Mor Nu Thingz

Helen's summer was packed with new kanzashi, and she is glad to have had the opportunity to make so many new things! One thing she forgot to tell me about in time for the last post was a little collaboration she did with her friend Lannette. Lannette designs mostly bridal gowns in Southern California, and she creates flower girl dresses, too. She sent Helen some lovely plum, lavender and ivory satins, and asked for flowers for the dress's sash and a complementary hair clip. Here's what Helen came up with....

....and here's the dress!!! So pretty....

What else? A new chirimen silk necklace, (buy it here)....

Next, new lapel flowers! Helen has been posting these on the Instagrams, and has been getting a good deal of approval from men's fashion retailers and bloggers. Seriously! Here's a plaid dupioni silk one with a goldstone bead (buy it here)

....and an ume-shaped vintage kimono silk with a faux pearl here.....

.....a red and gold Chinese silk brocade lapel flower that Helen's friend Valerie bought on Etsy.....

....this fall colors linen one here.....

... this red chirimen silk flower here

and a black tie silk one that I can't figure out how to show you, but you can see it here.

Now, Helen has two things to announce. First, she is partnering with a friend who is a marketing professional, to sell most of her new flower lapel pins on her friend's website (yay)! They have just barely started this process, so I won't send you to any links yet, because there's nothing online to see at this moment. Helen is just thrilled that she has the support of a knowledgeable (and impressive!) person to sell these things, because selling is the Supreme Challenge, and Helen is an orchestra musician, so who do you think has the better chance of marketing this stuff successfully? More when we have something to show you!

The next thing is that Helen figured out a New Thing for kanzashi flower centers, and she is going to do a tutorial for me to post soon. She promises.

Kanzashi Boutonnieres

So, hope you are having an enjoyable summer. We've been busy tying up loose ends. Helen is frazzled, for some reason, feels like she can't catch up. She hauled me into the vet's office the other day. They poked me with all sorts of things. Seems like Helen is the one who could use some medical attention.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about something new for kanzashi today. I mentioned in an earlier post that a guy in New York contacted Helen, asking for a teeny little flower to be used as a lapel pin. It took 2 months to come up with a prototype, and I'm still not allowed to show it to you, but it opened the door to a whole new category of kanzashi for Helen to make: les boutonnieres. Here are a few things that Helen has made as gifts. First, a little nanohana flower as a birthday present for one of her friends, made from vintage kimono silk and a coin pearl.....

.....and some dupioni silk roses....

These flowers are each about 1.5 inches in diameter, so quite small. So, that's actually it for the lapel pins for right now. Next are some new things that Helen is giving her friend Denise to sell at her hair salon. Here's a new ponytail flower made from 3 different batik cottons.....

....and some new necklaces, like this one from silk satin organza....

......BTW, that stuff is really hard to work with. Next, a necklace from chirimen silk and pink jade......

......here's a pendant from three different colors of  dupioni silk.....

......a little number from two different silks with a linen twist in the center......

......and an older one from a synthetic fabric, with tulle and a freshwater pearl....

Finally, an item that Helen will has just posted in her Etsy shop: a pair of soft grey-ish lavender silk organza bobby pins....

 

Buy 'em here.

 

So, that's the new-ish stuff for the moment. Helen is excited to have a bunch of new fabric to play with, so there should be new designs over the course of the summer. Will report back when there's more!

New Bobby Pin Design

So, Helen has been serving an awful lot of masters, lately, and is very distracted. On the one hand, it's great to be needed and active! On the other hand, it can be pretty stressful, what with the Problems Helen and her colleagues are dealing with.

Anyhoo, I wanted to show you Helen's fun new bobby pin design. Take a look!

Aren't they cute? We are unsure of the fiber content, as Helen got this bright pink chiffon remnant from longtime dressmaker Susie F, but it might be silk. It sure works well with this petal shape. Helen used vintage faux pearls for the centers. Buy 'em here . We're thinking about what other fabrics and colors Helen can use for this design.....maybe they would be good bridal hair accessories.

In other news, our friend Joana now has a fabulous licensing agreement for some of her work! Some of her whimsical fashion illustrations now adorn phone and iPad cases. Check 'em out here .

