And now it’s time for what we’ve all been waiting for this month – Wisteria! Wisteria have long been one of my favorite kanzashi motifs, but for a while I avoided making them because I had a bit of a mental block around making sagari – the fluttering petals pieces that many people associate with the elaborate kanzashi that the maiko (apprentice geisha) of Kyoto wear.

This piece is a miniature version of those larger, more elaborate kanzashi. I’ve made a piece like this before, and since it sold pretty much immediately, I figured I ought to make another. Originally, I wanted to make several of these, and was considering doing a larger version as well, with some of my resin and holographic film butterflies. But, that will need to be a project for next week. I’ve actually got a bunch of dye work that I need to finish before I can even think about working on a new piece.

I have a tendency to create large batches of dyed material at once. For single, solid colored material this isn’t so bad; but for pieces that require watercolor technique, multiple colors, or spot color, it’s a more involved process.

As such, I get a little grouchy when I run out of two-tone or multi-color material. I actually prepared a lot of two-tone purple and white material, but never got around to setting or starching it – and now the time has finally come where I need to finish this fabric off, as I’ve used pretty much all of it up.

I also have some additional fabric that I purchased when I last visited Japan in 2023 that needs to be cut as well. Speaking of cutting fabric, up until now I have always used bias cut ribbon. Bias cutting is great, because it means the fabric is less likely to fray and it’s already cut to certain sizes which means a little less work for me – but whole fabric is much less expensive.

Usually, I do a big order of new fabric once every few years. But, this year I decided it was time to move over to using whole cloth. Not because I really want to put more work on myself, or because I particularly enjoy change (like most people, I kind of hate change – or certain kinds of change anyway!) but because my source for the ribbon didn’t have the ribbon available when I needed to order. We’ll see how it goes; if I like working with whole cloth, I might stick with it.

That said, this weekend my goal isn’t to create new pieces but to power my way through all the dye and cutting work that I’ve been putting off. I actually have just one set of hair clips left to finish to complete all the hair clip sets for my production grant, but I don’t have enough fabric pieces to complete them. I twinges my nerves to see that one remaining item on my spreadsheet!

I don’t know if I’ll get through all the fabric, since I have three sets of two-tone colors that I need to complete on top of cutting the whole fabric, but I think if I keep my head down I’ll get through most of it.

The good news is, once I get through this dye and cutting work, I’ll have plenty of material to work with and it’ll be at least a few weeks before I need to do any additional dye work.

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

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