Kanzashi Magnolia

A few weeks ago, a guy contacted Helen and asked her to design a tiny little kanzashi magnolia. Helen came up with two preliminary ideas, and he chose one of them. More on this in a later post!

The other design, the one that the guy didn't choose, is the one that Helen decided to blow up to a more normal kanzashi hair accessory size, and to make into a bridal head piece. Now, magnolias are kind of challenging in a kanzashi context, as their petals (or "tepals", the proper botanical term) are rounded, yet pointed, in a way that's just difficult to reproduce in the kanzashi technique. Helen managed to get the shape right (sort of) with a rounded petal into which she pressed a little crease with an iron, at an intermediate juncture of the petal's fabrication! I can't really explain it better than that, but I know you kanzashi artists will experiment with it, if you haven't already!

Here's the flower.....

This is habutai silk with synthetic leaves and a teardrop Swarovski crystal sewn into the center. Buy it here .

There are very few kanzashi magnolias to be found in the online universe, and now Helen and I know why. They are difficult to represent, even in the stylized kanzashi world. Helen will soon be making more magnolias of a different kind, perhaps a lot of them! For this reason, she has decided to give that rice glue another try, and whipped up a batch in the kitchen yesterday. Makes a big mess!

Kanzashi Bracelet, Part Cinq

When will we get a little break from this weather? You can probably tell from my expression that even an indoor cat like myself could use a little warmth. I didn't know how easy I had it when I lived with Helen's friend Jason's sister in Houston.

Just a new configuration of bracelet "components" makes this new bracelet post-worthy. It came out a bit larger than the others that are similar to this one; Helen's other bracelets fit Helen (big surprise). This one really needs a larger wrist for the design to make sense. Made mainly from dupioni silk.....

this bracelet has leaves grouped in threes and a snap closure, with a chirimen silk kanzashi flower concealing the snap....

....and a freshwater pearl sewn into the flower's center.Our modeled photos came out kind of crappy, so we'll skip those, shall we? We have something else to discuss, anyway! Helen has been busily preparing for the bridal trunk show at Third Coast Style for like, months. She is now finished with sewing and is almost done with display preparations, which involved making tags or cards, among other things, for 118 different items. Here are some of them....

As you can see, they are not all kanzashi.....Helen really enjoys making flowers from singed fabric. Singed fabric flowers are often faster to make, but the technique does bring a certain amount of volatility that you might expect when melting the edges of synthetic cloth. Plus, who knows what kind of pollutants you might be inhaling? 

Anyhoo, I want all of you who live in or around Milwaukee to go see Helen's stuff at Third Coast Style! The bridal show will be going on for about 2 weeks, February 12-March 2. Even if you aren't a bride, there's lots that you might be interested in.....many brightly colored items, some of which are not available at Helen's Etsy shop, plus a whole store full of cool stuff, all of it designed in the Milwaukee area. Go check out Milwaukee's newest boutique!

New Bridal Kanzashi

It's Polar Vortex II here in the upper Midwestern US! Helen cancelled everything for today to stay in and make stuff, woohoo! Predicted lows for tonight? Somewhere in the -17 to -20 degrees F. range.

So, Helen has been working very hard for the last couple months on her latest project, the Bridal Trunk Show at Third Coast Style , Milwaukee's newest boutique. Third Coast Style is dedicated to selling the work of Milwaukee designers, and is located in our downtown's Fashion District. The trunk show goes from February 12th to March 2nd, and features the work of 14 designers.

So, I just wanted to show you some of these newer bridal things that you may not have seen yet. First, here's a large cream and beige kanzashi rose that Helen made from some silk charmeuse she got from Patrice....

....and here's a sort of stylized lotus of shantung silk that Lannette gave to Helen a while ago.....

Here's the bridal peony Helen just finished today, from ivory habutai and green moire....

......and reminiscent of the peony, here's the newest version of Helen's Yorkshire Rose.....

