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?

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'.

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!

No it's not dejavu

Last October the ladies at my temari class requested a date for another class in February 2012. They liked a temari I had taken to show and decided it would be great to try out. No problem, I really enjoyed making this design and for once was really happy with the colours and how they turned out.

In late November someone agreed how lovely the temari was and I sold that ball at the Hinata Gallery, small problem, but not to worry, I took a few pictures before the buyer took the temari away and this week I have been making some replacements.

Of course it has been restitched (above) in the original purple colour-way but I've also made one in shades of slate blues. The blue tones are lighter in real life, more frosty looking I guess. Just what I need in such hot weather.

I really love how this one turned out (is it wrong to be in love with your own temari?) but this one really does make me feel happy all over.

A dozen flowers... 12th of the bunch

Peach Blossom variation. This one is almost identical to the last flower. Can you spot the difference? 

Did you guess the pentagon is over the flower shape instead of underneath? The previous flower had the pentagon tucked under the Kiku area.

I still haven't managed to perfect the French Knots but I still live in hope.

I really love the S10 colour selection again but I think it works much better having the white as an accent colour rather than the main colour.

The obi is created by stitching wide wedged Uwagake Chidori around the equator. I alternated a row from the North then from the South.

I've finally finished stitching the pentagon outlines for my new version of these flowers on a big C10. This time I am using Sakasa Uwagake... right now it looks like a white and green soccer ball. Hope that the flowers fix that once they're all stitched on.

A dozen flowers... 11th of the bunch

Peach blossom. I like this one despite the dodgy french knots. I will perfect french knots one of these days. This design really needs to have the outer points stretched as it is stitched. I chose a bit of an unusual colour combination for the S10 version of this design. I think works. I'll share the obi and last flower of the dozen next time.

A dozen flowers... 10th of the bunch

This flower is a variation in the last one. The difference is the distance from the center of the inner points on the striped star.  I am about to restitch this entire project but this time I am limiting my palette to pale shades of pink, blue, purple and yellow on a white ball.  The obi shown in the last photo is stitched with simple Chidori Kagari in the Jyouge Douji (merry-go-round) style. I think this maybe the best of all the obi stitched during this diamond experiment. If you missed any of the other flower designs look through the other posts labelled A dozen flowers from earlier in the month. 

A dozen flowers... 9th of the bunch

This flower is stitched and woven Uwagake Chidori. I like the contrast of the striped and plain stitching. The little plum flower in relief that is formed at the center is so cute. I just noticed I forgot to remove the marking lines on the S10. Oops! I really like the colours of blue with white, they really pop in person. 

I will show the C10 obi next time.

A dozen flowers... 8th of the bunch

Here is the next flower in my sampler set. This is Mr W's flower. Can you tell why?

I think I prefer the look of this one on the C10 where you can see it on a more flattened surface.

The Obi on this one is just a set of 10 diamonds stitched over each other. I had planned to interlock them but I lost my way while watching a good movie. I do like the effect of larger diamonds encased in a row of smaller ones.

I am surprised but there is still no hankering to keep the marking lines on the ball. I can remember the days when I would never dream of taking off the marking lines for fear that the entire design would melt off the surface.

I like the circle centres on the C10 more than the S10. I had stitched on every line (20) on the C10 but I had used a darker marking thread on the S10 which made it impossible to see for such fine stitching (even with my work lamp blazing away).

PS. I can still hear Mario-kart theme music when I look at this pattern.

A dozen flowers... 7th of the bunch

I tried something totally off center for the next two temari flower patterns. I've probably seen something like this somewhere but I'm not entirely sure. It think it is a kaleidoscope of rainbow flower petals. When I finished the petals on the design I didn't like the open space so I added the concentric rings of stitching to the middle. Then I thought "Super Mario flowers".

I'll share the Obi and the other design on the S10 in my next post.

A dozen flowers... 6th of the bunch

Striped Snowflake Flower. Hmm don't know of a better (or real) name for this flower but it does remind me of a snowflake.

This one is stitched with double the divisions (I added 10 extra lines) as the last design. I also included a little step out just near the outer edge which I think adds a bit of a lacy element to the pattern.

And as promised the last image is the Obi. This time I stitched Uwagake Chidori Kagari from both sides of the equator.

My ITAD logo ball entry at Flickr

This has sure been a busy week. Mr W started back at school and I've been to visit my gorgeous niece and nephews several times. There have been cupcakes and cookies baked, and we even had one of Mr W's school mates over for the whole day on Saturday when (amongst other fun stuff) we made animal face soap.

All this extra activity has put me a bit behind on my temari stitching... but I finally got my ITAD ball completed and added to the Flickr group today. There are some other really nice temari which have been added by others... click over and have a look, remember to vote for your favorite.

Kiku (Chrysanthemum) Temari for Japan

Here is a picture of the temari I am sending to Japan as part of the Talk Temari Kiku for Japan project. I have the other pole to complete, so I hope to post it in the morning.

