It's not here yet Charlie Brown

A few months ago I put out a call to all Aussie temari makers (the ones I am in contact with anyway) about making a bulk order of Barbara Suess' new book. I have noticed some American temari makers have begun receiving their copies but ours are still en route. I know they are in the mail, so until they arrive here I will be crying by my empty mailbox until they arrive. Actually the books are coming in two large boxes which I imagine will need to be collected from the post office.

I have seen an electronic version of the book during a Skype meeting with Barb so I know it will be worth the wait. If you missed the chance to order with our group you will still be able to get a copy direct from Barb, she will probably even sign it if you ask nicely, here is the link. Also if you don't own a copy of her other books you might be able to grab them too.

My hubby forced me to clean out my crafting room today so there is room to fit my new temari book in there, assuming I ever put it down that is.

Teeny Yubinuki

You have probably seen some teeny temari before but you may not have seen teeny tiny Yubinuki. Check out the Thimble Japan website to see the post written about these. The photo below shows just one of the beautiful thimbles featured at this website.

All I can say is WOW!

Super cool way to mark a C10

Yesterday Barb and Kathy shared a snappy tutorial video they made about a way to mark C10. They learned this from Ozaki Sensei during their recent visit to the JTA museum in Japan.

There are several ways to mark a C10 and this new (to us) way looks like a really great method which takes less thread and (if practised) seems like it would be quicker and more accurate too. This method is outlined in the Japanese book Owari Temari  ISBN483770391 on page 22-23

I am going off to look for a nice practice ball so I can try along with the video.



Thank you so much to Kathy and Barb for sharing this with everyone. I think Barb will be sharing lots of information about the Japan trip at her blog so bookmark for future reference.

Gotenmari exhibition in Akita

Here is a link that was originally shared by Glenna on the message boards at the Temari Challenge Yahoo group. I'm not sure if I have shared this link before, but go check out the eye candy.

There are some really amazing temari in this slide show.

My understanding is that this competition is held annually in Akita, Japan in the last weekend of October.

I love so many of the designs, some of my favourites are slide 18 and the top left of slide 23. I adore the bullion rosettes on the ball in the lower center of slide 26. Now I want to learn how to stitch bullion roses, I wonder how many there are on this design.

There are two many beautiful temari for me to pick a number one. Which one is your favourite?

Explore Temari Site

Debi Abolt has long run an amazing site called TemariMath.Info. It is a place I have visited many times, there are mathematical studies on many aspects of temari making (many of which make my head spin to varying degrees) and there is a notebook section in which are so many amazing temari featured along with the notes kept for replicating the design. I think this site is a great resource for all temari makers and an excellent example of how to keep an organised temari notebook which records not only the basics such as the size of the ball, threads used and scratch notes on the method but also the source of the design, illustrations and notes on Debi's experience stitching each project. And that she is willing to share all this with the temari community WOW amazing.

Explore Temari Homepage

Over the last couple of years Debi has been quietly working on her new site ExploreTemari, and this week she launched it for the www to see. I really love the new search feature which allows you to browse the gallery for temari by various criteria: size, source, and keywords (such as stitch types and divisions) to name but a few. There is also a resource section where information about all the source materials can be found and also a glossary for terminology. I haven't found the notebook patterns associated with the images in the Browse tab but I hope they are there somewhere or will be added at a later date (especially the lovely pink and orange one featured in the top right of the homepage banner - it is lush!!!)

Did I say wow before? Well I'll say it again WOW WOW WOW what an amazing job at putting together this new website. Thanks Debi!

Answering emails... Where to find Temari Classes in Australia

I get emails on a regular basis which are seeking the answers to many Temari related questions, lots of them ask similar things. So seeing as I haven't got any new stitching to show today (I'm packing up for a 2 day workshop) I thought I'd share another recent email.

The writer is interested in starting temari making and asked about the possibility of finding Temari classes in Victoria because she wanted to see temari making in action as the books at her local library just didn't do it for her.

Promoting temari making... well I am all about that, so here are my suggestions.

I am not sure which books you have been looking through, there are some good ones I highly recommend for beginners.

