Colorful Floral Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

I perhaps write very little or even I haven't written much about batik for ages. And maybe I haven't mentioned that I had opened a new Etsy shop when I sell Indonesian batiks and Japanese vintage kimonos. I love traditional textiles.

Well, as per December 2015 (if my memory is correct) I opened a new shop on Etsy. I decided to sell batiks and vintage kimonos, two of my favorite textiles and garments.

I obtain the batiks from various batik centers in Java. These two batiks are from a batik center in the north coast of Java called Lasem. Batiks from Lasem have been known for their intricate designs. It may look crowded and yet the crowdedness make the batiks of Lasem look even more beautiful. These batiks, for example, have beautiful color combinations.

These batiks are all hand drawn, which means the batik artists draw the designs directly onto the cloth, and hand dyed.

First one is floral blue green batik fabric cotton. The background color is dark green with white floral design while the highlight flower design is in blue and yellow.

Floral Blue Green Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

Floral Blue Green Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

Floral Blue Green Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

The second one is just as beautiful as the first one. This one has brown white floral design and the main design are in green and purple.

Floral Green Purple Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

Floral Green Purple Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

Floral Green Purple Indonesian Batik Fabric Cotton

These beautiful pieces can be found and purchased here, Etsy Shop.

Country Chic Crochet Flower French Barrette Hair Clips

The last weeks of September were so nice. The weather was starting to get cooler and much much less humid. I was enjoying the beginning of autumn so much! But I knew that I couldn't stay relaxed enjoying the comfortable weather for too long because soon winter would come. So I'd have to make use of this opportunity to make as many items as possible before the holiday season came.

I completed this batch of crocheted flower French barrettes at the beginning of this month. All are in country chic, shabby chic colors such as soft pink, tea rose, soft purple, blue, coral, turquoise, mauve, magenta. These French barrettes are all listed already on my Etsy shop.

All of them are hand-crocheted and hand-dyed, mounted on silver toned metal French barrettes. It took me about 2 weeks to complete them, from designing, crocheting, hand-dyeing and finally assembled all the flowers into 6 French barrettes.

Country Chic Crochet Flower French Barrettes

Roses and cabbage roses in tea rose, mauve and magenta.

Pink Rose Mauve Magenta Cabbage Rose French Barrette

Turquoise cabbage roses and magnolias.

Turquoise Cabbage Rose and White Magnolia French Barrette

Soft purple roses.

Purple Rose French Barrette

Various flowers including pansies in coral and tea rose.

Shabby Chic Coral and Tea Rose French Barrette

This one is the same style as the above but in different colors - blue, soft purple and tea rose.

Shabby Chic Blue Purple Pink French Barrette

And finally a rose French barrette in coral and tea rose color.

Shabby Chic Coral and Tea Rose French Barrette

Which one is your favorite? :)

HandcrafKu

Indonesian Potato Croquettes

One of the Indonesian dishes that I miss the most is potato croquettes.

I have tried Japanese croquettes or コロッケ that I bought from supermarket. It's not bad. But I find Japanese croquettes too plain despite the minced meat in them. Perhaps they don't add enough spices (according to my opinion). I think that having grown up in the spice islands, I can't live without spices.
Spices on potatoes are yummmm!! You don't even need meat to make croquettes delicious. Just spices. My mum used to add corned beef. But I prefer just potato as the main ingredient.

So what are the spices? Garlic, pepper and nutmeg. Yes, only these spices can make meatless croquettes so delicious!

I tried to make Indonesian potato croquettes when I just arrived in Japan and was so homesick of Indonesian food. But I failed. The reason was that I didn't realize how different potatoes in Indonesia and those in Japan are. In Indonesia potatoes are more starchy and contain less water. So when you shape the mashed potato into a ball or patty shape, it holds its shape perfectly when you are frying it. No need to coat it with bread crumbs, just dip it in beaten egg and fry. The croquette will not crumble while being fried. While potatoes in Japan contains more water. The good thing is that Japanese potatoes don't take longer time to cook. But since it contains more water, it's hard to keep the croquette shape while being fried. So when I tried to make croquettes a la Indonesia, all the croquettes fell apart.

Just a week ago, I attempted to make potato croquettes again after over 6 years since my first attempt. And I did it! Yaaay!

So I'd like to share a simple recipe of Indonesian potato croquettes. But I can't determine the exact amount of each ingredient. I always go with what I think is enough. For example, I love garlic so I like to add lots of garlic and pepper. So feel free to improvise.

