Eclectic Spring Flowers Inspired Bridal Hair combs Kanzashi Style

I've always loved being eclectic. In my active years as an English instructor in Indonesia before moving to Japan, I applied eclectic methods to teach English in my day-to-day work. Now, as a kanzashi crafter I also love being eclectic.

I've been combining vintage kimono, saree silk and batik cotton in my works. For early spring flowers such as cherry blossom or sakura, camellia, plum blossom, I used these textiles.

From left to right: vintage kimono, turquoise saree silk and earthy colored saree silk. I've made a bridal hair comb with these textiles. The combination or earthy colors is cooled off by turquoise and ivory white. This is the result:

Spring flowers - turquoise brown and ivory white colors.

Next one that I made is a bit grander than the one above. This time I combined camellias and sakura using vintage kimono and saree silk. The fabrics you see below is vintage kimono (2 pieces) and lavender saree silk.

 I added two flower buds into the arrangement. Here is the completed arrangement.

spring flowers - CAMELLIAS CHERRY BLOSSOM plum blossom - purple pink kanzashi hair comb

Last but not least, pink!! Yes, sakura or cherry blossom seems to always be associated with pink so here it is. Pink and peach sakura. I combined vintage kimono and batik. From left to right: vintage kimono, vintage kimono and batik.

And I mounted the flowers on a metal hair comb.

layered CHERRY BLOSSOM sakura and plum blossom tsumami kanzashi hair COMB

These hair combs will go wonderfully for bridal hair combs.

Some of the textiles I used in these works were obtained from some recycle shops here in Japan, and some from Etsy sellers. One of the sellers was KIMONOCARDS. The fabric samples were all beautiful and of very good quality! And Mona Soyak, the owner was very friendly. I was very happy with the purchase :)

Versatile Triple PEONIES Duo Brooch Hair Clip

It's probably kind of late to write about peonies since according to seasonal kanzashi calendar, February or March is the month of peony. But I'm not a traditional tsumami zaiku crafter so I don't have to follow the tradition, do I?

The thing is that I like to make tsumami zaiku which is wearable for all occasion and fashion. It is an art but a craft at the same time. This tendency is also happening among the tsumami zaiku crafters in Japan. They make tsumami zaiku to cater not only the kimono wearers but also those who don't wear kimono.

Anyway, peony is usually presented as a single flower. However, I had an idea to make a triple peonies like a bouquet. Consequently, I had to make very small peonies so that the three make up a moderate size as a hair fascinator or as a brooch.

I tried to be a bit more adventurous with the fabric choice. This time I used kimono hagire or kimono silk cuts, batik cotton and chirimen.

From left to right: chirimen, kimono silk, batik cotton

Clockwise: kimono silk, batik, and chirimen

This may look messy but when the glue dries, they look much better. Sorry for the bad quality of the photo. I used my cellphone camera to take this picture.

Although I always plan everything beforehand, I often make some changes in the process, like changing the color combination. So these are the results. I switched the chirimen. Somehow I thought, the scarlett would look brighter with light green chirimen.

If you see from these pictures, they may look big but they are actually about 6 cms or 2.3 inches altogether.

Red peonies kanzashi inspired BATIK and VINTAGE kimono silk duo Hair Clip BROOCH

SCARLETT Peach peonies kanzashi inspired from BATIK and vintage kimono SILK duo Hair Clip Brooch

Each is mounted on a duo hair clip and brooch. Therefore, they can be worn as a hair fascinator or a brooch.