Wedding Kanzashi all finished.

And now I can relax (a bit) from thinking about my wedding and concentrate on EMS!

My bouquet is made from the same flower designs as the rest of the boutonneire and hair pins because I wanted all the elements to co-ordinate with each other.

The only addition I made are the 3 lace roses which were included because I wanted lace roses and they helped with the arrangement.  In previous bouquet, I would find odd gaps which were unattractive and it dawned on my that I could eliminate them if I had a flower which could be slotted in.

Like with my other bouquets, I used a lot of floral tape which creates a stable handle which is covered with white satin ribbon and with the remaining lace I create a double tier covering for the back of the bouquet.

And here is the wonderful bouquet being held by my partner like as if he is about to bludgeon someone with it.  I think at the time we were talking about the bouquet making a lovely hand guard for a sword so we spent a couple of minutes thinking what it would look like with a blade sticking out in the middle.

(We have been playing Dragon Age 2 so killing evil darkspawn and assassins with swords is the first thing we are thinking about)

Question to my readers, would you people be interested in buying such a bridal sets?  And if so, what price would you pay for it?

Kimono demo and workshop at Alcon!

Another weekend has past and on Saturday, my friend (Liz) and I were invited by Alcon to present a kimono demonstration  and run three kimono workshop.

Fortunately Alcon was based in Leicester at De Montfort University so it was fairly close for both Liz and I to travel.

It was a packed Saturday schedule and unfortunately we were assigned the 10.00 slot for our kimono demo which meant we didn't have a packed audience.  It appears the night before there was a rave so clearly 10.00 is far too early if you were hungover.  Also we clash with the Tea Ceremony.

However despite our low turn out we gave our talk and we first went through a furisode kitsuke with a bunko style musubi.  The kitsuke went very well despite my forgetfulness.  I accidentally forgot the obi-shin and makura however the obi I used was very stiff to the obi-shin was not need and since I tied a bunko style musubi, the makura was not needed.

For the next kitsuke we did a maiko cosplay.  We choose a furisode that could double up as a hikizuri so one less kimono to bring.  Also as the model was slim, I was able to fold the kimono with the front opening nicely.  The hardest thing was tying the darari musubi style with a fukuro obi because I needed to judge length of the trailing part.  In the end the difference between the tails was only a couple of inches which isn't bad considering I have not practice on the model before.  Of course as I forgot the makura the musubi was a little flat but I hope I managed to create the look well enough.

Now we had 3 hours to relax before the workshops so Liz and I sent the time wandering around the convention.  I was surprised how small the event was and with the dealers room opening at 12.00, Liz and I decided to walk around the university.  But by the time we got back in time for the room to open there was already a queue to get in and it did not disappear until 14.00 which was the starting time for our workshop.  However I probably wouldn't have brought anything so I'm not upset.

So the workshop.  We knew from the forum that we would have plenty of interest and the first workshop was packed!  I demonstrated at each 40 minutes workshop how to put on a female yukata while Liz helped the male side.

We were both very busy and it was lucky that we were moved to another room which was not being used because 40 minutes is not long enough to tutor people in yukata.  And we over ran by 15 minutes which isn't bad.

Also we also were unable to cater for women who were plus size because getting yukata for plus size ladies is hard.  However I was able to tell them the method of putting on a yukata which they can used when they are able to find one that fits.

Overall we did very well and everyone said that they learnt a lot.  We even manage to sell a couple of items so that was a bonus.

Next event that you will see my friend and I will be at the Entertainment Media Show!

By the way photos will follow as I need to get them off an observer who was kind enough to take pictures for us since we were to busy with work.  Thank you Colin!