What does a kanzashi maker do on a rainy day? - Part 3

So out of the four flowers that I have created that. 

That just leaves one more.  What could this fourth flower be?

I will tell you right now!

It is a periwinkle and I choose this flower because of the unusual shaped petals.  They have a slight asymmetry to them and I have not made petals using the tsumami technique that are asymmetric because it is not as easy as it seems.

Anyway it is a good petal to try and recreate and after much pondering, sticking petals to my sleeves and general fabric flying around, this is the end result!

I do have some issues with the petals like although the general shape is pleasuring, I wish I could form the sharp angles that are on the flower.  I suppose with a little bit of starch I should be able to do this however this version is softer in appearance.

What so you think?

Kanzashi experiment continue!!!

So I have taken a break from making new flowers and came back to my old favourite KUSUDAMA!!!

I do love kusudama as they are little balls of cuteness and it took me ages to perfect them.

However I have only once made one from cotton fabric so I thought I should make some more.  Therefore off I want to my fabric shop, brought some quilting fabric (and a bit more for kimono project) and here are there results.

The fabric I use is a beige/cream fabric with little pink/red roses all over it and it has created a kusudama with a country chic feel to it, don't you think?  It is always interesting to see what sort of kanzashi one can create when they use non-silk fabric.

What does a kanzashi maker do on a rainy day? - Part 2

So earlier I told you that the top two flowers were my attempts to create a white lilac flower.

What about the other two?

The next one I decided to have a try to recreate is the primrose.

I think you can guess why I wanted to create.  Don't the heart shape petals look cute?  Now I could create this flower using the same method as making cherry blossoms but I felt it deserved a new way. 

Therefore using the round petal as a base, I decided that adding additional pleats in the centre would give the petal a flatter look.  Then of course the only thing left to do is add the little pinch at the centre to create the heart shape.  Unfortunately some of the pinches didn't last very long as I used un-starch fabric but you get the idea.

As always comments and criticisms are welcome.

What does a kanzashi maker do on a rainy day? - Part 1

It is beginning of February and all I see out of my window is rain, rain and more rain.

Well that spoilt my idea of wandering out for a walk so instead I got my thinking cap on and created some more kanzashi flowers.

Inspired by my friends re-enactment I decided to concentrate on flowers that are popular in the regency period.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me to find a list but I managed it and I picked three flowers to start off.

The first flower I thought I would recreate is this one.

This is a white lilac and as you notice, it is a four petal flower with a little yellow centre.  

My first thought was to use a round petal and create a narrow petal but somehow this does not look right.  It has the slight curve at the edge but the centre just does not work.

So I had a thought and decided to use a petal design that I rarely used.  The folded pointed petal, it starts off life as a pointed petal but then you fold up the edges to create something similar to the round petal.

Anyway the results are this!

This is much better then the first design as it gives the impression of a concave petal and the best thing about this design is that it naturally creates a trumpet shape in the centre.

What do you think?

New kanzashi design!

So I have been toying with the idea of making a rose kanzashi for a long time and after a conversation with a good friend of mine, I have decided to make them.

Another reason why I made them was that fact that the weather has once again forced me to stay indoors.  It is raining cats and dogs right now!

Here were my trial ones.

The first one was one made using round petals and give a soft romantic rose.

Whereas this rose design is made using opened pointed petals.

Both are very cute especially the second design which has a modern feel to it but as I am making these for friend of mine who is into reenactment I went for the first design.

So the next stage is to make them with proper fabric.  I had some soft white cotton fabric leftover from a dressmaking project which I thought would be perfect as I wanted the kanzashi to fit in with her reenactment.

Now I need to get them into some hair to see how they look.