Store Updates and New Pieces!!!

 Well, I finally managed to work through all of my combs, about 9 pieces in all.  Truthfully I lost count.  I have my favorites of the batch listed here though I really like them all.

I am starting to feel like an accomplished artisan, and you can see why.  My pieces are worth appreciating these days, and they are really getting noticed.  My facebook feed is getting more active and DeviantART is really going nuts now that I am attached to the DeviantART TZARTISAN group.  We know our kanzashi, after all...... :)




Today, while making updates to DeviantART, I started going through my inventory.  I do this about once a year, to combine and re-label boxes and move stuff to clearance.  Some of it I am keeping and some of it is going to the TZArtisan STORE.  I already have some ornaments and bookmarks set aside and pulled out of store inventory.  I also deactivated all the holiday ornaments that no one is going to purchase in July.  I have the other ornaments set aside to re-photograph now that I have much better lighting. 





As for that vacation, we have decided to wait until September 12 to start the Lupron injections. So starting that week we will be on vacation mode until October 15 or so.

Only the store will be closed.

I am still hopefully taking custom orders and making pieces and working.  But I am not stressing about listings or updates, things will happen as they happen.  I truly have no idea how much this will effect me the first month.  I may even just get a hotel room for a while to be away from everyone while I go through this process.  Then I could focus on work and kanzashi until my fingers bled, lol. 

Another down

New Kanzashi Preview!

See? I've been working I swear!

This is a quick note.

The pink one on the left and the center piece are complete and ready for photos.

The flower on the right is my current work.

I spoke with my obgyn and I will not begin Lupron until mid September.  So hopefully no shop closures until then.

:)

Kanzashi assessment and Upcoming Vacation (not really)

Ok first off, the kanzashi I purchased for JapaneseSilkFlowers on Etsy was absolutely fabulous.  Their fabric was crisp and ROCK HARD.  This sucker was not going to bend a single petal.  The wiring job was a bit lacking in the rigidity of their wires. It was 20 gauge german silver wire, pretty soft. And the attachment to the hair pin needed a bit more work, but I can fix that if need be. Overall their petal work is exceptional and I really like this crane.  And thier bira bira is near perfect and like half the size of mine.  I really want to examine that one more closely.

As for the Vacationn status, that wil probably be coming in the next week or so.  It's not a fun Vacation, since i am cloistering myself in preperation of a month from hell.  Going into bit of my personal history, after being diagnosed with a bijallion different diseases, it looks like my problem has been narrowed down to Celiac.  Not the "i get an upset tummy after gluten" kind of Celiac, that's more like gluten sensitvity.  I am pretty sure I have the genetic total allergic reaction kind Celiac.  And this stuff comes with diseases as side effects, like Type 1 diabetes and other auto immune disorders.  The disease of the day is Endometriosis, which they discovered last year and treated with surgery, to no avail.  They gave me pills and devices and nothing has worked.
Now we are going to try the Lupron shot.  Lupron basicially shuts down your ovaries so you can't product estrogen, which makes Enodmetriotic cells swell and become painful.  Which is great! Except the first month it gives you an estrogen FLUSH, and pushes all the strogen out of your body at once, and from what I hear it's pretty intense.  Night sweats, hot flashes, bone loss, nightmares, insomnia, mood swings, I totally expect (given my bipolar and severly anxious nature) to completely fall apart.  Complete basketcase.  Probably have to go to the hospital for a while (and i mean the mental one, not the i got hurt one).

So in advance of that, I am closing the store the day before my first shot. After the flush i have  series of consecutive shots to go, but there wont be the big estrogen push that comes with the first shot in the series. After I start feeeling better I am gonig to open back up.  But it will probably be 3 weeks at the earliest.

I still have a lot of work to do, like new photos of the new stuff I have made, and I want to reshoot my ornaments.  The background on most of them is too yellow.  and now that my backdrop is clean again, I can get back to that one of those nights I have insomnia.  It will be some time before I can get to kimono photos at this point, and I am kinda ok with that.  Disappointed, but realizing at the same time it's for the best.  Clearing off my plate seems to be the best idea right now. 

Project Outlines and Updates

JapaneseSilkFlowers Kanzashi

So we had to postpone pictures.
Frankly, finishing as much work as needed to be done was not going to happen.  And I had an axiety attack.  So nothing was completed and I had to cancel last minute. 
Which actually worked out well for my photographer too so it's still ok. 


I was able to pick up this beauty from JapaneseSilkFlowers on Etsy and DevianART.  They are closing shop after 3 years and I am very sorry to see them go.  You can tell why, their work is fantastic. They did everything completely 100% traditional.  And were very accomplished.
I am going to use this piece not only to study how they made it to make a better one from chirimen, but also to use in the up coming photoshoot I will get to eventually.

I made it to 90 pine needles! It was a long hard run, but the worst is over.  Next I have to start assembling my needles onto a stem, and thread wrap them into place.  I am nervous, but I know it is silly.  It is only because I have never made a piece like this before.  I have enough conifdence now I know when I can and can't accomplish something, instead of believing can't all the time

I have a ton of projects in the works.  More fabric headbands to be made, for my shop and my daughter's shop.  I have another round of tie dye to accomplish, plus the last bouquet kanzashi I was making and never finished, AND the kanzashi I need to make for TZArtisan. I have more craft books and sewing books than will fit on my shelves and I am in a good place with that.  Don't even get me started that I was reminded that I need to start building up stock for the christmas season.

