Shop Vacation and New Embroidery Project

 So the last piece of the year has been shipped off and recieved by my lovely customer, Shadowyoai, on Etsy.  (used with permission)

The final product ended up being a little higher up on the head than I had originally intended, but it was still a really good product in the end.  And I learned a few things, too.  Always good. 

She took the customer photos, and sent them to me.  Frankly, she looks FANTASTIC in her kitsuke costume.  LOVING this look!! But as mentioned, this is the last one of the year, and probably the last one for a while.  

Shop Notes:  

So I am still closing up the shop here in a few days.  I am still debating on how I will bring it back, but I have some time still I think to decide on that.  I still need to take more photos, and fixing pieces, but kanzashi just hasn't been in my heart as much lately.  That and being sick is making me really not want to work in general.

My new kimono pieces came in, and the sugata is perfect.  The kimono on the other hand is about 6 or 7 inches too short.  I was considering giving it to my daughter or something as she gets older, but in the meantime I have a lovely kimono I cannot wear, and have kind of lost interest in my own kitsuke collection in general.  Collecting is fun, but I have no one to wear it with, and my husband DETESTS tying my obi.  That and I have had little interest in spending more money to push the kanzashi I am not so interested in making anymore.  I have planned a table sale for the last 3 years and have done nothing.  And not that TZArtizan is no more, I have no steady encouragement to continue my art.  At least with kanzashi. 

I am moving back into needlework.  I have tentatively lined up another Japanese Embroidery Lesson in March, and I have started a new embroidery project in the meantime with thread painting using long and short stitch embroidery.  

So what I have posted here, is a machine embroidery design I have from a book I purchased some time back.  It is really designed to be a 4x5 inch piece, but I have blown it up into a 7x11 inch design.  I used this new print and stick material I found for embroidery, and was surprised that it is working so well.  There is adhesive under a light stabalizer that you can run through an inkjet printer and do an instant design transfer.  

The fabric is a natrual irish linen, and its mounted to a scroll frame (that was not as easy as I had originaly thought it would be).  After I got it mounted and straight, I traced on some guidelines for the background with a non-photo blue pencil, which was difficult since it was hard to tell which parts were supposed to be background and which parts were flower stems.  I am using a horizontal direction, and basted down the guidelines so not only would the pattern lay flat (it moved some after mounting on the frame, it was not easy to get that tension correct), but that the lines would not rub off when stitching. 

I have started just a bit of the painting down the left side, as I am going to work the background from left to right.  I have purple and yellow for the irises, of course, and 3 shades of green for the leaves, a rust brown color for the fan frame, and different blues for the circles on the fan and the cord on the bottom.  

In truth I expect this project to never finish, or at least take me 5-6 years.  If my health doesn't fail me first.   

Work Coming Along And Vacation Announcement!!!!

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I have decided to close the shop temporarily after the shipping deadline for Christmas mail out (middle of December) and stay in vacation mode until late January. Lots of reasons why, but good reasons this time.

Firstly, I have a lot of personal stuff that goes on during December besides just the holidays (my extended family has a lot of birthdays, too) and in January I have girl scout cookie business.

Secondly, I have plans.  The store and product desperately need a revamp.  I am still deciding if I am going to take the store off Etsy entirely, and start my own website.  Etsy has been stale lately, but I do enjoy different aspects of it, like vacation mode and not having to deal with credit card payments.

Third, I need to re-do a lot, A LOT of my product.  It's not the flowers themselves, it's the mounting job.  Most of my early work is pretty terrible when it comes to attachments.  I have learned so much in the past year with regards to mounting and thread wrapping, it makes my old product look terrible. Not to mention I have product I haven't listed much less photographed. I also have several projects that are half finished, like washi jewelry, kumihimo, and ornaments.

So its going to be time for a big update.  Not planning on changing graphics though.


Now its time for work updates :)

Almost finished!! YAY!!!

So as you can see, this piece is really coming along.  I have finished mounting the frame for the bira bira and the shidare (you can kinda see the four spokes of gold wire for the shidare) and 2 of it's falls.  They are going to be an identical, repeating pattern of white on red, white on purple and white on white.

None of this part of the work is easy.  Mounting takes a strong grip that wears out the muscles in your hands, often leaving to cramping since I haven't done this in a while.  Also, its a lot of wrapping.  It took like 2 hours to wrap just the left side.  I also have to finish the wrapping on the right side which needs to come down another couple of inches.
The shidare part is the part that, I find, to be the most difficult.  Getting the petals to come together over a thin piece of nylon twine, without getting glue EVERYWHERE, and still managing to cover the high contrast colors underneath the white so they don't show down the middle....it's a lot to handle.  But these two I have managed pretty well.  I find the double layers are bigger and easier to deal with than the singles, so I went ahead and did that since it would give me a chance to lightly add some color, while keeping the white prominent.  (Her kimono is mostly white)

When it't done, though, it is going to be FANTASTIC!!!!  I know she will love it, although it is very delayed.  Like a month overdue.

