Tsumami Kanzashi!

Oh my my my my! Waiting for me in my post box was this lovely Daffodil Tsumami Kanzashi from Sakuradancer Kanzashi. I have been in love with this design since I saw it while browsing Etsy and was so happy to wear it today!

This is my first tsumami kanzashi purchase..and with all the wonderful things Sakuradancer's Shop has I am sure it will not be the last! The Kanzashi itself is very professional with clean lines and no stray strings. Please visit her store http://www.etsy.com/shop/sakuradancer?ref=pr_shop

spring projects:

 kimono projects the spring/summer

1. Sew a cotton linen blend nagajuban with removable sleeves. Buying Juban can be a tad bit expensive..especially the bright and colorful ones, not to mention the fact that kimono sleeve lengths vary from type to type which means multiple jubans. Cotton will be washable and I can purchase some awesome vintage fabric peices for the sleeves..^_^

1.5- Sew cotton two piece Hadajuban set. Fabric Purchased!

2. Find a tansu subsitute- FOUND.
3. My wooden geta have bit the dust. Its not suprising as they were cheap as all get out in the first place. I need new hanao, new rubber bottoms..and with all that I think I am going to just re-do everything while I am at it.

4.. Practice..practice...practice...my kitsuke

5. Sew back together my 1940's yukata. I recently unpicked the whole kaboodle to see how yukata are made ( plus it needs some TLC and some washing). At least this way I can alter it to fit my tall self.



Wheew...a line up! I will be busy!

almost done moving...

SO..
This moving process has taken a lot longer then I had hoped it would but at last we will finally be moved in this coming weekend.Our lack of combined furniture ( I gave most of mine away when I moved last before my trip to Japan) and our lack of time off of work has made this all a little bumpy.

I took my kimono collection over this past weekend. I can't wait to start wearing them again ^_^

okay..here we go.

Ever feel like you are on the cusp of something crazy...but in some wierd way its good? Well I am feeling that way right now.
I have decided..at the ripe age of 24 that I am going back to college to pursue my dream of creating textiles in the Japanese roketsu-zome tradition. It may be odd..( and hopefully not rude) that this terrible hellacious disaster in Japan makes me only want to be back in Japan more. I have had an awful feeling sitting in the back of my mind's stomach since it happened and I don't think it is going to go away any time soon.
I have always been at odds with college. I think I can sucessfully blame that on my highschool because from day one in eigth grade I had it shoved down my throat that I would essentially be nothing in life unless I went to a 4 year in-state university. I found it ridiculous to drop 25K+ on something I was not even sure about. But I realize now in order to even attempt going after this dream I need the teaching and most importantly the connections that colleges can give. I have found ( rather miraculously) a Fiber Arts program that focuses more on art than general education classes ( at most there is one gen ed class per semester) that is near my home town. My major is going to be Fiber Arts with a minor in Japanese Culture. I can't act like this is all going to work out and that I will finish my degree and suddenly be invited to Japan and design for the rest of my life, thats crazy and naive to think that. I already have a few nay-sayers with this..but I feel like this is something I just have to do. If anything if none of this works out I can open up a screen printing shop or work for one at least. Got to try at least though.

So..hold on ya'll..cause here I go.

Prayers and Thoughts To Japan on this terrible day.

I was awoken this morning with the news of an earthquake hitting Japan. I had to force myself to watch the news and when I did my heart hit the floor.
Watching coverage of the Sendai area I remembered seeing those same fields from my train window just a few months ago.  My worry over the situation can not be compared to those who are in Japan right now, dealing with their lives being torn apart by this terrible dissaster.... all I can say is my heart and my prayers go out to those in Japan who have lost loved ones and that peace will come to their nation soon.

ganbatte mina san.

Moving....

So...after filing through a ton of psycho landlords..questionable apartments...and budgeting we ( Mr. Alex my boyfriend extroidonair) and I FINALLY found an apartment. It is a darling 2 bedroom in a 6 unit apartment building that was built in the 1920s. I am soooo excited! Plus..the landlord said I could take over all of the now empty and weed ridden flower beds.  Japanese cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes here I come!