I also have a strange personal project, finding my son an autism service dog.  I dont know how much fundraising that is going to entail, but it will most likely be substantial.  I am certainly going to be having a clearance sale dedicated to that when I have some legitimate numbers for reference.  And a garage sale, and I have to sell my house. And I haven't exactly been in the best health. 

Why Can't People Just Be Nice??

It's been a trying and emotional time the past few weeks and I have not had much time to keep up with the store or making any crafts.

I received a personal attack from another kanzashi artisan from china, accusing me of stealing her style of kanzashi and copying her pieces.  Not only was she rude and accusatory, she made me realy question whether or not I should continue making pieces.  I already started that pink and purple with print one and have the shidare petaled but not assembled.  I'm almost exactly in the middle of creating this piece, and she threw this at me.  I was devastated. I was hurt.  And frankly it pissed me off.

I'll have you know I am going to make the piece no matter what she does. And if Etsy declares to shut down my store, then let them.  I'll take it to storenvy.  Because I do not "copy" other people's pieces.  My materials, my work is my own.  They may be similar but no artisan actually makes the same piece.  They are all different and unique because each artisan is unique. At no time is an artisan allowed to lash out at another artist or artisan. It's rude and unprofessional.

Then I started the week long trek into hell for my husband's grandfather's memorial service.  Which was lovely, but after over 24 hours of driving time in a week, I am exhausted.  I am emotionally shot, and I am weary.  It's written all over my face.  And the photo shoot is this Saturday.  I haven't even fitted the kimono, and I have a photo shoot to do.  Nor have I finished making the pine needle kanzashi.  I haven't touched it. Ugh.

I did some shopping on my personal vacay before this all went down.  Picked up some neat fabrics for more headbands and a few other things.  I am still waiting on my flower stamens from Thailand.  It's been over a month now, and I am starting to worry.  We shall see if it comes in the next few weeks.

I also picked up a few more sewing books, including a few of ben's grandmother's books on crafting dolls and other things.  It sounded like fun.  She had a lot of needle point but I am just not into grids, lol.  I need more freedom than that.

I also picked up a cute little game on Steam game engine, it's a hirigana RPG game to teach you the fundamental sof hirigana characters in Japanese.  It's super cute, and I admit I am hooked.  It's just plain constructive fun, and I hate feeling like I am wasting my time on something when nothing comes from it.  I love RPGs though, and this one is just me wrapped up in a game engine.

 That's the updates for now.  I am taking the next week to recover and prepare for the upcoming photo shoot on Saturday.  Then I am getting back to kanzashi.

Life Updates and Upcoming Shop Vacation

It never stops. 

Major personal events have occured over the past week.

First off, my son's namesake (My husband's maternal grandfather) passed away.  It was a hard loss. 
The next day I received confirmation of my antibody test results.  After an 8 year downhill spiral I finally have evidence of a Type 1 diabetic status. Its an emotional time, since this is not something that would be celebrated normally, but after trying to push and receive this confirmation or any confirmation of what is actually going on for EIGHT years, this is a joyous sense of closure. 

Store stuff:

Despite the stressful and emotional week, I am finding comfort in the many warm condolences I have received after my son's namesake passed, and settling back into kanzashi.  I've started a new bouquet piece, just because it is something I am familiar with.  It the creamy printed chirimen I usually use for pink and pearl pieces.  This one is print with pink and wisteria purple (basically a deep lavender), and yellow-green for leaf accent. I already have 2 large blossoms (one medium kiku, and one double sakura), several small flowers with stamen centers, 2 buds, and a couple of flower/leaf combo for filler.  I want to make a piece or two more, possibly add a bira bira to this one, plus a shidare. 

I have adored making these big varied bouquets.  It is complicated enough to hold my interest and really elaborate on the diversity of my accomplishments.  I feel like it's a big step, artistically, yet it seems easier to make these than some of the other things I have tried to come up with on my own. 

I also bought and received several new Japanese craft books! I have one on chirimen work I have wanted for some time, and another on Japanese paper cords, or mizuhiki.  I am super, duper excited about the mizuhiki pattern book.  It is also often incorporated in kanzashi, as decoration or leaf patterns for bulb flowers such as narcissus, iris, and daffodil.

Right now my family has packed up and left me for a personal vacation.  I am hoping to finish several projects I have planned, but I dont know the feasibility of that many goals. Right now I am procrastinating on the shidare for the new bouquet, and it might wait until tomorrow.  Not certain yet. But I have that with my obijime still going strong, my pine needle kanzashi needs some work, and I am hoping to sew a dress for my daughter before the memorial service in the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of memorial services, I will be forced to close the shop and move it to vacation status since the memorial service will be in new mexico and I wont be able to ship anything. 

I also did some tie dying with my daughter this week to support her website, Kara and Friends.  I have only just got her shop up and running with almost no inventory. The tie dye shirts were suppose to be part of her new inventory, but they came out KINDA poor.  The colors held ok, but the centers of the swirl patterns didn't get much dye, if any.  Most of them are still pretty white on the outside.  I am going to put a logo on them and send them out to friends and family at this point.  But it was a lot of work and I dont think I even want my daughter around next batch I do.  She basically sat around while I did all the work.  Next batch will be better I hope.  But this one, not so much.

I am still going through lots of supplies these days. I am in the middle of sewing myself a dress, but I dont think i it is going to fit, just a size or two too small.  But I am ok with that, so no matter.  It was nice to use my new presser feet and work on the machine for a while.  It is also one of my goals for this weekend.  That and to try on my kimono for fitting.  And to get my house clean.  And to clean out my kid's toys.  And and and and......

It's going to be a busy week.