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.