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!