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 Morning Glory

Helen and I love kanzashi morning glories! We've been admiring them for years, and Helen has tried to figure out how to make one the traditional way, with absolutely no success. We have observed two distinct petal shapes that other artists use for asagao, or morning glories. Here's an example of one....

....it might be hard to see, but it's a rounded petal that creates a trumpet-shaped flower. We think it's just so beautiful. You can buy this one on Etsy from JagataraArt here . Now, here's an example of the other petal shape, equally as beautiful....

This is also available on Etsy from GirLinKimono ; buy it here . Well, Helen even found an online tutorial for one of these, and couldn't make head or tail out of it. Not wanting to just give up, Helen made up her own morning glory petal. The goal was to look something like these...

                                                      ....and here's what Helen made.....

And guess what? Helen's new petal, while unorthodox for kanzashi, is pretty easy, so here's your tutorial! First, cut a 3-inch square of fabric and fold it roughly in thirds, like this...

....now, fold that in half...

.....now, pinch in the center, like this......

.....and fasten it with a bobby pin, or something.....

......and now stitch it, or glue it....whatever you usually do to make your kanzashi petals. Helen's sewn version looks like this on the back....

OK, now glue 5 of these together, leaving no space at the top. A variation you might want to try, is to sew or glue the petals in reverse, so that the smooth side is the front of the flower. We haven't tried that out yet, but we're thinking about it. Let us know what happens if you do it, OK? 

 

Nerdy botanical note: the above photo of flowers is a Google image generated from the keywords morning glories. If you search for asagao, you find photos of similar flowers, but the leaves are quite different; they have 3 lobes, not something you find in the Americas at all. So, we're assuming the Japanese asagao is a different species from what we look at in our neighborhood.

So, Helen made the above comb for herself. She's got some plans to make something similar to sell, from a rich, royal blue vintage kimono silk, and I don't know, something green for the leaves. We'll keep you posted!

Review from Christine

Just a quickie, tonight, I guess. Christine posted her very lovely review of some of Helen's work a few days ago. Read it here . Also, Christine sent Helen some of her beautiful photos, such as this one...

(Logo by Christine). A new version of these clips is posted on Etsy here . And this one. These little ume, or plum flowers, are listed on Etsy as a snap clip pair. Christine requested these on ponytail elastics, as she wanted to wear them with her braids. Helen thought it was a cute idea.....

This is a made-to-order item, which you can find here .

Anyhoo, at this moment, Helen is laboriously and slowly experimenting with something. Necessity is the mother of invention, as is making up something of your own if you can't figure out how to do it the way everyone else does it. All shall be revealed when Helen finally finishes her project. For now, we have high hopes.

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.