I think that this style of Kiku is my favourite, I have trouble adding many rows near the top of the stitch... I always forget to lay the first row down a little loosely so I could only manage four rows on this occasion. I wanted more petals so I added another section of Kiku petals underneath the main design using the same Chidori kagari stitching. I was thinking of the type of flower with a tight center and additional rows of petals surrounding it - see the image below.  The Obi design is very simple on this one, I feel like this is a time to quietly honour tradition instead of show something flashy to take away from the design at the poles. I used 4 shades of Cosmo thread (185, 186, 187 and 188) and Rainbow Gallery ND4 for the markings on a pale cream ball.

As I have been stitching I've meditated on my desire for a prompt recovery for all the damaged cities and towns, I stitched my strength into this temari. I've prayed for everyone who have lost their family or friends, I stitched my love and compassion into this temari. I focused on the symbol of the rising sun, which is featured on the Japanese Flag, and stitched my belief and optimism that the sun will rise again for the nation of Japan.


Image from: Mze Photos



TT Kiku stitched temari project

I have been communicating with several friends in Japan this week and they all agree that their country is thankful for all the donations being sent to help Japan and that they are taking comfort in the knowledge that the rest of the world is sharing their pain, sending them love, support and thoughts to those in need. Although it may not be tangible this is providing much needed moral support for all of the Japanese population the knowledge that they know they are not alone in grief at this difficult time.

I know I have felt 'stuck' since March 11, not physically but emotionally numb and frozen. I can only imagine how hard it must be for the people living in Northern Japan if we are feeling so badly here in our safe city so many thousands of miles away. Because I know so many Japanese people and spend a good portion of my day doing and reading about Japanese crafts these events are rarely out of my mind.

Ginny from Temarikai has suggested a really nice idea this week that will be very healing too.

All temari makers learn about the significance of the Chrysanthemum (Kiku) to Japan. This flower is part of the national identity, being a symbol of of longevity and prosperity due to the abundant petals which drop slowly from the flower over an extended period of time. Many books about temari cite a history of women meditating on their needlework and passing their thoughts and wishes into their work. Japanese culture have long held the belief that all thing living and dead contain a spirit and as we make our temari we can help form it's spirit.

So Ginny's idea is to combine these ideas and stitch a Kiku temari for Japan. She has suggested we make a temari for ourselves and as we stitch it, we can follow that legend of a thought with each stitch offered up to those that have been so affected by recent events in Northern Japan.

The suggestion is to make a temari using Uwagake (Chidori) Kagari using any division and marking as long as it has a Kiku flower when completed on at least one pole/center.

Members of TT are invited to share an image of their completed temari in the album. If you would like to see these you'll need to join the TalkTemari Yahoo group.

For those newer to the craft of temari making, visit the TemariKai.com tool kit to see step-by-step photo tutorial on this stitch, and there are also various references to making a Kiku design in How To on TemariKai.com

I will use rice hulls and Cosmo threads to make my temari.

Unexpected surprise

Yesterday when I returned from doing volunteer Math Goals testing for my son's 4th grade class my husband handed me a package that had arrived while I was out. See 'when you do good you get good'! My Mum is right on that one.

Kristy's gift temari to me

The package was from Kristy in Qld. The moment I touched the package (before I even shook it or squeezed it) I knew what was inside. There were three spools of surface wrap thread that I had admired on the beautiful ball she'd sent to me at Christmas. What a darling you are Kristy! Thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to post me some of this gorgeous thread. I love it!

My hands were already aching because I had re-made three temari in the last 36 hours (two C10s and a S12 and I still have a couple to go), and although I should have had a rest tonight I found a yarn wrapped temari and I couldn't resist covering it in this beautiful coloured thread. The of course I wanted to stitch it, something simple, but I wasn't sure what.

I reviewed all my old temari in boxes recently before donating a bunch of them to my son's school, and one part of a pattern stuck in my mind. The green layer from the Mema is a Star ball that I purchased form Barb Suess a couple of years ago. So I decided to try to work out the green layer from the ball (which is always displayed in my lounge room). When I was done with that part of the pattern I added some 6 point star bursts (Matsuba) to fill in the open areas. When I finished my temari I sat back and thought gee that is pretty neat, and an original design too. Well yes and no, it is original in the sense that I altered a design and added my own embellishments but actually I realised that there was a ball pattern out there that is strikingly similar. I got Barb's blog update about her Echo Star class beginning tomorrow and took a visit over to her Esty site. I discovered that Barb beat me to it and she sells the pattern on Esty but when I compare the images side by side they are actually different. Just goes to show you can't claim something as an original design too easily in temari making.

New temari

Perhaps new is a misrepresentation... This first temari is one that I unpicked the bands on not once but twice so this here is the final version. Still not 100% happy with it but I wanted to put it away so I could focus on other things.

This one is my 'disco' turtle temari. It is what I came up with from the TK stitch along. The pattern was discussed during an online hookup that I missed so I was really stitching blind, there was no final project image shown at the commencement of the project. I remember now how much I dislike stitching this way, call me a spoil sport but I'm not a big fan of mystery stitching... I am a road map person I need to know the destination and I'm happy to learn the land marks as I go. Of course having said that... I did learn some interesting pointers about not making assumptions and working from verbal (written) instructions alone is an important skill to acquire... I guess the reason I don't like it is because I'm just not too good at it. I've got a few green colours I'm going to add as a startbust onto open areas on the sides.