Making temari is really the most enjoyable creative pursuit I have discovered but I too found it tough going working from a book alone when I started out. Sometimes I would get lost in between Picture A and Picture B on the page... sometimes there really is no substitute for moving pictures to show technique. (I know those of us lucky enough to have attended a real live class will agree)

The only place I know in Victoria that takes classes is Kimono House . I am not sure how often the classes run, but several ladies in Victoria have attended them previously. (I really must get around to calling them to find out more about the workshops they offer to Temari makers.) There are also some stitching videos in the temarikai website toolkit, but these deal more with executing various stitches once the temari has been prepared for stitching.

I run workshops in Perth from time to time (and I am honoured to have a lady who travels from Victoria to attend some of these). Also I think some CWA branches and embroidery associations around Australia may also run classes occasionally (if they have a temari maker in their local guild).

I also have a video tutorial series available from my store which shows how to wrap, mark and stitch 2 designs. There are also printable copies of the pattern and shopping lists on the disk which give advice on the best type of threads, needles, etc... to use which will make starting out a breeze. Just pop the disk into your computer and off you go.

I hope that this information is helpful, please don't hesitate to make contact again for any further assistance.

Here is a heads up for my fellow Australian temari makers. If you are interested in reaching out to other potential temari addicts (or forming a local group) in the Real World just drop me a line and I can try to put you in touch with someone else in your area. I know there are now temari makers living in most Australian States.

Temari making in Indonesia makes the news.

The Indonesia Temari Association is currently holding an exhibition at the Japan Foundation in Jakarta. In August they will also be holding temari making classes. More details can be found at the Jakarta Globe.


Last year the Japan Foundation held an exhibition in October at Jakarta. There is an article here about it. Check out the amazing Ikebana styled temari display picture. Wow that is an achievement in engineering!


Temari making is slowly but surely stitching its' way across the entire world.

Answering emails... Where to buy temari books

I get emails on a regular basis which are seeking the answers to many temari related questions, lots of them ask similar things. So seeing as I haven't got any new stitching to show today (I've been pattern writing this week) I thought I'd share one recent email.

The writer asked about a magazine that regularly has temari patterns or to recommend a retailer and books to help encourage her Mother in continuing with temari making.

 Promoting temari making... well I am all about that, so here are my suggestions.

There are no magazines (I am aware of) which regularly feature temari making but there are several books written in English about this craft.
You can find a post on this blog where you will find details about temari books. Some shop front book stores may be willing/able to order in these books for you if you provide the ISBN, Author's Name or Book Title. 

The English language books I recommend are Barbara B Suess and Mary Wood. There is also a 5 volume series of temari books written by Diana Vandervoort, (personally I don't find them very easy to follow - but then that is just me, many other people find these texts a wonderful resource). 

I don't retail the English language books but I do sell most of the in print Japanese titles and an excellent range of temari making threads, needles etc. from my supply store.

On the Internet there are several good places to visit for free patterns. Once you have learned the basic stitching and marking techniques you can also go to TemariKai to view a toolbox of techniques and a wonderful range of patterns. . [I omitted the reference to TK in my email because I hit send too soon - silly me  - also TK has 9 pages of free patterns too.]

I run workshops in Perth from time to time and I think some local CWA branches and embroidery associations around Australia also do this occasionally (if they have a temari maker in their local guild).

I hope that this information is helpful, please don't hesitate to make contact again for any further assistance.

Hope that information is a good start point for anyone interested in beginning temari making.

Kiku (Chrysanthemum) Temari for Japan - Update

Update on my temari project for the TT stitch for Japan effort. I completed and posted it to Ginny this week. Someone... maybe Laura?? asked to see the side view. It is very simple, but here it is.

I hand wrote my message on the card Ginny made for us to use but I did print a Japanese translation on the lower half. I discovered that there isn't actually a translation to Japanese for my hubby's surname... but now as I write this I am wondering if it is because his surname is Dutch.  Not actually 'Dutch' but from The Netherlands. I'm going to google translate after this post and see what comes up as a translation if I select Dutch to Japanese instead of English to Japanese...

Also a quick update on my brother's fundraising efforts... he has inspired people to make $4,700 worth of donations to the Red Cross appeal for Japan.