Since we are moving I am being very careful about furniture purchases. Both of us don't have very much to work with and I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to find a nice Tansu subsitute. I am planning to have a little corner layed out just for kimono and kitsuke practice ^_^.

obi thoughts

I have recently fallen in love with maru obi. I really did not think that they would be an option for me but now that I have done some research I think they would work really well with my figure. I also love the simple patterns that are available.
Nagoya obi look weird on me, and I am thinking it is because I have such a long waist and well...everything. The pre sewn section just looks funky.

Speaking of maru...I have never wanted to spend $180 on something that has a  high chance of not being fixable, but this made me fall out-mah-chair. Blast you ichiroya!

Yabane arrived

My purple yabane komon arrived this week.  The color scheme is a bit more subdued then the pictures posted by the seller but I am still happy. It turned out to be a plumb and cream combination AND instead of rayon...my textile fingers tell me it is wool..or at least a wool blend.
Perks for that as if all goes well and I suddenly have money to spare to go to San Frandisco for the Cherry Blossom festival having a wool komon means that I will not freeze. San Franciso..even in the heat of the summer gets friggin cold at night and in the morning.

success!

I had a bit of downtime today and decided to try and alter my grey synthetic yabane komon kimono, so to minimize the " high-waters effect" of the sleeves. For those of you who have not read..I am almost 6 feet tall and am all legs and arms and most of the time I feel ridiculous wearing them because the sleeves are so short on me. It was a bit confusing as I am not terribly familiar with the stitching system of kimono, but all in all it was a success.  For the first time a kimono does not look so awkward on me ^_^.
Pictures soon!

50 cent finds

Thrift stores offer a wide variety of kitsuke items..one just has to dig a bit.While perusing a thrift store I found these little darlings. The silver flower is a clip on earring, and the gold one is a brooch with necklace option.  With a couple of alterations I think they will make nice obidome ^_^

yabane yet again!

Spending my nights scouring the web for kimono while my paintings dry has brought me success. I hope to get this fixed up and wear it to my city's Obon festival this summer and hopefully ( if finances hold out) to go to the San Francisco Cherry Blossom festival this spring with my sister.  It is rayon, which I feel has a bit more leeway as far as cleaning and mending. Also it will enable me to understand multi-part linings.

designers...money...dreams.

I have a secret desire:
 To make kimono, or at least the fabric for it. Big surprise -_-'. Being a textile artist/designer its hard not to wonder about it though. I have been in love with kimono and most especially the textile side of it since...well forever... as in elementary school forever. I am slowly moving toward it, but alas the cost of supplies..the education needed  ( most of which I will have to learn myself) is rather daunting. Maybe that is cop out and I am just a chicken. I also feel a bit odd about trying to break into the industry ( if..in million years that happens..which I am not counting on) because I can't say that I have  formal training and that will either seem like a joke..or just plain rude or dissrespectful to the masters who have spent their WHOLE LIVES studying it. Who knows....it makes my mind whirl.

  My interest falls in roketsu-zome textiles which is almost exactly the same thing as batik or wax resist dyeing. Roketsu-zome came about from the textile trade between Indonesia and Japan, at one time batiked fabrics for kimon were really popular. I am an avid batik-er and hope that it will one day be the mainstay of my textile art. I can't say that I want to be a famous kimono designer, because the chances of that are very slim if 0 but it has turned into a secret conquest for me. There are a few "gaijin" that have made it into the kimono world and have done well so that gives me less than an ounce of hope..but hope all the same. When I get down on my motives I like to look up new kimono designers and it flares my confidence a bit..just to know that someone out there is trying to renew kimono in the world.

My most recent find ( as was posted on immortalgeisha.com) is Saito Jotaro

                                                                 http://www.jotaro.net/


to end...Ganbatte...Ganbatte ( do your best)

Kitsuke blues

Man a very long time since I posted last..its almost embarrassing.
This has been a bad Kitsuke week..its seems I am being attacked by the wrinkle monster..and the poofy ohashori monster at the same time.

Uggh.