Also, if there is anyone reading this who likes Facebook, I strongly suggest you check out the Immortal Geisha group, the Immortal Geisha Marketplace, and the DIY kimono group.  The Immortal Geisha people are AMAZING, I have grabbed some INCREDIBLE finds off the marketplace, and the DIY kimono group has some really great ideas for alterations and work arounds for wearing kimono!!!!  They are wonderful, caring people, and I don't say that often about people in groups.

Lastly, I am still collecting donations for Dimitri Conde to help his parents afford the burden of his Leukemia ALL diagnosis.  The local community helped her restore her house after it flooded with sewage, 3k in damages total.  But because of Demitri's condition, they have been back and forth to the hospital on many occasions, the last one requiring a two to three week stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Both parents are working minimal hours to provide around the clock care for Dimitri.  Please, please help in any way you can. :)

Getting Back to Work (Attempt Round 2)

This is yet another painfully overdue update.  But I have some good stuff to report.

bouquet

So this is the custom order I have been slowly working on.  Very slowly, but thankfully she has been incredibly understanding of my medical predicament (which I will go into later). 

There are three big kikus, several smaller filler pieces and a new dragonfly (which I have never attempted before).  All in all, the bouquet has come out amazing (she loves it), and the rest is falling into place.  I have this half mounted to the headband, and will continue the wrapping to the other side of the band (it's only about halfway right now, just to get the bouquet in place).
I also included a close up of the thread wrapping job, the stems are the usual 40w machine embroidery thread, with the headband wrapping being the nylon crochet thread I use for heavy jobs, and shidare.

wrap job

only halfway wrapped

 So the next part is the bira bira and the shidare frame, which will come down and be wrapped to the bottom half of the piece.  It's probably going to stick out a little bit so it doesn't get tangled in hair fibers and brushing against the ear. But I have to say since this is my first time doing a headband, it's coming out really well. 



Some of you may have noticed that the TZArtisan project hasn't been mentioned in some time.  It has been stalled for a while, and has officially been disbanded.  All the sites have been taken down and my unsold donations have been returned to me.  I feel really bad for my team leader, Ariel, who has simply over committed herself, and can no longer hold a mantle of leader, and no one else has the ability to take her place. I am very sorry to see it go, but in the end, I was not surprised. 


On another note, I have found a group on Facebook that I have fallen completely in love with.  Immortal Geisha has taken their forum community off traditional forums and onto Facebook Groups!!! They are the sweetest, most informative, dedicated group I have ever met.  I love it!!! And if you love kitsuke as much as we do, by all means, JOIN!!!!

Speaking of kitsuke, I have another kimono I have added to my collection!

I found this red lovely on an Etsy shop, and fell IN LOVE.  I have always wanted a red kimono, and though I thought it would be more bright red than this darker rust red, that actually makes me love it more (darker reds are more my coloring).  I have a gold obi to pair it with, or the new green with gold and orange to red stitching, an "orange as orange can be" obiage, and a red silk round obijime.  I also bought a yellow one, but it's really too dirty to use.

I am now on the hunt for a proper nagajuban, but with a 25 inch sodetake, or sleeve length, it's not going to be easy.  I might have to suck it up an alter one. 

The rest of this is personal business.

So I have been sick, and among my various diseases, we have discovered along the way that I am in fact a Type 1 diabetic, I have Autism, and my reproductive system is screwed.   I seem to be always sick with something at some time.  I recently had a reaction to one of my mood stabilizers, forcing me to stop taking it.  Anyone with a mental health history knows what a difficult time this can be.  When I had last written a blog post, I was starting to do better.  I didn't thing the fight would be as long as it has been.  I had been ramping up on a new medication and it really seemed to be working, until I got to the final dosage, at least the actual regular dosage.  Then I broke out in hives all over and realized I was allergic.  2 months of telling myself it would get better, lying to myself. 
Then we tried two more medications, both were a bust.  I am currently on something I have taken before, and it's helping, but I still have side effects, and I don't know how long I have until I have to change on this one, too.

Mental illness is a never ending battle. I will never be cured, and I will fight my extreme emotional reactions, like my blood sugar, the rest of my life.   There is no cure, and there is barely help.  We have made more progress with Diabetes in the last decade than with mental health or women's health.  And while I am very glad to be off of shots and on an insulin pump, I still feel like I am out of my mind, and I never know if it is hormones or Autism. 