I've been so busy this week (seeing as I lost a few days last week with my head cold) catching up on a backlog of things. Mr W has been taking swim classes at school so I've been over at the pool 3 times a week watching that on top of all the volunteer stuff I do for his class... it has really been cutting into my day. I've been communicating with several suppliers, counting deliveries - discovering items missing and packing orders like crazy. I think the lady at the post office is tired of seeing me. Today I had to post a few customer orders and parcel to Ginny and my drivers licence to pay - which was already a day overdue... better than months late like last year because I totally forgot about it. I also had a bunch of books to return to two different  libraries today, lucky for me I enquired with the librarian if I could return them all to her even though the belonged to two different branches, her answer was yes, and it shortened my list of chores considerably. When my hubby called me at lunch time to see what I was up to he was surprised to hear I'd just returned to the house after heading out at 8:20 for school.

Tomorrow I am going to make a mold for a thimble and get into stitching one... with any luck I will have a go at this months challenge from MaMercerie. Why don't you join me?! There is plenty of info about making thimbles on the MM website.

After that I am having a go at my next Amigurumi which is a Mario star character called Luma because I found some yellow yarn in my stash which will be perfect and I know I have black and white felt somewhere in that craft room... I have plenty of projects stored in my computer now that I've had a few days of Internet surfing... the silver lining of being sick for a few days!

And at some stage this week I must have a go at the 20 face marking challenge from TC... and re-look at last month's project which I've not had time to begin as yet. I will get there though.

Thimble (Yubinuki) instructions from a photo

Debi has written another excellent post on how she works out yubinuki patterns from a photograph. I encourage you to visit her Temari Train of Thought blog to read it.

Love your work as always Debi!

New Zealand Earthquake Update

Christchurch New Zealand is still searching for missing citizens and trying to start cleaning up since the quake last week. These people are doing it really tough and it is estimated that more than one third of all the buildings in the quake zone will need to be demolished.

Image from dailytelegraph.com.au

I have added the vertical red line in the photo above of the Hotel Grand Chancellor so you can see how far off from vertical that it is. Many believe that this building will fall down, many believe that if this happens it could trigger another quake.

Image from News.com

Since September 4th 2010 there have been more than 5,000 earthquakes and aftershocks, look at the map here to see them. Select sticky dots in the display options. It is difficult to absorb that number, but there have also been more than 250 aftershocks just in the last week. This really brings what the city's residents have been dealing with into very sharp focus.

Image from News.com

I am so glad that my friend Louise and her family have remained safe, as I mentioned in a previous post she was in Christchurch visiting her family. At the time of the quake last Tuesday, Louise was planning to head out shopping with a friend and maybe take a ride on the gondola. Just the day before she had been touring around many of the areas that are now destroyed.

Thankfully Louise managed to get back to her adopted home here in Perth, but I know she had very mixed feelings about leaving her actual home back in New Zealand. I am hoping we will catch up over the coming weekend.

Yesterday the New Zealand government launched an appeal to raise funds to help rebuild the city of Christchurch. If you can help please visit the link to donate to the Christchurch Earthquake appeal.

Interesting Results

A few posts back I mentioned that I had relabelled the 200 posts on this blog. It was a huge task (now I know why most people don't do it retrospectively) but it confirmed a few things I knew and others I had not even suspected. Here is a screen shot of the labels today.

The things I knew:
My favourite stitch is Uwagake Chidori Kagari.
My favourite division is C10.
I went through a phase of labelling posts with my name... but as I have ended up writing the majority of the posts... it was a bit redundant so I stopped.
Because of my desire to keep my threads straight (also because I forget to label my shapes and get lost when working the whole ball at once) I tend to make temari using Nejiri (interlocked weaving) rather than Kousa (layering).

What I never suspected:
My most used simple division seems to be S8 which is ahead by a nose (although most of the other simple divisions look fairly evenly utilised.)
I use a lot of stars (Hoshi Kagari) and pine needle stitching (Matsuba)
I should have a label for pentagon shaped stitching but I'm not sure what it is in Japanese... but I bet there would be a lot of that used too.
I use a lot of links to other sites.
I also like wrapped bands (Maki Kagari) more than I realised.