Finally, something older that I haven't posted here before, but is something of an achievement of Kanzashi engineering, as it coaxes a teardrop shaped crystal bead to stand on its end.....

There's plenty of other stuff, of course. Less rewarding than creating the designs is coming up with effective display, which is the next project. Let's all wish Helen some luck here, as it is not her strongest ability!

Kanzashi Bracelet, Part Quatre

It's cold. Here I am in one of my Winter Places, next to a heat duct. It's where I live. Helen lives there too, always has, I hear. She keeps the house at 64 degrees F, so who wouldn't be huddling in front of the heat?

So, more bracelets. These are bridal, and more variations and colors are on the way, I understand. The idea is similar to Helen's kanzashi headbands.....Greek goddess-like wreaths of laurel leaves, or something. First, the shantung silk single-leaf bracelet.....

...You might notice that the flower is not a kanzashi flower. Helen said she couldn't make one that small. Its purpose is to cover the snap closure, and of course, it's pretty. Here's our model wearing it.....

...and the other way.....

Buy it here . Next, a double-leaf, criss-crossed version of the same thing......

with a silk kanzashi flower. Another view...

Buy it here . So yeah, more of these on the way. Meanwhile, I'd like to show you Helen's new morning glory comb.....

Kimono silk with white tulle and a freshwater pearl. It's here in the Etsy shop. More stuff soon.

Kanzashi Bracelet, Part Trois

Well, it's officially winter, and the weather around here has been annoying, and about to get far worse, from what I understand. Good time to turn our attention to other things, like this new bracelet idea.

Helen's friend Erin loves the color green, and each December, Helen gives herself the personal challenge of making something green for Erin's birthday. Since Helen noticed that Erin had been wearing a beautiful jade bracelet, you know in which direction the new ideas started to go! And since Helen and Erin's orchestral colleagues like to decorate themselves quite a bit for their Christmas concerts, well.....here's the fabric Helen chose, a chirimen silk sent by her Kanzashi Fairy Godmother in Japan.....

Helen used an idea similar to last year's kanzashi Christmas wreath pin....make a lot of skinny pointy petals, and glue them together in groups of three, then glue the groups to each other. Here's what she got:

An abstract sort of pepperminty wreath for your wrist! How do you fasten it? With some snaps.....

                                                    ....on either end....

           ...and a glued satin ribbon protects the underside. Here it is on our famous bracelet model.....

This design is pretty labor intensive, so Helen decided not to put it into commercial production, haha, but you go ahead and make it. You have time, right? Maybe more bracelets coming down the pike, I think!

Christmas Kanzashi 2013

Season's Greetings to all, and as usual, there's not much time to post today, but I thought I'd show you a couple new Christmas pieces that Helen has made for her Etsy shop.

First, one of Helen's many cross-cultural creations! A pair of kanzashi bobby pin flowers made from a small remnant of the vintage Liberty of London cotton print, "Ianthe". Helen had no idea that Liberty of London, or Liberty Tana Lawn, was A Thing, but it is. Helen showed the fabric to J9 over her Thanksgiving visit, and J9, a fabric connoisseur, got all excited. Here's the pattern, a very art nouveau looking thing....

.....and here are Helen's more abstract looking bobby pins, complete with vintage faux pearls....

Buy 'em here . Next, here are some snap clip flowers that Helen made from a small piece of Japanese linen that Suzanne C. gave to Helen. Very Christmassy!

Bigger pictures are here , where you can also buy them. There's another Christmassy sort of thing coming down the pike, but we need to reserve that one for another post!

Meanwhile, J9 convinced Helen to try a rotary cutter, which is fairly standard for kanzashi makers, but which Helen had resisted for years. The good things are that it can be a more accurate than shears and that it allows you to skip the step of marking your fabric. The down side is that Helen is having a little trouble getting the hang of it. We think that she has already managed to dull part of her blade, because of rubbing against her rulers, or something. The wheel seems to skip, and some fabric shredding is going on. Any tips from you more experienced rotary cutter users are much appreciated!

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.