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!

Kanzashi Bracelet, Part Cinq

When will we get a little break from this weather? You can probably tell from my expression that even an indoor cat like myself could use a little warmth. I didn't know how easy I had it when I lived with Helen's friend Jason's sister in Houston.

Just a new configuration of bracelet "components" makes this new bracelet post-worthy. It came out a bit larger than the others that are similar to this one; Helen's other bracelets fit Helen (big surprise). This one really needs a larger wrist for the design to make sense. Made mainly from dupioni silk.....

this bracelet has leaves grouped in threes and a snap closure, with a chirimen silk kanzashi flower concealing the snap....

....and a freshwater pearl sewn into the flower's center.Our modeled photos came out kind of crappy, so we'll skip those, shall we? We have something else to discuss, anyway! Helen has been busily preparing for the bridal trunk show at Third Coast Style for like, months. She is now finished with sewing and is almost done with display preparations, which involved making tags or cards, among other things, for 118 different items. Here are some of them....

As you can see, they are not all kanzashi.....Helen really enjoys making flowers from singed fabric. Singed fabric flowers are often faster to make, but the technique does bring a certain amount of volatility that you might expect when melting the edges of synthetic cloth. Plus, who knows what kind of pollutants you might be inhaling? 

Anyhoo, I want all of you who live in or around Milwaukee to go see Helen's stuff at Third Coast Style! The bridal show will be going on for about 2 weeks, February 12-March 2. Even if you aren't a bride, there's lots that you might be interested in.....many brightly colored items, some of which are not available at Helen's Etsy shop, plus a whole store full of cool stuff, all of it designed in the Milwaukee area. Go check out Milwaukee's newest boutique!

New Bridal Kanzashi

It's Polar Vortex II here in the upper Midwestern US! Helen cancelled everything for today to stay in and make stuff, woohoo! Predicted lows for tonight? Somewhere in the -17 to -20 degrees F. range.

So, Helen has been working very hard for the last couple months on her latest project, the Bridal Trunk Show at Third Coast Style , Milwaukee's newest boutique. Third Coast Style is dedicated to selling the work of Milwaukee designers, and is located in our downtown's Fashion District. The trunk show goes from February 12th to March 2nd, and features the work of 14 designers.

So, I just wanted to show you some of these newer bridal things that you may not have seen yet. First, here's a large cream and beige kanzashi rose that Helen made from some silk charmeuse she got from Patrice....

....and here's a sort of stylized lotus of shantung silk that Lannette gave to Helen a while ago.....

Here's the bridal peony Helen just finished today, from ivory habutai and green moire....

......and reminiscent of the peony, here's the newest version of Helen's Yorkshire Rose.....

Finally, something older that I haven't posted here before, but is something of an achievement of Kanzashi engineering, as it coaxes a teardrop shaped crystal bead to stand on its end.....

There's plenty of other stuff, of course. Less rewarding than creating the designs is coming up with effective display, which is the next project. Let's all wish Helen some luck here, as it is not her strongest ability!

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: 

My First Blog Post

 

I am Sadie the Snowball Princess, and I am a cat. I live with Helen, who makes these fabric hair accessories, and I told her that I would blog about them, since Helen doesn't seem to want to do it herself. Helen has been mainly making kanzashi lately. Want to know what that is?

Tsumami kanzashi are traditional Japanese flower hair accessories, originally worn by maiko, or geisha-in-training. Kanzashi flowers were usually made from old kimonos, which means silk, most of the time. They can also be made from other fabrics, such as cotton and linen. If you're cheating a bit, you can try making them from synthetics. Helen has a design made from fine wool, a pin-striped fabric given to her by Janine (J9), her seamstress/organic farmer friend who lives in the countryside. J9 makes a lot of men's garments....suits, ties, dress shirts, and gives Helen the remnants, for which Helen is eternally grateful!

Anyway, back to kanzashi. They are usually flowers. You make the flowers one petal at a time. It can be slow and tedious. There's the traditional way, and there's Helen's way. You are supposed to glue the petals; Helen hand-sews them. You are supposed to use rice paste to glue the petals together; Helen uses a hot-glue gun, because she is impatient. It's a slow art, and it takes time to understand the huge diversity of what you can do with it. Kanzashi makers are fabulously inventive!

All this writing has got me pooped! I need a nap, but first I'll post a few photos so that you can get some idea of what I'm talking about. Oh, I see I already have. Here's a set of bridal combs https://www.etsy.com/listing/97183120/bridal-flower-fascinator-combs-ivory made from vintage kimono silk that Helen's pal Jason's aunt gave to her. Three kinds of petals are represented here. Helen usually likes to sew beads in the center of her flowers, and she doesn't like manufactured stamens, which many kanzashi makers use. These beads are blue jade.

All right, nap time. More tomorrow, or something.