2023 temari in Temari

I honestly don’t have much to write about right now.

So here are some of my recent temari.

I decided to finally sit and read the directions for this temari slowly. I’m not a written-instruction-based learner, I’m a visual learner, so multiple times I’ve avoided written instructions because I don’t feel as though I can properly follow them. And multiple times I have proven myself right by making messes out of temari that should be easy to make.

I’ve always loved this one, but couldn’t figure it out. And it’s one of those patterns that doesn’t make sense until the very last line is stitched. Even then it’s not really good looking until the division lines are added.

Anyway … I think this pattern (but not this particular temari) will be part of my 3-piece submission to the art show judging.

I’ve done the snowflake one before, but the red and white one is new to me. There is one wonky star on it and I can’t figure out why. The wraps go around the entire ball, so it stands to reason that if one is off, the opposing one should be off too … but it’s not. Weird.

These are the other two that are going to part of my submission for judging. The blues and greens are based off of a photo of a peacock that is in my office. I put sequins at the rounded points of the kikus, and while they are not super visible, they do catch enough of the light when the ball is turned that it’s quite striking.

I finally found a version of the iris pattern that I actually like. Authors tend to name them generically, and patterns can be found under multiple different names, but when I used Google Translate on the Japanese instructions, this one is actually called ‘Iris’.

Not certain if I’ve posted this one before …

I had a lady approach me at the craft show in November asking for 3 temari, “the same, but different”. In yellow and black of all colours. She was super happy about these. I was super happy to see them gone.

I’ve made others, but nothing fancy to write home about (or post here). I need to be making about 3 per week between now and the juried art/craft show in September in order to have what I feel would be a reasonable amount. I haven’t really been keeping up with that number, but I’m going to spend the rest of March making small ones after I finish the 3rd submission one this weekend. Smaller ones only take 2-3 hours each, so my goal is to make 15 by the end of the month, putting my total stockpile at around 50. I’d like to get to the show without about 125. Fingers crossed. (Typically I do the show in November with around 60, but this is a bigger show with a lot more foot traffic.) And any that I have left after the show I can hold onto and sell at the usual show in November.

So yeah, I’m making temari.