Kanzashi Magnolia

A few weeks ago, a guy contacted Helen and asked her to design a tiny little kanzashi magnolia. Helen came up with two preliminary ideas, and he chose one of them. More on this in a later post!

The other design, the one that the guy didn't choose, is the one that Helen decided to blow up to a more normal kanzashi hair accessory size, and to make into a bridal head piece. Now, magnolias are kind of challenging in a kanzashi context, as their petals (or "tepals", the proper botanical term) are rounded, yet pointed, in a way that's just difficult to reproduce in the kanzashi technique. Helen managed to get the shape right (sort of) with a rounded petal into which she pressed a little crease with an iron, at an intermediate juncture of the petal's fabrication! I can't really explain it better than that, but I know you kanzashi artists will experiment with it, if you haven't already!

Here's the flower.....

This is habutai silk with synthetic leaves and a teardrop Swarovski crystal sewn into the center. Buy it here .

There are very few kanzashi magnolias to be found in the online universe, and now Helen and I know why. They are difficult to represent, even in the stylized kanzashi world. Helen will soon be making more magnolias of a different kind, perhaps a lot of them! For this reason, she has decided to give that rice glue another try, and whipped up a batch in the kitchen yesterday. Makes a big mess!