Latest mini

I've already experimented with 9 sized silk, six strand cotton floss, 12 sized perle cotton and the like and still felt it wasn't quite right for my mini Temari making. So I purchased some 16 sized silk thread from Japan recently to use on these minis.

This one is a S10, I was tinkering with the idea of doing another S16 but somehow I distracted myself and ended up with this division. I actually think this may be the right size thread for this size Temari. It is easy to forget these are tiny Temari. What do you think?

I put the second photo in for perspective, it is sitting next to one of my spoon rings. Did I mention the spoon ring before? I love it, and purchased it from Etsy late last year. 

It didn't feel finished

Sometimes you think you finished a project only to realise it is still tapping on the back of your brain. I seem to get that a lot. I made this hair pin a while back but it just didn't feel done.

I added a small swarovski faux pearl and now it feels more done. I had these left over from my phase of making the wrapped bead rings a few years ago.


What do you think?

And then she used the awl

A couple of posts back I mentioned I had misplaced my awl. Well I still haven't found it but I ended up buying another one.

So I got to easily insert the hair pins into some more mini Temari. Yay! No busting off my wrist, squeezing the heck out of the poor little darling, or getting frustrated and saying bad words.

So here is my next hairpin. I must say I do love this one.

I even dug out some stone and glass beads to hang off the end of the pin which match really well. I am not that good at making the little loops at the top of the headpins but I purchased a looper tool which makes it much easier.

Not sure why but this colour combination always makes me smile.

What colour combinations make you happy?

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 mini mayhem

We all had some time off work over the holidays and our extended family went camping. I went for the first 3 days and then my hubby switched and stayed for the next 3 days. One of us had to stay home and look after the dogs and chooks. While I was home alone I made some mini bases. Well 48 to be exact. The smallest one is 5.7cm and the largest is 8.5cm circumference. These are made from scratch using some fibre wadding as the core which is wrapped directly with overlock thread. Previously when making minis I used a 1inch styrofoam ball as the base. They are huge compared to these little babies.

Here are the first two I stitched on. The burgundy one is stitched with gold Gutermann lame thread. I think that is what it is called anyway. The code on the spool says CA02776 at the top and W331 at the bottom and it is a 50m. I think it is the right gauge for this size temari but it is a devil to use because it unravels badly. The pink one is stitched with the silk thimble thread. They are exactly the same design but seem to look different to me.

I turned the burgundy one into a bookmark but haven't decided what to do with the pink one. I took the picture above recently to share with some folk that had made email contact with me. It wasn't until I saw the photo that I realised that the design is the 3D version of the design on the silk thread box. Weird what you miss in real life but notice in a photo!

I need to find my awl so I can try to slide the pink one onto a straight hair stick and maybe make a tassel to hang on the end like the cover of the mini accessory book.

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!