Over the last week I did a huge batch of dyeing; two shades of yellow, two shades of green, two shades of pink, and two-toned white and pink squares. The two-toned squares were all new to me, and it was an interesting process. Normally, I dye my ribbons whole, starch them, then cut them into squares. But, since each square had to have its corners dyed, I ended up cutting the squares first, dyeing them, then starching them. I normally use spray starch, which made the squares fly around a bit, and I think I’ll be trying liquid starch for two-tone dye processing in the future.
The first piece I made with my new two toned squares is this large camellia hair fork. Since the petals are stacked on top of each other it loses the two-toned effect and mostly looks pink. It still turned out very nicely, and also allowed me to try out a new technique for making buds. If you like this piece, it’s now available in the shop.
As a kid we were often given multicolored pompoms for crafting with; I never liked them very much. But, I must say they make a good form to wrap my squares of silk around to make a bud shape. I’m also planning on using them to make the mochibana for December kanzashi.
I went back an forth on finalizing this particular hair fork a lot. It was originally just composed of the flower, bud and foliage; but after I’d photographed it I had the nagging feeling that it just wasn’t complete. So, I went back and added some pink glitter mizuhiki. Still, it didn’t feel quite right. I went back and added in the pearl bed with bead caps, and then it felt complete.
I’m sure a lot of artists have that feeling of not quite being done with something; in some ways it can be a negative – sometimes adding more can lead to having too much and making a few tweaks lead to never ending uncertainty. In the end I’m really happy I worked through that feeling to reach the end result of this camellia hair fork.
When you encounter that feeling how do you deal with it?
