Rolling right along with the cherry blossom motif, the last few weeks I spent a significant amount of time working on this project – a 2-piece kanzashi set. Most of the pieces for the bouquet piece I salvaged from an older project – a piece of jewelry that wrapped over one shoulder. This shoulder piece was ok; it made an appearance at the Saskatchewan Wearable Art gala a few years ago. But, even as I was finishing it, I was already thinking about ways to use it in a remake piece.

I’ve wanted to do a weeping cherry piece with lanterns for some time; I’ve never done lanterns before. Originally, I was going to make this as one single hair fork, but at the last minute I decided to do it as two separate pieces – it just makes it a little more versatile to have it in two parts.

That said, while most of the pieces I used to create the bouquet fork are older, the lanterns are new. And, they glow in the dark!

I have several sets of miniature lights powered by coin-type batteries, and originally I thought I would use some of these mini lights in this piece. But, the light kit was a little too big to attach to this piece in an elegant way. So, instead of using miniature lights, I applied a little glow in the dark paint to the lanterns themselves instead.

I was a little disappointed at firs that I could use the miniature lights for this piece, but they won’t go to waste of course. I’ll use them in a larger piece where I’ve planned out a clever way to hide the lighting kit ahead of time. Either way, I am considering this to be the first finished piece in my Afterglow collection.

Unlike the bouquet hair fork, the weeping cherry sagari is 100% new. It’s been a little while since I’ve completed such a complicated sagari piece, but I’m sure I have more of them in me – especially with the month of May approaching. Wisteria season is coming up fast.

Sometimes I feel like this year has been going by so quickly, and worry that I won’t be able to complete all the pieces for my production grant before the due date. But, when I look at how much work I’ve completed so far, I do feel proud. It doesn’t really make me feel less anxious, but it’s good to recognize that I’ve gotten a lot done.

And, in acknowledgement of that, I’ll be taking a bit of a break next week and allowing myself to recharge. I’ve been going pretty hard.

There will be a product drop next Friday to celebrate the end of the month, but I don’t know that I’ll have any additional new pieces to show off.

I have some pieces in progress, but I want to give myself a little space to breathe. So we’ll see  how it goes. :)I have some pieces in progress, but I want to give myself a little space to breathe. So we’ll see  how it goes. 🙂

I had a lot of pieces completed and scheduled to go up on the blog and social media at the beginning of the year. But, since I wanted my blog to post seasonally appropriate projects, I ended up with an odd spread of finished posts – a lot of pieces for the beginning and end of the year, but sparse posts for the middle of the year.

This short break comes at a good time. We’ve gotten to the lean times, and this will give me the chance to regroup and plan the best way to fill in these patches.

Anyhoo, that is all I’ve got for today. I hope to see you guys again next week with more crafty creative projects.

If you like this set and want to see more of my work in the future, be sure to join the Mailing List to get notified whenever an update is posted. You can also follow me on Instagram and check out my Youtube for videos showing my crafting process, travel, shopping, and gaming. 🙂 Check back here again next week for more crafty projects, and at the end of the month when this set and more will be dropping into the Shop!