I wont go into great detail what I am like when I am sick. Just trust me, I am no fun to be around.

So while I have been sick I have been unable to work.  Which means I am behind on everything. I haven't done my photos, or Japanese Embroidery, or any embroidery.  All I have done is work this custom order and do house chores when I can.

I am going to keep working for now, that I am able.  I plan on putting on the bira bira frame today on that headband order, and after that I will be working on updating inventory for the store.  I might even shut it down and move it to my own hosted site.  Maybe next year.

New Commission

This update has been dreadfully overdue....

My health held me back from work once again and nothing has been updated in months.  I am behind on all my projects, and I still haven't taken photos of my last pieces, I could go on and on.  Right now I have been very busy getting my house back in order.

So, once again, I am starting anew with the Emporium.

I have been doing some important things.  Such as, updating the business name and mailing address for the company.  I also toyed around with a new website interface.  I have been able to add a few new pieces to my kitsuke collection, a new bright red kimono and enough pieces to do a double set of kimono.  (Mainly for the photo shoot I hope to do in the future with actual models, but I don't expect that to happen since I haven't been able to find anyone to model for me, much less someone to photograph me as the model)

But the good news is that I have landed a really nice commission!! A standard flower set, three medium sized kiku with rounded petals with purple white and red coloring, and a deluxe shidare and bira.  But the main thing I am really excited about is that it is made to be fitted to a headband, which I have never done before.  Normally this would hold me back but I think I am experienced enough by now that it shoudn't be a real adventure outside my comfort zone.  It would involve a great deal of thread wrapping, but its really nothing I couldn't handle.  

At this point I have so many projects and a very extensive "want to try" list, that if I worked every day for the rest of my life, I would still never get it all finished.  I have learned a great deal along the way, and each new silk craft I try brings me closer and closer to being able to repair and resell good kimono.  But it is becoming apparent that with my health needs, I will probably never really get to that point.  I just don't have as much time as I would hope to get everything done with my sanity intact.

The gofundme for my friend Shanna Conde and her son Demitri, has gone completely dead.  I haven't sold a decent piece in forever, and no help has come to Demitri, in situation, health, or circumstance.  His chemo shots are incredibly expensive, and their insurance has a very high deductible.  Not to mention the sewage system in their house backed up and they had raw sewage flood the house.  This is not only an expensive cleanup, but forced them out of their new home once more.  

http://www.gofundme.com/dconde 

#condestrong

In the back log of projects I have completed are:

6-7 ornaments

2 kanzashi peices

3 chirimen necklaces with kits to make more

I have also been racking in supplies, like sheets of yuzen dyed chiyrogami washi paper.  I am going to get around to my fan making project as well, eventually.  I have a good 8-9 sheets now.  

Anyway, I hope sometime after Christmas I can go back to my Silk Embroidery teacher in Oklahoma and get some real work done on my piece.  I know it needs some work with re-framing, but I can live with that.  I hope to get back on it as soon as this commission is done.  I did manage to get a membership to the JEC (Japanese Embroidery Center), and have started receiving my first quarterly Nuido Journal.  It is very exciting to see the full listing of pieces available.  I really am in love with a few of the realy high end teacher level master pieces, but they are so involved, it turns into another one of those "I don't know if I will ever get there" things.

So there, I said it.  I am coming back soon, and working a lot more than I was.  Just not quite back to 100% yet.

Getting Back to Work!

It's four days into August, and I am finally getting unpacked and the store back up. I spent quite a bit of time working to update old listings tonight, with new shipping updates and corrected descriptions.  I hope to have the shop reopen on Monday, August 7.

I have also been able to take some time to cut some of the new fabric I had purchased before I moved.  I found some fantastic multicolor chirimen, named bell flower.  It has lovely shades of purple, indigo, blue, and grey.  The white is always a good offset to use less of the super expensive print fabric and still give a positive dramatic effect.  I still have plans for a bira bira but I can not seem to locate my metal shears for cutting the aluminum dangles.

Also in the works, I have plans for more ornaments.  The holiday ornament section is back, but very bare. I am hoping to sell quite a few and use the money as donation to the Demiti Conde GoFundMe.  He is in remission but his lowered immune system keeps landing him back in the hospital.

However I have my own plans.  I am still going to sell kanzashi for myself, and use those funds to get a new kimono from Ohio Kimono. I am planning a photo shoot with real models, and I need a few more pieces for variety: a couple of obiage and an obi to match my autumn themed komon.  I also want a new juban and a couple more korin clips, and obi clips, and white collars.  Lots of little things.  All so I can have multiple usable sets of kimono for this photo shoot.