Join Temari Challenge Yahoo Group to download a copy of this document.

I think my next goal should be looking through the skill checklist created by members of the Temari Challenge Yahoo group for new directions (new labels to add) to push myself toward and also review the very small labels to see what else I can do with those stitching elements.

Post Note: I have removed store and shop from this label list and replaced them with Supply Store Updates (Things I Sell) and Treats (Things I Buy).

Temari Train tips for understanding Japanese patterns

Debi A at Temari Train of thought has written an excellent post for anyone just beginning to decipher all those wonderful temari diagrams to be found in books or on the net.

A common bother for all new comers to foreign language temari books seems to be the reader's inability to read what is written in the text. We all get worried about that in the beginning... or at least until we realise how much information can be found in the diagrams and photos.

Here is the link http://temarimath.info/temaritrain/?p=1784.

Thank you Debi for writing your informative post... I expect if you listen carefully you may hear the sound many pennies dropping all around the world.

And now that you have some clues on how to understand the patterns... have a look at our range of temari books available in our store.

I've got a new temari to share but I'll post it tomorrow because I forgot to take a pic in the daylight today.

Busy weekend

This weekend just whizzed by so quickly. On Friday afternoon I took Mr W to a Karate trial. He has always wanted to do it, and really enjoyed the lesson... now we need to see if we can juggle it into his after school schedule or it we'll need to wait until the soccer season ends in August.

Saturday morning Mr W and I went grocery shopping... an entirely boring task for a 9 year old and not that much more thrilling for me either. We visited the large grocery store, then the fruit and vegetable shop and then Seoulmart (a Korean shop that also sells Japanese foods) where we picked up two packs of Natto for Miss D and a bottle of Mr W's favourite Japanese 'remon' soda drink which has a marble that seals the bottle shut. 

When we returned home I put prepared a big pot of pasta sauce and let it cook in my huge jam pan (thank goodness for stainless steel - I couldn't have done this in a copper pot) for several hours before pouring it out into 8 large pasta sauce jars that I have been saving. I gave 2 jars to Miho.

Saturday afternoon we invited Seth and Miho (and kids) for dinner. We had 4 homemade pizzas and a huge salad. Miss D (3yo) helped me cut the pizza toppings which was very nerve racking because all my knives are super sharp and we almost lost a finger tip several times. She and Mr W did very well at kneading the dough, rolling it out and slopping on the tomato sauce too. We were all starving by the time the pizzas were cooked and we happily ate them outside under the patio.

After dinner we did 'paint nails' for Miss D, she had purchased a matte purple nail polish with her Dad... it was a bit icky (in my opinion) so we did a top coat of silver and purple micro glitter polish which improved the look greatly and Miss D was more than happy to the glitter polish take home when I suggested it.

It was lovely under the patio in the early evening, we put the dogs away into the carport so we didn't have them under out feet or begging for food (a personal dislike of mine), straight after dinner we opened the gate to let them back in with us. Chilli came out but we couldn't find Shadow anywhere. My hubby and my brother eventually discovered him whimpering and stuck fast under the 4WD (think you guys in the US call it an SUV). DH must have run over some roadkill on his long journey to/from work and Shadow loves to sniff at the tyres and wheel arches... he must have ventured too far in under the car and with his old arthritic hips so he couldn't get back out again. He was fine once he had gotten a few gentle pats and been lovingly told 'Oh you silly old dog" a few times. Here they are (at least 9 years ago), when they were our number 1 fur-babies and got dressed in silly scarves... i.e. before Mr W came into our lives. Shadow is on the left and Chilli is on the right.

When I went to pay their 3 yearly dog registration in October last year the woman behind the counter casually said 'oh they sure are old' (they're almost 15 now) 'this will be the last time you need to register these guys.' While the reality of it is true, I did feel big tears well up in my eyes at this prospect. We have had them since they were puppies. They are brothers whose mum died from a snake bite during a fire, to this day they still have little areas around their legs and paws where no hair will grow. We originally just planned on having Chilli but when we returned to the pet store to buy more puppy food (after we had Chilli for a month) we saw that Shadow was all sad and alone there so we decided that if we had enough money in our bank account (it was almost the end of the pay month) we'd buy him too. Well we did, so he came home with us that day.

