Redo of a few

I recently posted a pink Asanoha temari hairstick with a grey tassel. You might recall I wasnt sold on the whole tassel look, I decided it was the colour, it just seemed to heavy. I have some bead caps so I that decided to make another but this time with the base thread. It looks much better now. What do you think?

Also in the last post I wrote about the S16 stitched on 4 paths that I wanted to skip a path on to see how it looked. This time I used a double thread of #12 Oren Bayan cotton that I got on sale last year. It is actually not too bad in terms is thickness for mini temari, seems just a little thicker than single strand floss.

IMHO It doesn't look as flash on the small size base. Either that or it needed a more contrasting base to make the negative space pop. It looked a bit blah (one colour) when I was finished so I added a row of single thread on two of the paths. It seems a bit lacey now, like laced feathering on a wyandotte chicken... Maybe it is just me. O.o

Another hairstick

That little stash of mini bases I have amassed keeps calling to me. Today I have one to share that is stitched with a double strand of embroidery floss. In Japanese books it is called #25 and in English it is just floss or stranded cotton. I had this left over from my stint of embroidering some tee shirts for the kids at Christmas a few years ago. I like the idea of using the silk thimble thread but it is really thin (even thinner than the wrapping thread). This temari was marked by eye, the design is a S16 and is a pretty basic uwagake chidori kagari.

I have done this on much larger temari bases and thought it might be problematic on such a small size.  When I started this one I consciously decided I wanted to leave one of the four paths off the ball to see what it looked like on this size.  I have done this with the larger versions I've stitched and I love how it works. A square forms at the pole and who doesn't love a square on a circle right? I want Cheezels now!* Actually the tricky part turned out to be using the double strand because there is not enough room to groom with my tekobari while keeping hold of the base and needle.

This one again is on the plain stick type temari. I really must find my awl because getting these onto a thick pole is very difficult. I purchased the good beads that look like a temari some time ago but never opened the package. When I opened them recently I noticed one was broken so I popped the teeny red base from my stash inside it and put a headpin through them to lock it together again.

I think it might need one more thing on this hairstick because two balls together just looks a bit wrong in my hair. It might just be the angle of the photo though as it doesn't look strange in the top image. Mr W took the picture of the back of my head and we couldn't quite communicate the shot I hoped for. This was the best of the 4 that he could be bothered to take for me. Teenagers! Yep my gorgeous baby is now a teenager and has already perfected the surly attitude... And in under a week no less. :)


* Cheezles are an Aussie snack that are only slightly older than me. I loved them growing up and Mr W loves them too, they are a cheesy, salty, unhealthy snack. You can pop them on the ends of your finger as they are ring shaped. When I was a kid they had a jingle that said 'you can't put a square snack in a round hole'.

Hair stick #2

I turned the mini pink Asanoha design temari from my last post into another hair stick. I used a different type of stick which proved interesting... and slightly more challenging than I expected. The temari needed to be threaded onto the thick stick itself. I need to find my awl to make this process easier. I added a velvet tassel (which I might still take off). This stick needs something on the end to stop the temari from sliding off. Anyway here it is.

Sorry again for the fuzziness of the image... I most definitely need longer arms to take a decent image of the back of my head. Oh I tried to crop out that funny ear but this was the best pic out of about 50 taken. On the upside my hair colour is looking very dimensional... And not too grey! Thank goodness for digital images where you can afford to take so many shots hoping for one good one. Lol! At least the temari itself was captured well in the previous blog post.

Temari is totally absORBing!

Mini Temari Hair Accessory

I think I mentioned that I am a bit obsessed with mini Temari. I am a more than surprised by this because I have steered well clear of these for the longest time.

I mostly use #5 perle cotton, sometimes use KYO rayon for stitching gifts and occasionally use #8 perle cotton. None of these IMHO look decent on a mini temari, by this I mean 8cm circumference or less. I do have a nice stash of #9 silk threads that I use for thimble stitching and it occurred to me that it might be nice on a mini temari.

In my recently purchased book of mini temari accessories they use #16 but I have no idea how this size relates to threads available outside of Japan so I decided to give it a crack with my thimble threads.

Mini accessory book released Dec 2014

Using this little book as inspiration along with my tiny threads I had a go at making my first hair stick. I wore it in my hair to my work Christmas party in December. It turned out kinda cute. I like wearing hair sticks and used to wear them a lot when my hair was longer... Maybe a reason to grow it out a touch.

Here it is in my hair, I like it even though I never wear green but seeing a I had a sparkly Charcoal outfit I though a bit of Christmas colour would be nice. I did intend to do some type of red feature near the pole, french knots or the like but then I thought it didn't really need it... And I didn't like my chances making nice compact french knots in such thin silk thread.

Sorry the image is a bit fuzzy, but if you have tried to take a photo of the back of your head with an iPhone you understand. Lol!

Temari is totally absORBing!