JTA in “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘It will be happier.’” ~ 2021

For the past few days I’ve been thinking about something serious.

Well, serious for me, that is.

I decided that I wanted to join the Japan Temari Association.

This involves me taking a few classes from a master temari maker for levels 1 & 2, and then doing levels 3 and 4 on my own.

Completing level 3 means that I would be certified to teach temari.

Level 4 completion would put me at the level of master.

It would take about 5 years to get to that point. Roughly.

I was super excited about this, but when I told J last night he was less than enthused. He didn’t see why it was necessary if I can get patterns from the internet and learn on my own. I mean, that’s what I’ve done up to this point, right?

So I’ve spent the morning looking at pictures of temari. Downloading patterns onto my phone of examples of temari people have submitted for their JTA level 3 certification.

I like making temari for people. The money isn’t great, so I’m basically just offsetting the cost of supplies, which is perfectly fine by me.

But I want to do more with it. It feels right, somehow, to want to explore even more and advance my skills to the point that it is an artform.

That I become an artist, and not simply a crafter.

I can still sell the ones I make along the way, but it would become less about the number created and more about the overall design of each temari.

The money to join the JTA isn’t a factor … each course will be about $100 (there’s 4 to complete to get to the end of level 2), and then the annual dues for membership are only around $40 a year per level.

And while Level 1 (particularly), and to some degree, level 2 are for beginners to the craft, it would help to hone my skills I think, and maybe learn some tips that would make what I’m currently doing even more efficient to stitch and cleaner looking.

So … yeah … I’m going to become a temari master.

Last updated May 18, 2021