Last Ditch Effort with Planet Alpha Male

Sadie here, blogging from the Beyond. It's pretty nice here, plenty to eat, sunshine, other cats to play with, mice, toys, soft places to sleep. I said I would continue to blog even after my passing, because Helen is too busy. At least here, my kidneys are just fine, thanks. 

So, Helen made a lot of stuff for her pal Michael to sell at his Planet Alpha Male booth at the 4th Annual Last Ditch Effort fair, the brainchild of Helen and Michael's friend Angela . The Last Ditch has all sorts of great local handmade stuff: art, accessories, jewelry, food, reiki, massage, home decor, soaps, you name it. And it is just a few days before Christmas, for all us procrastinators. So you see, this is OUR fair.

Helen only had the chance to take a few pictures of the seasonal kanzashi lapel pins that she made special for the Last Ditch Effort. Some of them are quite unique, so I thought I would show them to you. First, Helen's only kanzashi poinsettia, shantung silk with some new mineral beads whose name Helen can't remember.....

Next, a modernistic wreath made from a wonderful iridescent silk that J9 gave to 

Helen......

And finally, a little woolen bow tie....

Kanzashi bow tie? It's easy! First, look at one of my older blog posts from when Helen had to make up her own asagao or morning glory petal, because she couldn't figure out either of the traditional ones. Read it here. I'll post a complete tutorial  with pictures and everything next time! Meanwhile, for those of you who are coming, The Last Ditch Effort is Saturday, December 20th in the Milwaukee County Housing Authority building, 650 W. Reservoir Avenue in Milwaukee! Join us 11 AM to 6 PM.

Guest Blogger: Helen

Well, it's time to fess up. It is with great sadness that I must report to you that Sadie the Snowball Princess died on November 20, 2014. She had been living with kidney disease for about 2 1/4 years, and that's about as long as a cat can go with that kind of thing. I loved my little woogums very much, and I hope she is in a better place.

Sadie's early life was difficult. My friend Jason adopted her from the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society shelter. At that time, Sadie had just had kittens, and she was so stressed out that half the hair on her body was missing. She was to be a companion cat for Jason's well-known rambunctious and obnoxious cat, Babu. Jason brought Sadie home, and she and Babu became friends, but not before Sadie spent three days hiding under a claw-foot bathtub.

Sadie lived with Jason and Babu for 6 years, after which the two cats were guests in a number of households, venturing as far away as Jason's sister's house in Houston. In late May of 2012, Jason and his mom endured the miserable 23-hour car trip to bring the two cats from Houston to my house, south of Milwaukee.

I could see that the 19 1/2 year-old Babu was the boss. He called the shots, but also did the heavy lifting. When food was requested, he made the noise, but then always let Sadie eat first. If there was a lap available to sit on, it was Babu's, and Sadie was warned to stay away. Babu soon developed kitty dementia, and he died in July 2012.

After Babu's death, Sadie became the alpha cat, a role she filled admirably. In addition to blogging, she also excelled in mouse-catching, mouse-intimidation, lap-sitting, and napping. We were very close.

In the latter part of Sadie's life, we treated high blood pressure and anemia, in addition to her kidney disease. She did very well with her various therapies, but in the end, kidney failure is kidney failure, and her condition worsened very quickly. I was grateful that we were able to do euthanasia at home, to ease Sadie's journey into the next kitty world smoothly.

Um, I have no new kanzashi photos to share with you at this time, but Sadie has graciously agreed to blog posthumously from her afterlife, and she will be probably be getting to that in the next few weeks.

Planet Alpha Male

I mentioned a few posts ago that Helen was going to partner up with a marketing professional to sell her kanzashi men's lapel flowers. Well, it has happened! The webstore is up. A few more things are going to happen to complete it, but you can now get a look at some of the flower pins Helen has made especially for the shop at Planet Alpha Male. Here are a few of my favorites:

This first one is vintage kimono silk with a coin pearl center....note all the different textures.....

.....Here's something unusual; cotton replica African kente cloth with a red coral center.....

.....and here's a fall colors Japanese maple leaf of vintage kimono silk with a mineral bead of uncertain parentage and brass wire.......

.....and here's a brown-ish maroon and grey vintage kimono silk with another mineral bead.....

......a wonderful manly silk sent by Helen's Kanzashi Fairy Godmother in Japan, with a coin pearl....

....and a rich brown plaid vintage kimono silk one with a mineral bead......

And here's our favorite modeled picture, so far! He's wearing a chirimen silk flower with a coral bead......

This look has gotten big time kudos on the Instagrams......what do you guys think?

War and Remembrance

Veteran's Day/Armistice Day/Remembrance Day is a little over a month away. Helen never gave it a second thought until one of her cousins, who spent some childhood years in Europe and visited there as an adult, suggested that she make a remembrance poppy lapel flower. These are a frequent accessory in the UK and a few other places, it turns out, at this time of year. A little Internet research revealed that this bright red poppy, Papaver rhoeas or the Flanders poppy, grows readily on disturbed earth, and the battlefields of Europe during World War I provided plenty of that.

So, here is Helen's kanzashi version of the remembrance poppy....

Silk charmeuse flower, dupioni silk leaves, Swarovski crystal center anchored by a glass seed bead. Buy it here .

Wired Kanzashi Flower Centers

OK you guys, Helen promised a tutorial, and she is delivering! Finally. Have you ever had some small beads that matched your kanzashi flower really well, but you didn't want to use them, because they wouldn't cover up the raw edges of the center well enough? No? Well it could happen, and here's what you can do about it.

This is Helen's New Technique, and it occurred to her while she was doing God-knows-what, but it's pretty easy. Here's what you do.....for a small flower, wire together 3 beads, like this....