Lastly, Helen now has a new place to sell some of her wares. Third Coast Style is a beautiful new store in Milwaukee's fashion district. Here are some of Helen's new Christmas-y silk pendants, which will be in the store starting mid-November....

Note the blood trillium in the upper right corner. OK, so gotta go. Helen has a lot of work to do, and I'm working on staying warm.

Kanzashi Fun with Blogs

Helen started working again with these people , so her time has gotten a little more limited for creative work. Luckily, she gets to bask in a little recognition that's been happening recently!

Helen's friend Joana featured some of Helen's hair accessory designs in this whimsical little blog post . Joana knows Helen from the musical world. A few years back, Joana became a goldsmith, and began producing award-winning designs. While she currently has left jewelry design behind (we hope temporarily!) she has become quite a sophisticated fashion illustrator, and she sells her fun drawings as prints and cards here .

What else? During the summer, a young woman blogger in LA emailed Helen, asking to review some of her work. Helen sent Christine a few things, and Christine took some wonderful photos. The full review isn't up yet, but the sneak peak is here .

I can't leave you without posting some kanzashi pictures, however. Helen is selling her kanzashi necklaces at her neighbor Terry's store (one of them already sold!!!) and Helen took a few photos, luckily. What have we got?

Here's a little number in dupioni silk with a pink jade bead...

....another dupioni one with carnelian....

....and a couple in kimono silk from Helen's kanzashi fairy godmother in Japan; this Christmas-y one with yellow jade....

...and this salmon shades one with a sort of off-color carnelian bead....

Next: Helen made a kanzashi bobby pin in chiffon that she would love to show you. She's going to make another one in the same design, only a little smaller. Sorry, you're going to have to wait.

New Necklaces

Sorry for such a hasty post! We've been pretty busy, but I wanted to just check in. Helen's experience at the dog walk last month was just terrible. She and Kas sold exactly 2 items each, including the things they sold to each other! Most sellers were disappointed, but anyway, life goes on. There will be more shows, in fact, there's one tomorrow!

Helen's friend Angela invited her to share a tent at a block party on Milwaukee's East Side. This fair goes into the night-time hours, so Helen has been busily getting her lighting options together. And I thought I would just quickly show you a few of her new kanzashi necklaces that she'll be showing tomorrow.

First, there's a one-of-a-kind fall colors one, made from vintage kimono silk and carnelian...

...next is a pink dupioni silk flower with a glass bead. The petal shape here is Helen's invention...

Next is another one-of-a-kind item. Well, not completely, because Rebecca bought one just like it, but there's really no more fabric left, so it's sort of an exclusive. This one is vintage kimono silk with an onyx bead...

Also! Helen's neighbor Terry is a co-owner of Magpie Jewelry in Wauwatosa, WI. Terry loves Helen's kanzashi necklaces, and she is going to sell them at the store! Terry is very optimistic about them, which makes us happy. Helen is hoping to make a lot more of these.

OK, I gotta go. Helen is going to a party tonight, and has a special order to start from an Etsy customer. Later!

Kanzashi Fairy Godmother

Helen's first-ever outdoor selling event is less than a week away, and she's nervously trying to take care of details, but I wanted to tell you a fun little story of serendipitous luck which has already resulted in some lovely new kanzashi pieces!

Helen's friend Kas has a Japanese-Polish cousin who lived for a while in Japan.  Kas's cousin has a Japanese friend whose son attended an English language program in Madison, WI. Every weekend, he would come to stay with Kas and her husband, and do normal American family type things with them. Eternally grateful, Kas's cousin's Japanese friend has been sending Kas lavish gifts for years. Well as it turns out, the lady makes kimonos.

One day, Kas casually asked Helen if she would like some more fabric for making kanzashi, explaining that she has a Japanese friend who might have some of the stuff to send. Helen said sure. Then they both forgot all about it.

Until about 3 weeks ago, when a beautiful box stuffed with primo kimono remnants arrived in the mail. Gorgeous, colorful chirimen silk, silk linings, cotton remnants, obi scraps, silk that Helen doesn't know what to call or how to describe. Fabric that Helen can use and fabric that she's giving away to her friend Angela. For a kanzashi maker, this is like dying and going to heaven.

Just to show you how crazy beautiful some of these Japanese textiles are, I made Helen take some pictures. First, here's a remnant that Helen couldn't bear to cut up....it's going to Angela....

