Daffodil Kanzashi

It's certainly not daffodil season anymore, but Helen has had daffodils on the brain recently. Someone bought one of her kanzashi daffodil bridal head pieces, and Helen had an idea to replace it with a different one, so the synapses began to fire. The final result springs forth from a long line of daffodils.

First, here are some other ones, just for fun. This first is one of Helen's, and some of you may have seen it before. Helen made it from a delightful buttery yellow linen...

Buy it here. Let's look at some other interpretations of daffodil kanzashi (and there are many more than I can post here). Here's a lovely one from KanzashiCore...

We especially like the botanically correct addition of the strap-like leaves that daffodils have. Read the article on the KanzashiCore website here. Next, let's look at a beautiful multi-flowered hair stick assemblage from Mizu's Garden on Etsy. As you can see, these colorful daffodils are made using entirely different petal shapes than the previous two...

...and finally, let's look at a set of cute little hair clips from JuLVa on Etsy. Here, the daffodil leaves are cleverly represented by lengths of cut ribbon...

So, this brings us to Helen's new daff. Some time ago, Helen's cyber-friend Lannette sent her remnants of a beautiful, barely off-white dupioni silk, left over from construction of a wedding gown. Helen has used it a few times for various projects, and was drooling over the thought of using it for a bridal daffodil comb. She just had to figure out what to do about the center....the solution turned out to be a petal shape that Helen invented a couple years ago. Here it is....

Freshwater pearl in the center. Buy it here.

So, once again, you can see why kanzashi is so appealing to so many artists---visions of the same flower can be expressed so many different ways. The limit is our imagination.

Kanzashi Bracelet(s)?

Why all the doubt? Helen had been talking about kanzashi bracelets for a long time, and had ideas about how she was going to put them together, what kind of flowers and fabric to use, etc. Now, she doesn't know whether to continue making these, and she NEEDS YOUR HELP.

Here's what she did: she bought some of those extra large hair elastic thingies at the dollar store. For a dollar. She made 6 of her hydrangea flowers, and attached them to said hair elastic. Here's what she got:

 

 

OK, you get the idea. Here's a shot where you can sort of see how she attached the flowers:

 

 

So, here's the question, dear readers and commenters. Does it look too much like a fancy hair scrunchy? Helen just doesn't know if she should invest more time and energy into these. It might just need a good model, someone with really nice nails who is also photogenic, like Rebecca. 

 

Helen posted a photo on the face books and asked people what they thought; nobody said a word. Same thing on Flickr: one person said she liked it (thanks, Carly!). Folks, we desperately need more opinions, so give ol' Helen a break here, and tell her whether you think this project is worth pursuing some more. Don't be afraid to say that you don't care for it, OK? It's all right. We are just mired in doubt and need some guidance from design-conscience people, like you!