My Creative Space - Kokeshi Brooches

I'm working on Kokeshi brooches today.

Firstly, I paint their hair and faces....

Then their "kimonos" are prepared, all tiny pieces of fabric taken from vintage kimonos. 

I even love the little scraps that come from trimming the kimonos.

I've been saving them and popping them in clear Christmas baubles, an idea I nicked from Kootoyoo a while back.

To see what other creative types have been up to this week, make yourself a cuppa and drop by here.

Kokeshi

I recently put my Kokeshi collection on display.  Inspired by these shadow boxes and this conversion, I used a cutlery drawer from Ikea and some Japanese paper.

It hangs on the wall near our front door and I just love seeing them whenever I walk past.

Market Kokeshi

Wow, well there is much to show and tell about my trip to Japan.

So for today, some market shots.  I was there to buy kimonos but also found myself drawn to the old kokeshi dolls.

I added ten to my collection, all different shapes, sizes and styles, three of which you can see here.  I'm thinking about making some little shadow boxes for them, inspired by this image, or maybe some little house shaped boxes like these.  I think they would look so pretty on the wall.

My Little Kokeshi

My little kokeshi. Drawn tonight using Illustrator and Photoshop.

Playing with Dolls

Some girls grow out of playing with dolls. I never did it seems. I'll blame my mum - she's a doll collector. I was never into Barbie but had a large collection of stuffed animals and puppets.

Last night I was back to playing with dolls. Making one in fact. A little kokeshi, hand painted with a kimono made from vintage kimono fabrics.

She's now sitting on my shelf, hanging out with my fabric covered tins. She's showing a bit of leg too, how very un-Japanese.

My Creative Space

A little peek at some new pieces I'm playing with at the moment... bamboo and vintage kimono fabrics with hand painted details...

For more creative spaces, Kootoyoo is the place to go!

Ninjas in the Night

Every night, while we slumber, we do so in peace knowing that these guys are watching out for us.

Ageing

I'm playing with Photoshop tonight.

This image...

... now looks like this...

What do you think? More beauty with age?

Kawaii Kokeshi - Blogtoberfest Day 6

A new range of pendants, the "Kawaii Cottons" range. Getting ready for a resin pouring session early tomorrow morning (and yes, they will get straightened up before that happens).

I think they look like little family portraits.

My Creative Space

I'm lucky that, for the most part, the little one sleeps well during the night. Daytime can be a different story however. There are periods in most days that she refuses to sleep unless someone holds her and cries continuously from being overtired. My solution? I let her curl up on my lap, have set up a kanzashi flower making station on the coffee table and watch some daytime tv. The beds may not be made, emails remain unanswered, but the babe sleeps, I remain sane, the collection of flowers grows and I can tell you what's happening on Bold and the Beautiful.


Today I'm also working on pendants while DH looks after the babe. Today's task is filing and another coat of sealant. Don't you just love the kokeshi ones? I wish I had a lot more of those fabrics!


And as I said, the number of flowers continue to grow. I still have to put embellishments in the centres and brooch pins on the back, but should have some ready for the market on the weekend.

After I've done these next couple of markets, I should be re-opening my Etsy store. To celebrate, I'll be having a giveaway which will include a pendant, a kanzashi piece and possibly some pieces of kimono fabric to play with yourself. Watch this space.

To visit some other creative spaces, drop by Kootoyoo.

A Print A Day

I discovered a new, eye-candy blog today, via Animegirlie, called A Print A Day. She regularly posts new artwork as well as downloadable designs and brushes.

Her Kokeshi are just so sweet!

She has her adorable Kokeshi in the sweetest little tags ready to download here. She had many more super cute downloads, just click on the, well "Downloads" in her sidebar.

Natsumi

Hi! My name is Natsumi. I was born last night. I'm Yuka’s little sister. I don't look much like Yuka though, which mummy says might make the neighbours talk. Something about the milkman, but I'm not sure what she means, because mummy doesn't like milk, so daddy buys milk on his way home from work, so doesn't that mean that daddy is the milkman?

My stitches are a bit rough, but mummy says that's what happens when you're hand sewing at two in the morning. She says that it's rather ironic, that someone with bad fatigue can't sleep. I don't know what "ironic" or "fatigue" mean, but I'm glad I have no problems sleeping.

My kimono and under kimono are made from real kimono silk, and my obi, well, from an obi. Mummy said she's pretty pleased with me, but will probably make my next sister bigger and a bit different.

I have to go now, but mummy asked me to ask you to stay for a little bit longer, she says that she'd like to talk to you too. Bye!

Thank you so much for everyone's kind words and support about my health stuff. It really means so much to me and has made me feel much happier, less scared, less crazy and less isolated. Really, I can't thank you enough.

I've found a clinic in Osaka that looks promising, so am trying to get an appointment there soon.

Anyway, today, I'm giving myself a play day. I haven't had a play day in ages so it is well and truly overdue. I'm not going to think about stores or doctors. I'm just going to have fun with some different craft things, catch up on some emails and blog reading, maybe watch a dvd or two and sleep when I want.

Oh, and the picture above is of another kokeshi doll I made, like the paper dolls I make, but this time in kimono and obi fabrics. Once I find where I've put the backing pieces, she'll be made into a broach.

Well, I'm off to play!

Kimono Kokeshi

Ahhh.. what to do on a sick day when you don't feel like staying in bed. Sit on the sofa and play on your computer of course!

I've had a lot of fun playing more with my kokeshi design. I'm pretty pleased with how she's going. I've got a few plans for her later down the track as well. But for now, I've put her into my Café Press store. I have to confess, I haven't done much with my Cafe Press store, so it was about time there was a new design.



It could just be the whole nesting thing I'm going through, but I think she looks particularly cute on the maternity shirt.
This time, I did two versions. One with her cut out and on a white background....


.... and another on a kimono background.

Leni & Rose commented on the first version of her and asked how I got the background to fade out. On Photoshop, it's actually quite simple;

Make sure you've flattened your layers first. I now always try to save the photoshop document before I flatten the layers (which I'll later save as a jpeg or png depending on what I'm using it for), as so many times I've done work and then wished I could go back and tweak a layer but couldn't. Use the lasso tool to go around the edge of the object (in this case, the kokeshi) and once it's all selected, go to the "Select" tab at the top and choose "Inverse". Then use your eraser on the largest size possible, dial down the opacity (I used 40%), rub over the image and all done! To get out of it, just go back to "Select" and choose "Deselect".

Happy photoshopping!

Pretty Dolls All In A Row

I was in a folding mood last night and so I started making a stack of new kokeshi paper dolls. Here's a few of them.


I haven't actually made any for a while, but have made literally thousands in the past. They were a popular feature on cards that I sold around Australia. My first big order was for 2117 cards and the client wanted them in 3 weeks! They were 3 sleepless weeks I can tell you.

Making them became a chore for a while, understandable when you're mass producing anything. I've had a good break from them now and am really enjoying them again. I love playing with the paper and dressing them up with different obi and obijime (the tie that goes around the obi sash), and ribbons in their hair.

I'm planning on making up some kits with different papers and the instructions.

On another topic, I can't decide what to do this weekend. Of course, I should clean the apartment (it really needs it), but we know that's not going to happen when other interesting things are on. I have the choice between a shibori dyeing lesson, a yuzen dyeing lesson or going to photograph a festival. I can only choose one! Ahhh.. there are times that I really wish there was more than one of me.