My Japanese silk embroidery has taken a back seat unfortunately.  My fabric began to pucker under a place I had recently stitched, which means my frame is set incorrectly. I need to tighten the fabric again, but have been hesitant to do so without instruction.

Ohio Kimono USA!

Found on Ohiokimono.com

OHIO KIMONO USA!

So you guys know I love kitsuke, the art of dressing in kimono.  There aren't a ton of kimono shops in the United States, and those that I have found are expensive.  Usually I get my products from Japan off Ebay, but even those are generally in poor condition.

Then I found this shop through my instagram account, Ohio Kimono  and they have some great kimono pieces.   They apparently travel to Kyoto every year or so to purchase more pieces for the shop, so each piece is hand picked.

Not only that, but they are organized and labeled correctly. Strange as it may sound that is a pretty big tell between a professional supplier and someone selling knockoff Chinese polyester bathrobes.

I already have my eye on a green obiage that would be a close match for my deep orange and black furisode.  And the fantastic fukuro obi with waves that I have nothing to wear with, but I would love to own all the same. Not to mention the green kimono in the picture.  They even carry a variety of accessories, like fans, kanzashi, and tea ceremony pieces.  Plus the best part, fabric scraps!




Ok now that I am done with my review, time for the notes.

First, my house move has been delayed.  Not much I can do about it, and it is nothing I did.  Just paperwork taking too long.  Which means the shop will be closed for most of August as well.  Really, it breaks my heart, because I miss my kanzashi supplies so much.  I find that other things are fun distractions, but at my heart I am a kanzashi artisan.  I've been closed for almost a month now, and I am really having chirimen withdrawals, lol.

I am finally over my cold, and plan to go back to stitching my silk embroidery piece soon.  I do like it, but I find I don't particularly love it yet.  It requires a lot of focus, especially since I am still learning the movement.  But I find that since I cant lay in bed and be comfortable (you guys know I was sick for so long that I am accustomed to working while reclined), I just don't enjoy it as much.

I have gone back to crewel again, trying to finish the pillowcase set I started earlier in the year.  I like it more, because it is faster and I can make as many mistakes as I want.  I dont feel paranoid about how it is going to look, since I am actually going to use it.

I have also had a lot of silk dying on my mind, but only in the kanzashi aspect of things.  My friend, Elizabeth Comer of Imlothmelui on Etsy  has essentially switched from making kanzashi to hand made watercolor paints.  They look fantastic!   I really like the pearlescent ones.   She used to be the queen of dyed fabric kanzashi, and I feel that learning from her is the next big thing to my path as a kanzashi artisan.

Working Right Along

So as you can see I have finished the first layer of the pines, the bottom one being twisted silk and the upper one being flat silk.  The twisted one came out pretty well, the flat not so much, but that doesn't surprise me.  It's my first piece.

Another self critique, the ume blossom has too large a gap between the petals.

Right now I am going to work on the sakura blossoms, which are actually slightly more difficult because of the nature of the thread and the way the stitches lay.

Other than that I am working on picking up my Japanese again. It would be exceedingly helpful to at least read certain Kanji, but I am starting over with hirigana.  I pulled out my copy of hirigana warriors off the Steam game engine and I am about halfway through.  I also own their newest Katakana warriors, so I have lots to work on before I get to Kanji.

New GoFundMe Campaign and Store Notes

New Set

So first to business.

Donate Directly Here

All new sales are going to Dimitri Conde's Leukemia ALL Medical Fund.
Dimitri is a child who is also on spectrum, and shared a class with my own son.  His mom and I are good friends, and I immediately jumped on the opportunity to run their donation campaign.


Now for store notes:

I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work, but I have been working.  With the new fundraising campaign, and the new job, and trying to sell my house, my work has gone to the back burner.
But I did manage to list all those pumpkin/goldenrod pieces, and I have made those two new kikus, of which i decided to scrap the one of them because I just didn't really like it.
I have continued the color scheme, with this two piece set, one of which will have a bira bira and one will have a shidare, kind of like the sister kanzashi set, though slightly bigger.

New Kiku

I have enjoyed doing sets like this, though I will probably be doing an orange promo set, since orange is the color of Leukemia.

I have also got my new silk embroidery set in the mail!!!  It's larger than I visualized, but that is not a complaint.  I now have all the supplies for my piece, and tools- everything!!!!  I am probably going to push classes back till June because I already have to work memorial day weekend on 6 hr shift.  At a retail store, that is 6 hrs of intense work.
Not only that but I am currently working on selling my house, which will be a 3-4 month process.
And now I'm doing this fundraiser as well.