If you want, you can have the wire crossing over the beads.....will show examples of this later. Anyhoo, leave a length of wire behind it, OK? Now, just insert your contraption into the small hole in the center of your flower....

Sorry about the crappy photo quality. We were using a fluorescent light, and it's hard to photograph purple properly with Helen's camera! Here's another photo to show you what we're doing....

So, insert the wire all the way into the flower, making sure the beads are as centered as possible. Cut the ends short enough to fold them onto the back of the flower, like this.....

Now, make a backing of some sort to glue over the wire ends, sealing them in place....

And here's the flower; silk with lepidolite beads.....

Easy, huh? Now, here are two other examples of the same technique. The first is a batik cotton with amethyst beads.....

See how the wire crosses over the beads, sort of? And here's a very similar one, another batik cotton with sodalite beads.....

And that's Helen's latest contribution to the art of kanzashi! You're welcome. Now, go try it.

Mor Nu Thingz

Helen's summer was packed with new kanzashi, and she is glad to have had the opportunity to make so many new things! One thing she forgot to tell me about in time for the last post was a little collaboration she did with her friend Lannette. Lannette designs mostly bridal gowns in Southern California, and she creates flower girl dresses, too. She sent Helen some lovely plum, lavender and ivory satins, and asked for flowers for the dress's sash and a complementary hair clip. Here's what Helen came up with....

....and here's the dress!!! So pretty....

What else? A new chirimen silk necklace, (buy it here)....

Next, new lapel flowers! Helen has been posting these on the Instagrams, and has been getting a good deal of approval from men's fashion retailers and bloggers. Seriously! Here's a plaid dupioni silk one with a goldstone bead (buy it here)

....and an ume-shaped vintage kimono silk with a faux pearl here.....

.....a red and gold Chinese silk brocade lapel flower that Helen's friend Valerie bought on Etsy.....

....this fall colors linen one here.....

... this red chirimen silk flower here

and a black tie silk one that I can't figure out how to show you, but you can see it here.

Now, Helen has two things to announce. First, she is partnering with a friend who is a marketing professional, to sell most of her new flower lapel pins on her friend's website (yay)! They have just barely started this process, so I won't send you to any links yet, because there's nothing online to see at this moment. Helen is just thrilled that she has the support of a knowledgeable (and impressive!) person to sell these things, because selling is the Supreme Challenge, and Helen is an orchestra musician, so who do you think has the better chance of marketing this stuff successfully? More when we have something to show you!

The next thing is that Helen figured out a New Thing for kanzashi flower centers, and she is going to do a tutorial for me to post soon. She promises.

Nu Thingz

Helen has had a flurry of creative activity this summer, because she suddenly had a flood of ideas for kanzashi flower lapel pins. All those darker and understated kimono remnants and silk tie remnants sitting around that are too somber for women's hair accessories are perfect for men's lapel flowers! Eureka. Here are a few that are in her Etsy shop:

Well, this one's not dark, but it is an improvement on the nanohana flower that Helen made for her friend's birthday (see previous post). This nanohana boutonniere is vintage kimono silk with a silk crepe leaf and a freshwater pearl.....

Buy it here ....next is a slate-blue single hydrangea blossom made from silk crepe and a tiny sodalite bead that Helen managed to sew right in the center of the flower (applause)....

Purchase here ....Here's a dark daisy made from a rich yet understated silk brocade......

Find it here .....Here's another hydrangea, a lavender one this time, with a freshwater pearl center....

Buy it here.....Here's another silk brocade number.....Helen has used this fabric a number of times for women's accessories, and came to the last little remnant with this lapel flower, so it's a one-of-a-kind.....rough-hewn manly-looking coin pearl in the center....

Can be found here . OK, and the last one for right now is already spoken for, but don't worry, Helen will make another one! This one is from a vintage kimono silk that we just love, but just didn't ever work as a women's accessory of any sort....

Much more to come! Helen has always been enamored of miniatures, and this lapel flower business is right where she likes to be. 

Kanzashi Boutonnieres

So, hope you are having an enjoyable summer. We've been busy tying up loose ends. Helen is frazzled, for some reason, feels like she can't catch up. She hauled me into the vet's office the other day. They poked me with all sorts of things. Seems like Helen is the one who could use some medical attention.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about something new for kanzashi today. I mentioned in an earlier post that a guy in New York contacted Helen, asking for a teeny little flower to be used as a lapel pin. It took 2 months to come up with a prototype, and I'm still not allowed to show it to you, but it opened the door to a whole new category of kanzashi for Helen to make: les boutonnieres. Here are a few things that Helen has made as gifts. First, a little nanohana flower as a birthday present for one of her friends, made from vintage kimono silk and a coin pearl.....

.....and some dupioni silk roses....

These flowers are each about 1.5 inches in diameter, so quite small. So, that's actually it for the lapel pins for right now. Next are some new things that Helen is giving her friend Denise to sell at her hair salon. Here's a new ponytail flower made from 3 different batik cottons.....

....and some new necklaces, like this one from silk satin organza....

......BTW, that stuff is really hard to work with. Next, a necklace from chirimen silk and pink jade......

......here's a pendant from three different colors of  dupioni silk.....

......a little number from two different silks with a linen twist in the center......

......and an older one from a synthetic fabric, with tulle and a freshwater pearl....

Finally, an item that Helen will has just posted in her Etsy shop: a pair of soft grey-ish lavender silk organza bobby pins....

 

Buy 'em here.

 

So, that's the new-ish stuff for the moment. Helen is excited to have a bunch of new fabric to play with, so there should be new designs over the course of the summer. Will report back when there's more!