You got questions ... I got answers in Temari

One of my friends wanted to know what a temari looks like inside. Like, how do I get stuff into it?

Traditionally, temari start as a stocking filled with rice, or old rags. I haven’t tried one in this style yet, but I will do it eventually. In either case, it’s easy to put a small trinket box in the centre when you do it that way.

I typically use styrofoam balls for my centres.

Then I use a foam cutter, which is basically a super-heated rod that melts through the styrofoam.

Typically at this point I use the styrofoam cutter to cut a wedge out of each centre. Unfortunately, my styrofoam cutter decided to die after taking this picture, so I had to do it the old fashioned way, which was to pull out the centres with a pair of pliers (in the past I’ve used a spoon, but that’s wayyyyy messy).

I have also tried just cutting a small hole in the styrofoam, large enough for the item I’m putting into it, but the bells don’t ring well like that, and the weight of the object makes the temari off balance. So if someone wants to display it on a table, there will be only one way that it will sit.

Then I choose which items I want to put inside the temari. I typically pick things that would be appropriate for the person I’m making it for. Or, alternatively, if I’m making it for general retail, I will put a simple bell in it.

Then it gets wrapped in yarn.

Finally, it gets wrapped in string. There is a method called ‘power wrapping’ where you use multiple strands of the same (or similar) colours to do the first part of the wrap so that you can cover the yarn quickly. The final part of the wrap is done with just one strand (normally). Each mari is wrapped with about 300 meters of thread. Wrapping is done randomly, making sure you don’t end up with any lumps or bumps. And the last bit of wrapping is done quite tight, so that the threads won’t slide on the surface while you stitch the pattern.

At this point it’s a mari, ready to be stitched. Mari just means ‘ball’. Temari means ‘hand ball’. It doesn’t really become a temari until it’s been stitched and ready to be given to the recipient.

If you’re terribly interested in the dividing process I can photograph that as well one day!

Last updated May 10, 2021