But as you can see in the top picture I am stocking up on certain supplies.  I am expecting a mini-vacation soon where I hope to be able to work intensely on this set and a few other pieces, as to be completed by the end of May.   Then I can focus on the personal end until the Japanese Silk Embroidery lesson in mid to late June.

So busy I forgot to post

Sold 4-20-2017!!!

Spring is here and that means things are wild at home and at work.

I have finished photographing 5 new pieces, with a new kiku made and another in the works.
Not only that but I have landed several sales lately (six of which were the clearanced ornaments) which makes more space and also let me order more fabric! Squee!!!!  Now I have 4 shades of green, 3 colors of multicolor chirimen, and a few colors for some upcoming projects. They are on their way, so I am hoping it will be here early next week.

New Kiku!!!

The pic on the right/below is one of the 2 new kikus I have made (am making).  The one not pictured is white with aqua and teal pointed petals.  This one is a rounded petal with pointed petal inbetween the rounded petal sections.  The pattern will spiral, and the section not placed is china red. I have about 3 layers on it now, and it looks awesome!

Meanwhile I have been working another set of pillowcases with crewel embroidery, all satin stitch. It's a lovely design of roses and leaves, with butterflies (a fairly commonly marketed pattern. I found it at Walmart of all places), that I picked up shortly after my surgery. I am using it to practice stitching for Japanese Silk Embroidery, which I am still hoping to start in June.  I was originally scheduled for may, but I am using my birthday money (which is beginning of may), and I don't think I can collect the necessary funds and place the order and RECEIVE it before June.  But when I get it, there will be pictures.  LOL.

I have also picked up quite the following of Japanese kanzashi artisans on instagram.  I keep finding people to follow that are such fantastic fabric artists, it's kinda shocking when they, too, like my work.  The constant positive feedback has made me delve into my work with renewed fury.  And every time I go looking through the suggested people to follow, I find more and more and more artisans.  It's no wonder I don't sell more internationally.  That and I am still improving my product, each and every time.

Speaking of which, my new thread-wrapping the hair stick really seems to be working but I need to review my glue usage. I'm not certain about the best way to glue the thread down so it doesnt unwrap.  Next up is nori, but it is SO SLOW to dry.  I also have things  like E6000, but it is hard to clean up and can be messy.  I am just going to have to keep trying before I reform ALL my previous pieces to this new technique.  ALONG WITH redoing all of my other hair forks to the new single stem, more traditional thread wrap style.

All in all, things are going well.  :)

Slolwy Working and Life Changes

First to the kanzashi notes. 

I have gone back to working in experimental methods, just focusing on making flowers than complete pieces.  I love this color combo, and by the time I'm finished with this set of pieces, it will probably be late summer/early fall, lol.

Later, when I have my tester's reports on my new hair stick mounting design, I will be fixing all my hair stick pieces.  I might even be adding a few more into inventory out of this pumpkin orange/goldenrod color combo I am currently in.

On top of this, I have a big announcement! I have finally found a Japanese Silk Embroidery Teacher! She lives 3 hours or so from my current location, and has availability for teaching weekends! She has been exceedingly helpful in assisting me with my first piece, which I have picked out and will be ready to purchase by my birthday.  Then I will schedule a weekend away from my family to take my first steps with silk embroidery.

And, simply because I am a glutton for punishment, lol, I have decided to get a part time job, one that pays real money.  I love my store, but it is a hobby that pays for itself.  I can't make real money in this niche art.  I never expected to.  And money, unfortunately, holds me back from expanding on things like Japanese Embroidery, which is very costly considering the necessary materials.  
I only mention it now because I have started getting calls back for interviews, which frankly since I haven't had a real job in 9 years, is somewhat surprising.  It's mostly retail again, which I am comfortable with, and my first callback is a clothing chain, so maybe I will get some ideas on colors and patterns to experiment with in my flowers.

But before I start I hope to have my listings updated with the multicolor chirimen pieces and the kimono pattern barrettes.  So look for new inventory soon!!!

Post-Surgery Updates!!!

So to begin this set of notes, surgery went fine, and have been recovering the last 3 weeks.  Most that truly know me know that I can not STAND to be idle, it drives me crazy to waste time.  So while on bed rest, I have been working away...

First project is some new inventory! I made at least 40 of these fantastic kimono patterned chirimen hair barrettes in rectangle and oval. These will go un-dercorated, and sold as an inexpensive addition to the Emporium.  However half of this batch will be sent to the TZArtisan shop, along with a large collection of bobby pins.