Sunday was spent cleaning up, doing some washing and looking after DH who came home from work (after only 2 hours) with the bad cold that Wesley and then I had over the last few weeks. We tried to stay shut up in the house on Sunday due to smoke from one of the several large fires burning around the outskirts of Perth. One fire has burnt out about 40 homes in the area where I grew up... more are expected to be lost today. Thankfully no lives have been lost... we need the winds to drop and a big dump of rain. Thank you and safe passage to all our firefighters working hard around the clock to contain these blazes. You are all heroes.

Kristy emailed me today and offered to send us some rain from Queensland... she says they've had enough of wet weather. I hope it arrives soon!

I am glad to have the distraction of temari making and cooking which are both good for my soul. I wrapped 4 new temari bases and got some stitching done. I am reworking the last pattern I made again, this time on a ball 1/2cm bigger and using 1 less row in the spindles. I'll post a pic when it is finished.

Just keep on happily stitching.

C10 Flower of The Month Sampler



V ruler number is 8.78cm, the needle is 9cm long

I have had a change of heart about my C10 Flower of The Month Sampler project for TC. I still haven't added the borders to each pole, but I have been giving the flowers a lot more thought.

First off I thought of doing Australian flowers, then I considered doing a Southern Hemisphere flowers of the month, or just favourite flowers of my relatives for their birthday months. But today it occurred to me that maybe I should try to do flowers from my own garden. I began to think about the varieties of flowers that occur through the year in my garden.

We have several Rose bushes, Gardenias, and Azaleas, then there are spring bulbs such as Tulips, Iris, and Ranunculus. Also during the spring we have the Plum (Ume Blossom), Lemon and Lime blossoms. And at other times of the year we get to see Strawberry flowers, Nasturtiums, Cosmos and even Dandylions when I haven't weeded the garden for a while.

I think I need to percolate on this a little more before I decide what to do.  Barb Suess has been posting on her blog about the progress being made with her temari (which is coming together particularly nicely) if you haven't seen what Barb is doing click over to take a look.

Now here is something really special!!!

Earlier in the week I mentioned I hadn't been organised enough to make a special Australia Day project for the 26th. Well some other Aussies (the team at Planet Cake in Sydney) were organised and they made a gigantic cake shaped like the Sydney Opera house. Click the video below to see it being presented live on breakfast television on Australia Day. You can see all seven days worth of videos which show all the energy put into preparing this monster cake by all 10 employees and 23 volunteers.



 
There are no other words... simply amazing!!!

Mt Kirishima blows

This morning a place I have very fond memories of woke to a large and growing cloud of ash. One of the volcanoes in the Mt Kirishima area on the Southern Island of Kyushu has woken up yesterday and is very grumpy. I recall that somewhere I have a picture of me with a group of other young people at the Kirishima Shrine (Kirishima-jingu). I had a great weekend up at My Kirishima onsen when I was escorted by one of my students and her family. Mt Kirishima is situated in a very volatile range of 20+ volcanoes including the very active volcano Mt Sakurajima in the Kagoshima Bay.


I lived for a while in Kagoshima, and Mt Sakurajima kept me awake on many a night with its' grumblings and rumblings, but I never saw anything molten coming out of the top just ash, ash and more ash. Some days almost 2 inches would cover everything when I awoke. I think my worry was made worse by a visit to the island where Sakurajima resides... I saw and in fact stood next to the shrine whose top cross bar now sits just a metre from the ground.

Thankfully Japan as a country has embraced disaster training and conducts regular emergency drills for its' population. I hope everyone stays safe and sound... and I also that this activity doesn't wake up Sakurajima which is overdue for a major vent.

Come on Mother Nature please, please, please go easy on us for a bit. No matter where you live on this great big rock this last few months has given us many reasons to wonder how we can get back on Mum Natures' good side again.

Sorry for the lack of images on this post but I can't seem to locate the box containing my Kyushu photos. Click the links to see the shrine and live pictures of the volcanic activity.

Blog Shout Outs

Finally it has happened, Barb Suess, author of Japanese Temari - A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft
(ISBN 1933308125) and co-author of Japanese Kimekomi, Fast, Fun, and Fabulous Fabric Handballs (ISBN 1933308214) has begun blogging!


