Buttrflyz

 

 

Recently, Helen's friend J9 gave her a bunch of fabric remnants, and among them was a brilliantly colored silk faille, with colors that Helen likes for butterflies. Months earlier, Helen had promised her sister a kanzashi pin, and this was the perfect opportunity to make a butterfly brooch. Here's what she came up with.....

 

 

We like the good clean lines of this butterfly, but gosh, it was hard to wrestle the fabric into these petal (wing?) shapes, because it was slippery. Helen was also intrigued by the effect possible from groups of skinny-pointy petals for wings. So, here's her second version from the same fabric....

 

 

In this case, the beads are wired on, which was fun and easy to do! Much easier than sewing them...Let's take a look at other people's kanzashi butterflies.

 

Here's one with clever layering and a button body from Scarlet and Maria on Etsy...

 

 

....and here's an elaborate one with beautiful colors and elegant form from kurikami-kanzashi.deviantart.com ...

 

 

A pale green butterfly with a coiled body is no longer available from an unnamed artist on Etsy, but remains in perpetuity at Google images...

 

 

and some of our favorite butterflies ever can be found in the Kanzashi Boutique Flickr photostream, hereabouts .

 

There are many other ways of making butterflies and other insects in the kanzashi style. Many kanzashi artists also combine butterflies with flowers and leaves to make beautiful compositions, such as this one by Kanzashi Temple on Etsy...

OK, so this is becoming overwhelming, and I think it's time to get back to my nap. Butterflies can be challenging because of the engineering problems of constructing the insect's body. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Plum Flower Kanzashi

 

It's February, and things can happen, like furnaces malfunctioning. That happened to us the other day, and the furnace guy said he would return with the part he needed to replace the next day. When it became evident that the temperature was going to drop significantly, Helen asked her friend Rebecca if we could stay at her house, just across the street. Rebecca was very gracious and we all had a fun time socializing in her living room, and of course, I explored the house some. Early the next morning, Rebecca went off to teach, the kids went off to school, Helen went to train with her weightlifting coach, and I went off to have a good nap in one of the secret hiding places I found. Many hours later, the humans were in hysterics because they couldn't find me! When I got up, they acted like it was a big miracle, but instead of welcoming me with squeals of delight and a big bowl of food, Helen crammed me into a cat carrier and hustled me across the street to our house, telling me how worried they all had been. Just what is the big deal?

Anyway, as I was saying, it's February, and that is the month for ume, or plum flower kanzashi. I would say that the ume are perhaps the most iconic of the kanzashi. They have just 5 rounded petals and are so lovely in their simplicity. Let's take a look at some.

Here's one of Helen's snap clip pairs.....simple little silk flowers with onyx bead centers....

Buy 'em here. OK, let's look at a few other artists' use of ume. Lilyashes from Kanzashi Temple on Etsy has made a graceful large assemblage of chirimen silk ume with wonderful leaves and shidari falls.....

Kitty Kanzashi on Etsy illustrates that ume don't have to be small in this beautiful wedding hair piece...

 

....and Random Cat Girl on Etsy demonstrates a kind of colorful layering with this lovely comb...

 

 

....and I can't resist showing an example of the wonderful effect of ume made from printed fabric, as Helen demonstrates with another one of her vintage kimono silk snap clip pairs...

 

 

Buy 'em here . OK, so we could really go on and on, as kanzashi artists are creative people who might well make more ume than anything else. You get the idea. In any case, it's a good way to get through February.

Kanzashi Peony

The kanzashi peony, or botan, seems to have two different forms. Both involve rounded petals, of course, but there are different kinds, you know? Both forms are beautiful, so here are some examples.

First, the more common one, I think. This composition of two flowers and a bud is from Magpie Creations on Etsy. Helen and I love its romance, delicate coloring, layered petals.....

Here's a slightly different interpretation from Polished Kanzashi on Etsy. We love the coloration, the beautiful vintage chirimen silk, and of course the trademark handmade clay stamens....

OK, now for the other form. These gathered-looking petals are made by AtelierKanawa on Etsy. We love the hand-dyed fabric and the very rounded, luxurious petals.....

OK, now for Helen's very first botan. Helen had to spend some months figuring out how to make a gathered-looking, rounded petal. While she clearly did not use the same method as the above peony, the petals are still quite round and broad......

Helen used habutai silk and a yellow jade bead for her peony. It is not yet mounted on any hardware, so it can be a hair accessory or brooch......buy it here!