Photos cannot do it justice. At least, not Helen's photos. Similarly, here's a gorgeous piece that Helen also hates to cut up, but might anyway.....a big pattern with beautiful flowers. Here's a detail...

So. Helen wanted more colorful silk for making pendants,and that is what she received. Here are only the first six long ribbon necklaces...

Buy them this Saturday, August 17th, at the Walk for the Animals, benefiting the Washington County Humane Society here in Wisconsin. We'll be at Jackson Park, in the village of Jackson. All day.

There are so many more possibilities in that box full of fabric, so carefully packed by its sender. It's a silk candy store. Helen is so grateful to her kanzashi fairy godmother, somewhere in Japan, and planning on including a pendant for her in the next care package that Kas sends.

More Necklaces and a Pin

Helen and I have both been very busy, of course, but we found time to make a few things in between working, trying to garden a little in this very cold weather, and trying to organize a few reviews of Helen's new recording (check out the super sexy new press release and a couple tunes here). To begin with, Helen made her first nanohana.

Nanohana is the flower of the rape plant. Despite its unfortunate English name, rape is a very tasty vegetable, and I understand its seeds are also useful! Nanohana is a kanzashi flower for March, and is usually portrayed in clusters. Helen just made one as a pendant from vintage kimono silk with a wonderfully crinkly texture...

 

Buy the necklace here. What else? A colorful little star-shaped flower from the remains of a beautiful silk blend jacquard that Helen's friend J9 gave her.....

 

 

....a red habotai flower with yellow jade.....

 

 

.....buy it here  . And finally, a flower that just had to be a brooch, made from an old silk scarf that J9 gave to Helen...

 

 

We just love the colors. It will probably end up in a gallery. We can see making some ume or plum flower pendants from this fabric.

 

OK, that's all for the moment. Soon, kanzashi bracelets.

Kanzashi Necklaces

 

Sorry for the delay, as usual, but there are so many new things to report! Helen has a new recording, a new publicist, a new iPad mini, a new Alexander Technique teacher, and a new kanzashi design......necklaces!

Here's what happened: Helen's friend Rebecca came over one day and said, "Make me a necklace, here's how you can do it". Rebecca is an art teacher, so she always has lots of Ideas. Well, not all of them work, as it turns out, but Helen liked the concept, and decided to try it.

Helen never cared much for fabic flower necklaces, because combining fabric with metal chains never seemed Quite Right to her. Rebecca's idea was for a long ribbon necklace with just one small flower. After doing some Experimenting, Helen arrived at her pendant design, and here's how to do it.

OK, make your flower.....probably something small with 4-7 petals. Now, cut a small piece of thin satin ribbon.....1 inch is probably sufficient. Fold the ribbon in half.....this is going to be your loop. Hand sew the ribbon to a small piece of fabric that won't fray....some knit or spandex sort of thing. Just tack it a few times. It will look roughly like this:

That's the underside. Glue this side to the flower. Here's the exposed side:

All right, it's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks relatively clean.....you mainly see the fabric, a few stitches, and a small ribbon loop. Now, glue it to the back of the flower, and slip a long ribbon through the loop, like this:

OK, so you've glued it. What about the back of the flower? You have to have something to protect it and hide the unmentionables, like glue and/or stitches. After trying a few things, Helen has decided on using the same fabric as the flower. Cut a small circle, treat the raw edge with fray prevention liquid or heat, and glue it to the flower back. All right, now for the fun part. Here are some completed necklaces. This one is silver fabric with a coin pearl....

 

 

That one's at the Morning Glory Gallery . Here are some that will be in Helen's Etsy shop soon...these are all silk of various sorts. This one's more about the leaves than the flower....

 

 

Fleur-de-lis.....

 

 

Dupioni silk with a coin pearl....

 

 

Another dupioni silk with a blue jade bead....

 

 

More to come.

 

Just a tip...pendants get bumped around more than brooches or hair accessories, so Helen is trying to stick mainly with silk for these flowers. We're impressed by the staying power of habutai, and the resilience of chirimen (neither of which are pictured here, lol). We all may stray to synthetics every now and again, but we can see the reason kanzashi were and are made from kimono silk....it's absolutely the right fabric.