Here is the link: http://temaribarb.blogspot.com/ Barb's blog is so fresh and new that it doesn't yet show up in a google search, but please pop over and say hi. Her first post is about temari obsession... or as Kristy S from Kuriosity and the Kat and I joke temari ORBsession. Yes we temari makers are all orbssively absorbed in our craft.
Something I have noticed and loved about many of the English language temari blogs in 2010 was the crossover into other languages.  From time to time on this blog we have posts in Japanese, Jane writes in Spanish on her blog , and Rod has done some blogging recently in Italian.


I never imagined I would be a blogger but I love reading everybodys posts, as they allow us to see little snippets of each other's interests in temari and other things too...
 
I'm looking forward to reading more of your blog posts this year.

Temari definitions with illustrations

You can find some wonderful resources on the internet for temari making and here are two places to visit where you can find lots of help with terminology.

Barb Suess has consolidated a set of definitions and illustrations onto a single web page here. There are also several links (in red type) that will take you to step by step pages and other additional learning resources.

Temarikai also has a long list of how tos in the toolkit here. There are also definitions on other pages.

Why is it important to use the same words? Well simply it helps us all to communicate effectively. Temari makers are scattered across the globe and we all speak our own native languages (even English is different based on which country you live) so by learning a unified temari language we can all understand each other and discuss temari concepts in spite of our own language differences.

Jammy Jammy Jam and Oprah in Oz

We had our jam making session on Friday. Mum made apricot, Miho made plum and I made cherry. We shared them all out so I came home with 2 jars of apricot, 2 jars of cherry and a jar of plum. Miho and I also make some Japanese pink pickled ginger.

My hands are so stained from pitting the cherries... all 2.5kg of them. Mr M didn't eat too many, Miss D tried - and loved - the cherry juice (before we added the sugar of course). Mr W had apricot jam on toast yesterday for breakfast and gave it a big 2 thumbs up.  I purchased 2 more kilos of cherries today, I'm going to wash, pit and freeze them for use later on. This time I will wear gloves though!


I have been watching the Oprah in Australia shows this week. The shows really make me want to go to Australia... and then I remember that I actually ALREADY LIVE HERE!!! Lucky me!! I am amazed at how many freebies* are given away on American talk shows like this. I loved the pearl necklaces given away from Kailis Pearls. 

image from http://ultimategift.kailisjewellery.com.au/


I have been into the all the Pearl showrooms in Broome (here they grow the South Sea Pearls) when I have visited up there and the Kailis and Paspaley pearls are to die for. A lot of pearl jewellery made from Broome pearls also feature Argyle Diamonds. Pearl is my birthstone and while they used to be thought of as an 'old lady' jewel these days they are so much more modern and even considered a bit cool.

*Freebie - This is slang for something given free. Promotional merchandise, items, products, gifts given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event.

Michelle asked for the pink pickled ginger recipe: I used the one from this book. We also made the apricot, plum, strawberry and raspberry jams from this too. This book 200+ pages of lovely jams, jellies, curds, cheeses, vinegars, pickles, chutneys, sauces and relishes. There are also some recipes for flavoured liqueurs.


ISBN: 9781405329545

500g Fresh Young Ginger Root
1Tbs Salt
250ml Rice Wine Vinegar
115g Caster Sugar
Peel ginger (if necessary) and slice finely (we used a thick cut peeler) and place into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and combine well. Sit for 1 hour. Rinse and pat dry with paper towel. Pack into hot sterilised glass jars.
Place vinegar and sugar in a stainless steel pan and heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil  then carefully pour liquid over ginger while hot. Cover with vinegar safe lids and cool then keep in fridge for up to 4 months. To get the ginger to turn pink you need young ginger... I couldn't find it (of course I didn't look to hard either but the book suggests Asian grocers or specialist food stores). Miho says that not all Japanese pickled ginger is pink so not to worry.

There is no way the two of us could use this much ginger in 4 months so we just made 100g of ginger slices with half the quantity of the liquid mixture and divided it into two glass-lock containers. It tastes delicious.