I have also begun a re-design of the hair sticks.  I have never liked the exposed tape, but didn't have the thought to test the durability of something like rayon machine embroidery thread.  For some time now I have been getting more and more comfortable with the use of rayon embroidery thread for thread wrapping techniques, and NOW I have finally applied it to the hair sticks.  The effect is a bold stripe of color underneath the flower, and if it turns out to be durable I am going to re-wrap everything in the shop.  In the mean time I have sent a few prototypes to TZArtisan for further testing. 

In addition to that, I have been working with some of the multicolor chirimen I have been saving.  I only had 2 small squares, but I managed 3 new small pieces and they are fantastic.  I am sure how to present them in the shop, to keep them as a group or split them up. 

I do have more squares of different shades of this multicolor stuff, but I am definitely planning on ordering more of the autumn colors I used to make the last momiji piece and this new pink/green/blue combination. 

I have moved all the home decor ornaments to the clearance bin, and they are still sitting there.  They will stay only until May, when the lisitngs expire.  Then it will be sent off to TZArtisan, again, so that hopefully they can make some money where I could not.  Seems the only thing that sells is kanzashi these days. 

I still have plans for chiyrogami jewelry again and the kumihimo braids that have been set aside.  Hopefully they will do better than ornaments and hair bands. 

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. 

Shop Is Up To Date and New Bookmarks!

So apparently I am behind on the blog. 
I managed to get the new listings up, with 4 new kanzashi and two new headbands.  Overall the photos came out great, and I am especially proud of the momiji piece! 

I have also begun to thread wrap and mount piece in the traditional style.  Instead of a fold over, tape, and wrap,  the stem goes on the fork and down a bit, thread wrapping it in place down the side of the hair fork.  I never thought this would hold well, but it seems to be working. 

After I finished updating the shop, I worked on several flowers for bobby pin sets and hair forks for selling at tables. Lots of pink, ice blue, china red, and lemon yellow. 

In the middle of that I managed to sell several bookmarks.  Like 15 of them.  The black set has been particularly popular.  So I pulled out my paper packs and dug in again, making 15 sheets and with 7 or  8 more to go. I still have to purchase more laminate but I should have those back in the shop as of January.  There is more black in there, it's just hidden at the bottom. :)

Photos Coming Soon I swear

I finished a few pieces, like the momiji piece, and they have been coming out exceptionally well.  I started using a traditional mounting technique for these new pieces, and it is working out better than my own method (of course). 

I just finished this little blue and pink piece, the first in a new batch of kanzashi. 

I got my chirimen order in, and that means time to prep and cut fabric. I also have a back log of photos to take and pieces to list, and I swear I am going to get to that soon.  I haven't had much space in the house to set up a photo table, since we have been rearranging furniture and deep cleaning clutter lately. But we have one more piece to move in and re-arrange. A new desk for me!!!!

 But in the mean time I have that phoenix to finish, and I want to make several batches of stock pieces like bobby pins and hair sticks and little forks like this one. 

But the good news is I managed to finish most of my Christmas stuff in a single day.  All the extended family I tend to have anxiety over have been marked off my extensive list. Which means I have more time for kanzashi! And moving furniture. 

I am also going into the OBGYN today to have a discussion on one of my numerous complications.  This time it is the endometriosis.  But after today I should have a real game plan on my future health instead of just biding my time on this Lupron to see what happens. 

I am also hoping to reschedule that photo shoot for my furisode kimono for sometime in February.  It will be my last month on Lupron.  Which means my last month being pain free for some time. So I will have updates on that pine needle kanzashi I have to get back to before then. 

That's all for now I think.

New Phoenix Piece In Process!

First Attempt

      So I have been working this phoenix piece, trying to recreate a sort of mish-mash between a crane kanzashi and my original phoenix piece I tried years ago.  I have completed the frame, which is all thread wrapped wire.  The head, neck, and feet are all Rayon 40w Machine emobridery thread, and the tail is the nylon crochet thread I like the use for the bira bira
       The wings you see below are the new set and they are HUGE.   I have made them proportional to the tail length but at the same time they are at least 3.5 to 4 inches in width.  Not only that, but I have used up the last of my red chirimen in order to make this piece.  I even have two different colors of red in there, the china red and the dark red.  But frankly you can't tell unless you look very closely at the real piece.  I still have one more row of rounded petals I want to place around the neck to make it more full and to hide the underneath better.

New Wings

    Though I have made enough sales lately between custom orders and random items that I put in a new chirimen order! It should arrive next week I hope, so that I can have more red (and some other colors) to finish these wings off.  Meanwhile I will be working on the tail, which is the same colors at the original piece. 
     Seeing as this baby is HUGE i am going to have to eventually try again on a much smaller piece that I can handle better.  But it was fun to try a bird again.  Cranes are awesome too but I didn't have enough white to pull something like that off.  (I will once this new order come in.)

