Kanzashi Bracelet, Part Quatre

It's cold. Here I am in one of my Winter Places, next to a heat duct. It's where I live. Helen lives there too, always has, I hear. She keeps the house at 64 degrees F, so who wouldn't be huddling in front of the heat?

So, more bracelets. These are bridal, and more variations and colors are on the way, I understand. The idea is similar to Helen's kanzashi headbands.....Greek goddess-like wreaths of laurel leaves, or something. First, the shantung silk single-leaf bracelet.....

...You might notice that the flower is not a kanzashi flower. Helen said she couldn't make one that small. Its purpose is to cover the snap closure, and of course, it's pretty. Here's our model wearing it.....

...and the other way.....

Buy it here . Next, a double-leaf, criss-crossed version of the same thing......

with a silk kanzashi flower. Another view...

Buy it here . So yeah, more of these on the way. Meanwhile, I'd like to show you Helen's new morning glory comb.....

Kimono silk with white tulle and a freshwater pearl. It's here in the Etsy shop. More stuff soon.

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!

Kanzashi Bracelet(s)?

Why all the doubt? Helen had been talking about kanzashi bracelets for a long time, and had ideas about how she was going to put them together, what kind of flowers and fabric to use, etc. Now, she doesn't know whether to continue making these, and she NEEDS YOUR HELP.

Here's what she did: she bought some of those extra large hair elastic thingies at the dollar store. For a dollar. She made 6 of her hydrangea flowers, and attached them to said hair elastic. Here's what she got:

 

 

OK, you get the idea. Here's a shot where you can sort of see how she attached the flowers:

 

 

So, here's the question, dear readers and commenters. Does it look too much like a fancy hair scrunchy? Helen just doesn't know if she should invest more time and energy into these. It might just need a good model, someone with really nice nails who is also photogenic, like Rebecca. 

 

Helen posted a photo on the face books and asked people what they thought; nobody said a word. Same thing on Flickr: one person said she liked it (thanks, Carly!). Folks, we desperately need more opinions, so give ol' Helen a break here, and tell her whether you think this project is worth pursuing some more. Don't be afraid to say that you don't care for it, OK? It's all right. We are just mired in doubt and need some guidance from design-conscience people, like you!

 

 

 

Kanzashi Necklaces

 

Sorry for the delay, as usual, but there are so many new things to report! Helen has a new recording, a new publicist, a new iPad mini, a new Alexander Technique teacher, and a new kanzashi design......necklaces!

Here's what happened: Helen's friend Rebecca came over one day and said, "Make me a necklace, here's how you can do it". Rebecca is an art teacher, so she always has lots of Ideas. Well, not all of them work, as it turns out, but Helen liked the concept, and decided to try it.

Helen never cared much for fabic flower necklaces, because combining fabric with metal chains never seemed Quite Right to her. Rebecca's idea was for a long ribbon necklace with just one small flower. After doing some Experimenting, Helen arrived at her pendant design, and here's how to do it.

OK, make your flower.....probably something small with 4-7 petals. Now, cut a small piece of thin satin ribbon.....1 inch is probably sufficient. Fold the ribbon in half.....this is going to be your loop. Hand sew the ribbon to a small piece of fabric that won't fray....some knit or spandex sort of thing. Just tack it a few times. It will look roughly like this:

That's the underside. Glue this side to the flower. Here's the exposed side:

All right, it's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks relatively clean.....you mainly see the fabric, a few stitches, and a small ribbon loop. Now, glue it to the back of the flower, and slip a long ribbon through the loop, like this:

OK, so you've glued it. What about the back of the flower? You have to have something to protect it and hide the unmentionables, like glue and/or stitches. After trying a few things, Helen has decided on using the same fabric as the flower. Cut a small circle, treat the raw edge with fray prevention liquid or heat, and glue it to the flower back. All right, now for the fun part. Here are some completed necklaces. This one is silver fabric with a coin pearl....

 

 

That one's at the Morning Glory Gallery . Here are some that will be in Helen's Etsy shop soon...these are all silk of various sorts. This one's more about the leaves than the flower....

 

 

Fleur-de-lis.....

 

 

Dupioni silk with a coin pearl....

 

 

Another dupioni silk with a blue jade bead....

 

 

More to come.

 

Just a tip...pendants get bumped around more than brooches or hair accessories, so Helen is trying to stick mainly with silk for these flowers. We're impressed by the staying power of habutai, and the resilience of chirimen (neither of which are pictured here, lol). We all may stray to synthetics every now and again, but we can see the reason kanzashi were and are made from kimono silk....it's absolutely the right fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kansignment Kanzashi

 

Well, it's been a looooooong time since I posted anything.......many apologies, as always! Helen's boss has been in town for the last month, which means lots of working with this group , and after months of recording and editing, Helen has finished a new album with this group . And of course, I've been very busy with my own creative work......finding new places to sleep, new things to play with, you know how it is.

So, Helen has been making consignment items, lately. In a way, this can be liberating, as the pieces can be very colorful. Seems to us that it's a little hard to sell multi-colored pieces online because shoppers often search by color, usually just one color. Is it our imaginations? I don't know, but if any of you would like to comment on it, please feel free......

Also, Helen is honored to have been recently invited to sell her wares in the museum store at the new Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, WI. So, she had to do a little work over the last few very busy weeks to pull together some old and new items for the both the museum and also the Morning Glory Gallery .

So, here are a few of the consignment things to show you, just for fun. First, some pins.....

 

...and a few snap clip pairs......

 

 

....and an earlier pin that got changed around a little.....

 

 

...and a new linen flower brooch made from fabric that Helen's friend J9 hand-dyed....

 

 

....this star-shaped pin....

 

 

.....this....

 

 

 

.....and finally, a new butterfly.

 

 

So, that's most of it. Helen has an awful lot of things to replace in her Etsy store, now, some of which could use a re-design. And some new ideas for necklaces and bracelets to experiment with. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Wisteria

So, kanzashi are seasonal in Japan. Certain flowers go with certain months. Sometime in the spring, wisteria are all the rage. Wisteria are interpreted in kanzashi as....well....these dangling things, perfect for a cat to play with. A younger cat, that is. I'm certainly not amused with such trifles at my station in life. I am a Snowball Princess, you know.

Helen was scared of the whole idea and never tried it until her wedding-dress designer friend Lannette in California http://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignByLannette was fantasizing about a dress with wisteria kanzashi dripping from the shoulder. Helen thought she'd give it a try as a comb hair accessory. About 3 months later (it was a slow, deliberative process) she came up with this:

And you can buy it here https://www.etsy.com/listing/102226652/blue-flower-hair-fascinator-kanzashi

OK, here are versions of wisteria from other kanzashi artists....sorry I can't name all of them:

By lilyashes on Etsy:

By littlecookie on Etsy:

By PolishedKanzashi on Etsy: