I am going to be working on reorganizing and reworking several of my pieces.  You might notice that a couple of the ornaments are gone, particularly the orange, a fuchsia, a red, and an aqua ornament.  I also have several kanzashi fixed up and I am deciding what to keep and reuse and what to send off to the TZArtisan store.