Feeling Behind

Botan! Peony!

I have been busy lately, and feeling rather behind on a lot of my goals already. I have a list of things I have to do still, and I just started a botan piece recently.  I was going to do another multistyle, but I lost that feeling after finishing the first botan.  Red and white will be striking, and the green rounded leaves I started last night.  It's a 3 blossom maiko piecce and I was thinking about adding a bira bira but I'm not sure.


 I also managed to put the final touches on this yellow and white multi-style hana with 5 fall shidare.  It has bright green thread wrapping and a 4 inch gold hair fork. 

Multi-Style in Yellow/White

I also have the pine needle to finish, the phoenix, my 3 original hydrangea peices to fix, and a multitude of half finished hair sticks and small pieces to finish.  Then I have a photography shoot to set up, for bookmarks, finished pieces and a few other odds and ends.

Still working on kumihimo.  Looking for the right attachments for closures.

I ordered several things over the weekend for fun, like a obi-clip and a new han eri for my juban.  I also picked up some paper from The Rare Orchid during their half off flash sale!  I found the wood I need to make these fans out of washi paper, and it is kinda expensive. But I couldn't pass up 50% off!  And if I don't use it for fans I will use it for bookmarks. It's beautiful yuzen paper.

I managed to put on a kimono for the first time in months to do a demonstration for my daughter's girl scout troop.  I picked my regular komon, which is cream with a kiku/rivers/momiji pattern.  I pulled out a fukuro obi, which is probably too formal for my kimono, but my nagoya obi I had never tied before.  But the colors at least somewhat matched.  I used a cream obiage, because my only other one is bright golden yellow and would have clashed.  It was excellent practice to put it on, and only took about half an hour by myself, which means I am getting better.

I also discovered that I need a new pair of zori, since my casual ones do not fit.  At all.  And my gold-brocade ones have fallen apart, even if they are the correct size.  I have a very formal set for my furisode kimono but I am waiting to use those for a photo shoot. 

Kumihimo Coming Soon!

I have been busy, I swear.

The main focus of my time has been kumihimo.  Now that I have finished my bookmark lots I have moved on to kumihimo weaving.  I have been making long cords in various patterns like the one on the right.  Now that I have 5-6 of these I can move on to making them into bracelets. 

I started another kanzashi bouquet I have probably talked about before.  I managed the shidare petals and just had to quit.  I am kanzashi-ed out.  All that is left of this bouquet is framework and threadwrapping, but I just can't bring myself to go back to it yet.



I also have a ton of individual blossoms to go on hair sticks, along with the bobby pins I made.  I haven't finished those yet either, but it will be soon.  I have a new idea of how I want to attach them, so we shall see if it works.  I am worried about durability of the rayon thread and might have to move back to the nylon crochet thread to keep it on the stick. 


Though my personal life has become another whirlwind affair, I am trying to keep up with store stuff.  I started an instagram account under my birth name, which you can also find on the facebook feed. (Virginia DePauw)  But I am having a hard time keeping up with various websites that require daily activity. Pintrest has been a huge help, and I have been spending some time on that.  It's been a huge help for kumihimo patterns and kanzashi examples.  You can find me on there under LilyAshes Emporium.