New Kanzashi and a Conundrum…..

Made a cute set today that made for some fantastic pictures. Check it out!

I’m also looking for a creative, clever, and portable way to display my hairstick and prong kanzashi pieces. They don’t exactly fit neatly into a small box without crushing the petals. Not good. The best way is to stand them up somehow, but the question of the day is how?

I don’t want anything heavy or clunky that would take up much needed space in the car when I’m traveling to shows. I’ve seen a wonderful shoji screen display but I’m not quite sure how to accomplish it (and for cheap!). The kanzashi looked to be tucked into strips that ran across the rice paper areas. It gave it a nice authentic feel. ^_^ Like they came straight from Japan.

Looks like I’m just going to take off the artist’s hat and put on the “carpenter’s” one. This’ll be fun. It means I get to play around in salvage yards and Lowes until I find what works. Creativity ho!!

Back in Business!

Hey there all you Randomcatgirl fans!

I’d love to say that the website is up, but due to compatability issues between my program and my hosting site, it’s delayed… again. I’ll have to upgrade my software if I want to do this the easy way or wade through tech service if I want to do this like I’ve been doing for years. *sigh* Technology.

On a happier note, I’ve finally gotten some new kanzashi online. It’s been ages, right? ^_^ So here they are!

I’m really happy because I’ve finally found a yellow fabric dye that I actually like. The others I tried all had a sort of school bus yellow tint to them, or worse yet, straight up orange. I started experimenting with mixing some of the dyes and have learned that they don’t neccessarily work like paint. I’ve managed to create some pretty funky colors! I think I’d call one, greenish mud.

I’ll have to show you all my sewing projects next time. There’s a LOT of photos to be taken!

Until then, later!

A Prototype – Black Swallowtail

This is something I created over a recent gloomy day. I couldn’t sew (people were still asleep. Night shift folks.) so it was back to kanzashi for a bit.

I’ve been itching to use the peacock feathers I’d bought for over a month now, but couldn’t come up with a design that I truly liked. Then this one came to my head. I really, really like it and don’t know if I’d be willing to sell it. It’d be so classy in a bun or updo, but I don’t have the hair for it. Heh, unless I get a wig. ^_^

I may change the shape of the wings, making the top two wings the same as the bottom two. But hey, this is just a prototype so I’ll have much to work on. Can’t wait!

Gothic Spring Kanzashi

I said that I was not going to write today and give myself a break.

I think I have found my new favorite product shot to date. It’s interesting how you can try and try to take that perfect shot but nothing will seem to come out right. Oh, but when you just say “Hey, I’m just going to give it my best shot today” and don’t worry about it, magic happens.

This truly encourages me to go to even new heights with my photography. If I can train myself to take these shots then I can certainly do even more. Which is just in time for my website remake. (Boy does that need some new photos.)

Hey, I like this new I can do attitude! 😉

P.S. I did list it in my Etsy shop if you want to see the other photos. There were a couple of good ones. I really hope these find a good home soon.

I Impressed Myself!

What’s been consuming my life for the past week. This lovely piece was ordered for a bride-to-be. Hurrah! My first wedding order!

Going Gothic – a walkthrough

Remember my first butterfly? (Check a few posts back.) Well now, Mr. Butterfly has a lot of company.

Gothic Lolita Kanzashi 1

I first added him to a nice little bell flower. BTW, the entire piece is made of black and purple silk. This flower is HUGE! I made it from 3″ squares and measures just under 3″ across.

Next, a few more flowers were added to the kanzashi. They’re only about 1 1/2″ across. Since I made the original butterfly’s body out of Swarovski crystals, I decided to use crystals as the center pieces of the smaller flowers too. You can see in the next picture that Mr. Butterfly has a little friend. ^_^

Since I had just one of the japanese silver colored prongs left, I figured what the heck and used that for the base.

From this point there were a few tiny little 1″ butterflies that had to be constructed. What a learning experience that was! With such small butterflies I had to use smaller crystals as their bodies. I’m talking teeny, tiny 4mm crystals. They didn’t want to glue together and then I realized that the opening wasn’t big enough for both antanae to fit in. It took some creative experiemnting to get those together.

After several days, it’s finally done. It’s my most intricate kanzashi to date with four flowers and four butterflies. I’m ecstatic about how it turned out. I learned a lot on the way and even picked up some new techniques. I ended up with a lot of glue on my hands, but I was so worth it. I hope this one goes home with a very happy lolita girl. Maybe I’ll see it at a con one day. Now that would be neat.

Of course you can check this out at my Etsy Shop if you’d like to buy it. wink,wink.

Little Butterflies

So this is the fruit of my labor over the past few days. Not that it took me that long to make them. I spent about an hour on them, not including drying time. I wonderful project to do in the afternoon when my littlest one was napping.

This is the start of my next wedding item push. I’ve always wanted to make accessories for weddings because I wanted something “unusual” for my own wedding back in ’05. If I’d known about kanzashi way back then, I assure you, I would have been sporting them.

I think these would look so cute in a little flower girl’s hair. ^_^

WIP Update – Wedding Hair Pin

I finished it! It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

Overall: The silk was hard to work with. It wanted to keep it’s shape in some places, but wouldn’t in others. And it kept moving the button that I was using for the center of the larger flowers. I think it turned out very pretty for a smaller arrangement. I’m going to cut up a larger piece of cloth and make an elaborate arrangement lager.

I like the look of the larger wire that I used for the stems/supports, but boy was it hard to bend around the hair pin. You just do not want to see how, erm, sloppy the last twists of wire is underneath the ribbon I wrapped it with.

Since I ran out of prepared fabric, I opted to use some stringed “pearls” instead of wisteria falls. It’s pretty and delicate, just what I wanted. The larger pearls that I had were entirely too clunky and distracted from the flowers. I thought about just making the three flowers and calling it quits, but it needed something else. A little more pizzaz. So the pearls made a nice addition.

This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I had longer hair. It wouldn’t exactly work too well with my ‘fro. ^_^

I’ll probably get this up in my Etsy shop by this afternoon.

Wedding Bells!

Not for me of course!! ^_^

But I am starting to make wedding items. I just started on a habotai silk kanzashi. As you can see to the left, it doesn’t look like much right now, but will be a great accent to an updo. It’s going to have at least three flowers on it when it’s done and some danglies. 🙂 Y’know danglies, like wisteria falls or threads of pearl beads.

The flowers are cherry blossoms and I’ve glued the little crimp that’s at the top of the petals. Not the best look in my opinion, but the silk is so soft that folding it won’t work. I don’t want to use any more startch on the fabric, however I just might have to on the next batch.

For the next wedding kanzashi I’m going to make I’m attaching the flowers (and a butterfly) to a large comb. I may even make a half veil out of it. And I’ll be getting some crystals for the centers. A little something to add that sparkle.

I’m not sure what the best way is to market myself for the whole wedding world. This is the first time I’ve considered it. I hope that my items will be well received though. Either way, this is going to be interesting.