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.   

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.

Shop is CLOSED TILL AUGUST and Japanese Silk Embroidery Lessons!

SHOP IS NOW CLOSED TILL END OF JULY OR EARLY AUGUST!!!

I am currently moving and working on different projects, like Japanese Silk Embroidery!

After 4 years I have finally found a teacher! She knows her stuff, and since she formerly taught the children's class at the JEC (Japanese Embroidery Center, Atlanta, Georgia).  We went through a lot, and I have enough to finish the first half of the piece, with only the kiku and momiji left to have instruction.  I am almost finished with the first pine tree, the one in twisted silk.  The one in the background (to the left) is done in flat silk.  The cherry blossoms are twisted, and the ume are flat silk.  Each flower requires a different technique.  I can see why students take 5 years of intense study.  I don't know if I will ever be a master, but we shall see.

In the meantime I am learning to go slowly, keep my hands in place, and keep my stitches straight!