     I have a few more ideas on things I am going to make.  I am going to spend some time making stock items to build up some inventory for not only the TZArtisan shop but my own as well.  I also have that big stock of new prints I got from Ariel, the TZArtisan team leader, and the barrette forms and things I want to play with.  I still have that mizuhiki to try out, and I want to do some Christmas pieces.  I'm not sure I will get it all done this year, though. 

Shop is Open and Upcoming Work

I haven't updated this in some time, and I apologize for that.

I did manage to get that wisteria finished, now that I have hair pins again, and she is waiting for photos.  I really like the little curly vine i did with the leaves. I really like how this one came out, though I was hoping for some different colors.  I have to do a new order though, before I can complete another.  These take a LOT of fabric!!!

 While I have been feeling better on the Lupron, (so, so much better), I haven't had much time to get into kanzashi work due to a backlog of life chores.  I'm still working a temari for my son, and while there are a LOT of mistakes, it is coming along as a good practice ball for future use of this pattern (a three wing design). He wont mind the mistakes, he just likes the ball and colors. 

Sold 10-21-2016

I did manage to land a small sale, this large momiji piece.  It was one of the better ones to come out of my hotel stay, and I might have to make a few more.  Especially now that I have......gold and silver mizuhiki!!!!   I have been looking for it for a while and now that I ahve found some I am going to use the heck out of it.  Cause for as small an amount as I use, one pack is huge quantity. 

 That and with the sale profits I bought a bunch new barrette toppers, more oval and some rectangles this time, 25 of each.  Lots of pieces to make, and with enough that I wont be afraid to use them. I am actually really excited to give these out as Christmas gifts to some of the nieces I have. Should be fun.  And I might be able to pull off some more difficult pieces, like sakura's on water or dewdrops. I also need to do some christmas stuff soon, hopefully with these.  I can do some poinsettias on white and such, since I have never done one of those before. 

I am also finally starting to prepare my video tutorial scripts and such.  So hopefully I can get somewhere with that, too. 

This weekend I will be out.  All orders will be shipped out Tuesday, November 1.  I am going take a marathon vacation, and head out to Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans.  Hopefully I will have more updates after that.

Shop Reopening Soon!

You guys know how much I love to give out updates....

Been working on this new pink wisteria piece quite a bit.  It's come quite far in just a few short days.  I have to work on leaves this time, unlike my moronic self last time which I FORGOT to make for the last wisteria piece.




The rest of these are final shots of items that will be in the store.  As you can see, I have really gotten a hang of the botan or peony style kanzashi layering. 

This one is burgundy and black, but kept coming out so red on camera.  It's a beautiful barrette, which I have never really carried before in plethora. Now I have started with 4 and have 6 more to decorate.

The momiji is worth noting because it came out so well in size and dimension.  Its larger than the last single momiji I did, and I want to play with these more.

The last one below is a peony I was experimenting with.  I don't really like the layering, but the colors are fantastic.  I am almost out of this pattern material, going to have to get more if they still carry it. 


I've actually had quite a few colors get discontinued.  A peach, an orange, a few blues and all the violets have gone away.  I am saddened that I can't remake all my pieces now that several of these colors are gone.  But such is life.

I want to reopen the shop this Saturday, October 8, after I get doctor clearance on Friday. So maybe soon.  Right now I am still having severe side effects that will continue until my next dosage on Friday.

Meanwhile I am still working on the pink wisteria! We shall see how it goes.

Almost Back From Vacation

 So, I was able to only have 3 days of getaway but it was a productive time, albeit shorter than planned.

The first piece I went after was this wisteria bouquet, which came out really well, except she is missing leaves.  I face-palmed when I realized I had already bound her up and left out the leaves and butterflies and things that make these pieces really pop.  So I will either put her up at a discount, or just unmount her and start over.










The next piece I attempted were these three, a true peony style.  I have wanted to make one of these for a while but never had the experimental nerve to risk losing chirimen.  I made the blue one first, which I didn't like that you can't see the patterned fabric hardly. I made the red one next, and tried to cut the petal a different size.  I made the fourth one last, but I still think the first method was the best.  So, print on the exterior of the petal, and solid interior.  I used 1.5 inch squares for the outer ring and trimmed them up a bit for the second inner ring. The third is one inch squares folded in rounded petal, but with just three.  My base was 1 3/4 inch circle.