For the main ingredient, you need some potatoes. Here I use 5 - 6 medium size potatoes. I simply wash them clean and steam them with the skin on. This is different from the way we do in Indonesia where we peel the potatoes, cut them roughly into four and fry them. This doesn't work with potatoes in Japan because frying makes the potatoes more watery. Also potatoes must be steamed with the skin on, so don't peel before steaming them. It takes 15 - 20 minutes perhaps to steam the potatoes. When they're cooked, cool them and peel the skin with hand. No need knife. The skin comes off by itself. Then cut the potatoes before mashing them. Add some flour in the mashed potato if you think the texture is still too watery.

After that, prepare the other ingredients such as minced garlic, some pepper, some salt, some nutmeg, an egg and some fried onion (this one is optional. I just love to add it as that's how my mum did when she taught me how to make potato croquettes). The amount? hmm well if you don't like garlic, maybe just 1 - 2 cloves. I like garlic so I use 3 so that my croquettes taste garlicky :) As for salt, pepper and nutmeg. You can add them little by little. As you are mixing them with the mashed potato, taste a little to know whether it is to your liking.

When you've got the taste that you like, shape the mashed potato into ball or patty shape. Prepare a beaten egg in a small dish.

Heat some oil in the frying pan. Dip the croquettes in the beaten egg to coat before frying them. Fry them until golden brown. Take them out and set them on oil paper towel. And your potato croquettes are ready.

Hope you like this version of potato croquettes!

Two Custom Orders of Crocheted Flower French Barrettes

Remember my recent post of crochet flower French barrettes? When I was posting the link of one of them on Facebook, somebody saw it and asked me if I could do a custom order with different colors. I said yes. This lady wanted me to make one barrette with purple flowers for her and one with autumn colored flowers for her mother.

The original flower barrette I made has about 15 tiny flowers. But the lady asked me to use bigger barrettes because she and her mother have thick hair. Bigger barrette means larger barrette top, so I had to make about 16 - 17 flowers and 7 - 8 leaves each so that they could cover the whole surface of the barrette top. After making the flowers, which took me about 2 days, I hand-dyed them with fabric dye using a paintbrush. I had to it very carefully otherwise I'd fail to create ombre. Then I let them to dry overnight. The next day, they're ready to be assembled. And here they are:

 Autumn colored flower French barrette for the mother.

And purple flower French barrette for the daughter.

 If you'd like something like this in your color preference, contact me via my Etsy shop to discuss.

My First Batch of Crocheted Flower French Barrettes

August is here! Yaaay!

Although the weather condition is almost (if not more) as uncomfortable as last month, but we are nearing the end of summer, which is YAAAAY for me! Can't wait for it to be over.

Despite the heat and the almost unbearable humidity, I managed to make 5 crocheted flower French barrette. All hand-dyed and all are listed on my Etsy Shop.

Check out this batch and let me know what you think!

Light teal lily flower French barrette

Blue bougainvillea French barrette.

Calla lily French barrette.

Rose French barrette in pastel blue, yellow and purple.

 Colorful flower French barrette -  turquoise, pink, yellow.

Find these pieces on my Etsy shop. They're ready to ship. And if you'd like something like these in different colors, feel free to drop me a message in my etsy shop inbox message.

 

My First Attempt to Hand Dye Crochet Flowers

I had been tempted to hand dye crocheted flowers, but I never got around to it with moving and settling down in the new place.

I love the colors of crochet yarn! Whenever I browse Etsy or local craft supply shops, those yarns are just magnets to me. And I have to admit that I can't resist buying them. I end up having tons of yarn.

However, when I wanted to create ombre, I realized that it means that I would have to have different shades for each color. And that also means more money. Plus the ombre effect did not come out as I wanted. I was thinking what I should do in order to create ombre. I browsed and browsed and found out about hand-dyed crocheted flats. This DIY look awesome! I wanted to try it on my crocheted flowers.

Unfortunately, Rit liquid dye is not easy to come by here. I've checked out several craft supply shops in Tokyo and most of them have only a little selection of colors. Rit powder has more selection. But I found it to difficult using powder dye. Since I use very very little amount at a time, it's easier for me to use liquid dye instead of powder. So I use Best Color, a local product I think. They don't have as big selection of colors as Rit but it's not bad. I've learned to mix colors to produce different colors.

I also found that using size 40 yarn produces very nice outcome.

My first attempt of hand-dyeing crocheted flowers is on the flowers of some of hoop earrings. I tried to create ombre on tiny roses and orchid. It was not easy since they're so tiny. But I managed it somehow. Fortunately.

But for these lilies, I did not create an ombre effect. I simply hand dyed some parts of the flowers.

I'm quite satisfied with the result. In fact, I'm kind of addicted to hand dyeing crocheted flowers :)). But I will not hand dye all the time. I will use colored yarn for my future crocheted projects for sure.