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!