Then I got into the barrettes, which are coming out beautifully! I love my pink one and the green one, I really get to show off prints and small left over colors I only have a few scraps remaining. 
I also have tons of mizuhiki to use for this now, and I am really looking forward to using that.  I just need to find some gold and silver, but I do have several other colors.
I started with an order of 10 for the forms and I have already covered them all in fabric.  I am still deciding exactly how I am going to cover each one, but it is going to be a lot of fun to experiment.  




There are several other pieces I have not photographed just because they were nothing beyond my usual work.  I did a large momiji on a hair stick and another attempt at a peony cluster in blue and purple.  I also started a autumn colored kiku for a comb or bouquet.  But I have enjoyed doing these barrettes the most. There will be LOTS more of these.

Updated Work Report

completed temari

 I have been doing lots of work while the shop is closed.  But that energy is dwindling down, and I don't have much of it left. 

First up is my friend's ball. I finished the silver outline and decided to cut out the obi and negate most of the decorative stitching.  Most of the remaining areas are uneven, and doing more detail work would accentuate that further.  But it came out really well!!!! My stitches aren't masterwork, but this is definitely the best kiku I have ever done. 

Formerly white wedding bouquet

The rest of the kanzashi pictures are reworks.  The white kanzashi is from the white wedding piece, one  of the first big pieces I ever attempted.  I took off the shidare, and rewired each piece and thread wrapped it in olive green to match the foliage.  And a better hair fork than the original ones I used which always seemed to pull my hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thyroid awareness fork

This thyroid cancer awareness double sakura with pearls hair fork is something I made back in 2015, but the thicker nylon thread wrapping came loose and pulled away.  I rewired and reworked it to a new hair fork with rayon thread wrapping in pink.  The shidare has a cute little butterfly charm, the symbol of thyroid cancer awareness.

Nanaohana with side piece

 This nanohana (or rapeseed blossom/canola flower) is a beautiful display of lemon yellow.  With dark green leaves within the flowers to accentuate, this piece is a real improvement from it's smaller origin kanzashi.  I didn't feel right with the butterflies permanently wired in, so I used the left over blossoms and one of the butterflies to make an optional hair fork. 







I have several more I have fixed recently that will go back in the store as soon as I reopen.  For instance I fixed strawberries and cream piece, and I am about to start on the hydrangea pieces, all 3 of them. 

I also might start some bigger pieces, with silk.  I have a recipe for rice starch, and I was thinking about iris or narcissus kanzashi, especially since I have enough mizuhiki to make the proper leaf configuration. 

Meanwhile, I am working deeply in Muse to start my website, and updating DeviantART as well.  I have also started another temari which I plan on plotting today.  I am thinking a divided 6 config, though I don't think I have ever done that before.  I am going to go through my books later and pick a pattern.  Doesn't help the Mari is BRIGHT ORANGE, and I can't stitch it with black. 

Anyone have any ideas?? Feel free to comment or contact me.  I love correspondence!!!

No News Means I'm Still Working

I wasn't planning on it, but I am still working quite a bit this week and did a lot the week past.

I sent off my package to the TZArtisan Store.   Keep an eye out for a few recycled pieces, that white comb and fork I did, plus some new hair stick/hair pin sets. I also sent over several bookmarks, hair bands, and ornaments.

I am getting rid of the ornaments.  Soon they will go into clearance for the home decor and after Christmas, the holiday ones will go into clearance as well.

I have started mapping out a new website front end for Etsy.  I'm not using "Pattern" like they suggest, I am using Muse from Adobe to construct this bad boy.  I am pretty excited and think I have a good handle on it from hours of watching video tutorials.  I will go ahead and purchase the Muse package as soon as my Lupron fiasco is handled.

Speaking of which, started that yesterday. So October 6th or so, I will reopen the store.

 Meanwhile I have been working Temari!!!!  I just put the final section of purple in to an interwoven double-sided kiku on a silver-grey mari, and am about to start the final parts of silver detailing.  I might put in an octagon on the top and bottom poles as well in different shades of white to lavender to purple to match the kiku.
This one isn't going in the store, but to one of my good friends.  I didn't expect it to turn out so well, especially since I had to rip out stitches multiple times.  But it really is a beauty. And kikus are my favorite.

I do want to do another for the shop though.  And that will come closer to after Lupron.  Temari are intricate, meticulously precise work.  A properly measured grid is crucial.  And the first few rounds are generally pretty confusing.  But once you can see the pattern with your eyes, and the threads start layering properly, it goes pretty quickly.

I still have a bunch of headbands to finish before I can use the table my sewing machine is on for taking shop photos.  Most of them are for my daughter's shop, but I still have 5 or 6 left for the shop to complete.

I have a 2 page list of things I need to do this month, like kanzashi repairs and websites.  So even though I probably won't be posting much, I'm still working.