More Styrofoam

This one's just a quickie. Some months ago, Helen waxed on and on about ways to finish your kanzashi flowers. She came up with a hare-brained EZ method of creating a flower center from styrofoam covered with the fabric you've been using. Here's a little example of that first one she did:

Not bad for an amateur. Buy 'em here https://www.etsy.com/listing/115257962/blue-brown-flower-hair-clips-kanzashi Now, I'm going to give you a tip, if you're interested in doing this little trick. Shape your styrofoam center with a pair of scissors....not the good ones for fabric, but some less good ones. The ones you use to cut paper. The scissors just seem to give you enhanced control, and the shape might come out a little more regular, if that's what you're into. Here's Helen's latest:

Here, she has covered the center with the reverse of the fabric, a nice effect you can try, too. Or buy it here https://www.etsy.com/listing/120101754/red-flower-brooch-or-hair-clip

Kanzashi Headbands

Happy New Year! It's January, and I'm cold, but I'm continuing to feel better, even playing every day with twist ties and a funny ball that rolls in unexpected ways. Boy, I wasn't interested in that last fall! I still hate the subcutaneous fluids that Helen has to give me twice a week, but at least she has found ways to make me more comfortable....making the fluid warmer, and so forth.

Helen decided to start the new year with her first kanzashi headbands. They are both intended to evoke the image of the crown of laurel leaves that a Greek goddess would wear, or something. Here's one in black dupioni silk.....

.....which you can purchase here http://www.etsy.com/listing/119429792/black-headband-kanzashi-silk-leaves , and here's a bridal version of the same thing, available here http://www.etsy.com/listing/119902084/ivory-bridal-headband-kanzashi-silk?ref=v1_other_1 

Dupioni silk works beautifully for this kind of leaf design. Since rounded flower petals in dupioni can get a bit squooshed, Helen decided to layer them, for added oomph. 

Self-Imposed Christmas Challenges

Well, it's cold now, and Helen likes to save energy. The house is freezing most of the time, so I spend an awful lot of hours huddled next to the bathroom heat vent. When the door is opened just the right amount, I can create my own little warm micro-environment. This is how I plan to get through the winter, and probably the spring, too.

Recently, Helen's friend J9 was buying fabric at Mood Fabrics in New York, and grabbed some samples to send to Helen. Some of those swatches were pretty tiny! Helen loved the richness of the silk brocades, though, and became smitten with the idea of using them. The fabrics were mostly rich ruby reds or maroons, and you know, it's Christmas, soon. The only choice was to make some "sampler" flowers.

Since the swatches were mostly long and skinny, Helen's largest squares were about 1 5/8 inches, a size she had always avoided. She just managed to get rounded petals out of them, and came up with this pair of ume, or plum flowers.....

Buy them here https://www.etsy.com/listing/118890008/red-flower-hair-clips-kanzashi-silk . Next, she made triangular petals with the really small squares, and came up with this pair of flowers that resembles hellebores, sort of...

Here they are in the Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/118774650/red-flower-hair-clips-kanzashi-silk

So. She really didn't have to go through all that to make her first sampler flowers, something she had been thinking about for a long time. She could have used normal-sized squares of some fabrics she already had, rather than have the stress of being such a miniaturist. But oh well, that's the way things happen sometimes. Better late than never!

Remember Helen's kikyo? The blue Chinese bell flower that she started back in September? Even though it's not exactly seasonal, Helen wanted to complete it. Here's how it turned out......

Buy it here https://www.etsy.com/listing/118826268/blue-flower-brooch-kanzashi-kikyu Happy Holidays, and try to stay warm!

Christmas Kanzashi (with a little tutorial)

Goodness, it's been so long since I last posted anything! As you can imagine, Helen and
I have been extremely busy. I had some....uh, digestive problems which needed two different courses of anti-biotics to resolve. Then, I had another sort of digestive problem which needed an antacid. Then, there was the matter of this one area I was using as a powder room, which apparently isn't a powder room. Helen got very upset about that....how was I to know? Meanwhile, Helen has been playing a million concerts this month. She managed to squeeze in as many as two kanzashi pieces since I last posted, a headband for her friend Robin, and a Christmas wreath pin!

We're starting to see more and more Christmas kanzashi....some inventive poinsettias and holly, as well as this beautiful snowflake from Ivanna on Etsy www.ivanna.etsy.com ....

and this fabulous Christmas tree from Designs In Blooms on Etsy www.designsinblooms.etsy.com ...

 

Helen loves wreaths, and decided to create one. Here's what she did, and you can try it too! First, she made 30 pointy petals (yep, 30, it's a labor intensive project). She used 1.5 inch squares, but you can probably use any size you want. She glued then together in groups of 3, like this...

 

 

...then, she glued the groups of 3 on top of each other at a slight angle, in the following manner...

 

 

See where I'm going with this? Just glue them on top of each other so that you can form a circle once you've got 10 of them.  OK, once you have your circle completed, decorate it with things like a bow, or some beads to represent Christmas ball ornaments or something! Helen made hers into a brooch...

 

 

The beautiful green taffeta that Helen used is really hard to photograph effectively, so Helen is going to sell this one at her friend Angela's craft fair in a couple weeks, rather than post it on Etsy. If you're in Milwaukee on December 22nd, find them at the Last Ditch Effort Holiday Bazaar at the Kings Commons Studio and Gallery, 2767 Martin Luther King Drive. It's hosted by The Zen Dragonfly. See you there!