I am wondering what to do with my really huge C10 ball for the TC flower challenge. It is wrapped in mid green with treasure braid petite marking lines. I think I am going to outline the shapes before stitching the flower but I'm not sure what would look best. I might just go with woven pentagons to keep the framework simple in the hope that my stitching on each pole will pop. I also need to examine how to subdivide the pentagons to increase the number of centers so I can stitch multiple flowers in each section. I am either going to stitch the flowers in #8 perle cotton or KYO. So many choices!!!

Tonight for dinner I made basil pesto from the herb patch basil. It was delicious... or at least I think it was... Mr W said is was gross but I'm not sure if that was due to him having a 9 year old palate or due to me having a raging head cold which means I have few working taste buds.

I didn't use a proper measured recipe for it, I've made pesto before, so I just threw in garlic, pine nuts, romano cheese, EV olive oil a little salt and of course lots of basil. I guess I should have added pepper but I don't like it so my hubby can grind some on top if he wants to.
Tomorrow we are having a big clean up of the yard, sick or not, there is a Category 3 cyclone (named Bianca) heading down our coast line and it is expected to hit land at either Perth or Bunbury (about 2 hours south) so everything that could possibly get picked up and/or tossed about is getting secured down and moved away from window areas around our home. I really hate cyclones. We are lucky that it is rare to get them this far south, but this one is predicted to hit Perth directly... hopefully it will get downgraded to a Cat2 or Cat1 by the time it gets here. Fingers crossed!!! So here I go looking for the silver lining... ok... got it... I'll spend some time on Sunday stitching temari because the storm should hit about 10am and we wont be able to leave the house.

Finally back to temari making

The last few weeks have been so busy, it seems like I have done EVERYTHING except make temari or yubinuki. During the afternoons this week I have managed to pick up my needle to complete some UFO's. In the late mornings I've been taking my son to swim classes at the beach.  I must say I am amazed at the number of people laying on the beach frying away. I wear a huge hat, 3/4 sleeve shirt and 3/4 length pants and any exposed bits are generously slathered with 30+ sunscreen, the only bit that is bare are my feet which I bury into the sand - trust me there is nothing worse than sunburned toes. I am lucky to have been injured in a car accident when I was 16, the plastic surgeon who stuck me back together was most firm at drumming in the sunsafe message for my facial scarring, and almost 3 decades later the message has still stuck with me even after the scars have faded to almost nothing.

After an hour and a half in the baking sun I am exhausted so we get all our chores done before swimming and then try to do as little as possible afterwards. I have been working a version of a pattern from my small Ondori booklet. This is a S4 with additional support lines. Sorry this picture is a bit dark, but I got called away this afternoon and when I got back it was too dark for natural light.

I think I will pull the band back off and re-wrap it in some other colours because in this pic it looks awful. Let's see what it is like in the morning light. While I have been stitching this, I am also thinking about the design options for my last two JTA temari.

I also have just purchased 3 stockings for next year from an ebay store located in Canada can you guess which one will be mine?   I haven't seen stockings like this in Australia.

Images from: http://stores.ebay.com/Calleycats-Treasure-Chest 

Our Aussie dollar has gone so high against the USD hitting 102 cents today, which is the highest in almost 30 years. This means that I could treat myself to a bit of discretionary spending. Sadly the yen hasn't done the same thing... the Aussie dollar is still languishing around 81 JPY.   :-( but we did have a good spot with the Yen about 3 years ago when we could buy 105 JPY per AUD... maybe that will happen again.

I am expecting to need to find several quiet things to do for a few days starting on January 1st... our weather forecast is for 4 or 5 consecutive days over 40C. Egad! When I saw the following forecasts from the WA bureau of meteorology I can honestly say I nearly cried. I think I will be spending as much time as possible over the next week doing early morning watering on the garden and trying to keep the chickens cool with a little misting, I'll even give the dogs a super big brush to get rid of as much loose hair as possible as the clippers that will manage to cut their hair has not yet been invented.

1.1.11 Saturday Sunny. Min 19 Max 36
2.1.11 Sunday Very hot, sunny. Min 21 Max 40
3.1.11 Monday Very hot, partly cloudy. Min 24 Max 40
4.1.11 Tuesday Very hot, partly cloudy. Min 25 Max 40
5.1.11 Wednesday Hot before a humid change. Min 25 Max 40
6.1.11 Thursday Partly cloudy. Min 22 Max 32

On the plus side I realised that new years day has a date that I like. All number ones. Hopefully this is auspicious and can signal new beginnings for all that want them.

Well that's it for this year. In a few hours it will be 2011, I wish you all the best for your celebrations, stay warm, safe and dry until next year.

Cheers and 乾杯 (Kampai)  

Rebecca and the Aussie Temari Addicts.