Fostering A Baby Elephant on Mother's Day!

Today on Mother's Day, I'm a very happy foster mom of a cute baby elephant orphan named Kamok!! I got the certificate by email. You can see my certificate here.

I've been watching videos of elephants rescue by THE DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST recently. And I was thinking to foster one of those baby orphan elephants. I checked the list over and over again and watched the videos on youtube over and over. And finally I made up my mind to foster Kamok. A baby elephant orphan who was (probably) left by her herd because she had weak joints so she couldn't catch up with her herd. Poor thing...

I've always had a soft spot for animals especially elephants and cats. And I'm concerned about the issues regarding the declining number of the endangered species and extinction, and the well-being of animals. I've learned that the number of elephants is declining for the past recent years due to the poaching for their ivory or human-wildlife conflicts. It makes me really sad whenever I hear some news about dead elephants in Africa, Asia including my home country, Indonesia.. I don't understand how they could bare to kill such majestic and awesome animals.. 

Some of the videos on elephant orphan rescue bring tears to my eyes. I feel sad when a baby elephant orphan died despite DSWT's best efforts to save him or her.. For example this baby Empaash. What a lovely baby elephant, but Empaash seemed to have lost the will to live, having lost his/her mother...

But there are also heart-warming, happy end stories where the baby struggles to survive, like Kamok, the baby elephant I've just fostered at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Watch her rescue here.

Isn't she lovely? What a precious baby elephant!! 

Another happy-ending rescue is the rescue of Quanza. Her mother and two sisters were killed by poachers (aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhh.. I feel like killing those poachers when I see the video of her rescue). I couldn't help crying as I'm watching it.... 

How terrible are the human beings who insist on buying ivory and have caused the killings of thousands of elephants...

I hope Kamok grows stronger and healthier by day and has a long happy life. And may she have lots of baby elephants so that the number of elephants increases..

New Banner: Jagatara Art Eclectic Tsumami Zaiku

Initially I planned to sell tsumami zaiku and sewn products. The purpose was so that I could maximize the use of fabric. My shop name at time was Jagatara Art: handmade batik clothes and ornaments.

This chrysanthemum was the first chrysanthemum kanzashi I'd managed to make after several failures. And the tjantings were mine. I brought them from Indonesia. I arranged them on a small wooden bench belonging to my husband. I thought the picture would be nice to represent what I was doing.

Again, I always go with the flow. It seemed I did more on making tsumami zaiku or kanzashi flower than on sewing. I did sew and sold some blouses that I made at my mother in-law's shop, but somehow I was drawn to tsumami zaiku a bit more. And when I sold some on Etsy, I made some sales. Not many but not as bad as when I was selling batik. And this kept me going.

In early February, I received a custom order to make a kanzashi hair comb. This one was very special, because I was asked to make a kanzashi of vintage kimono fabrics. Since then I've begun creating tsumami zaiku of a variety of textiles. Not just batik. I have been using vintage kimono and Indian saree silk. So, I decided to change my shop banner again to Jagatara Art: Eclectic Tsumami Zaiku. I call it eclectic since I use different types of fabrics. I hope my works will be widely accepted in the market.

This is the new banner. From left to right: batik silk, vintage kimono and Indian saree silk.

Yellow Daffodils and Lavender Mauve Burgundy Plum Blossoms Bridal Headpiece

I have completed more bridal headpieces. My inspirations were cute daffodils and plum blossoms. As for colors, I picked yellow for daffodils and lavender, mauve and burgundy for the other headpieces. And oh, peach! I love peach color!

I'd been living in Japan for almost 5 years but I just saw daffodils in person this summer. That's quite embarrassing, yes I know. What can I say? I'm a not that observant I guess. Anyway, I used vintage kimono that I'd bought from an online shop selling kimono cuts. Tangerine toned plum blossoms seem to go well with the soft yellow daffodils. The leaves are off chirimen. Then I attached the bouquet on a metal hair comb.

This is how the headpiece looks like on hair.

Yellow Daffodil and Tangerine toned Plum Blossoms

My next headpiece is slightly bigger that the previous one. Combining lavender, mauve, burgundy and a bit of gold. But I thought these colors were a bit too cold, so I decided to add one flower made of saree silk of warmer colors. For the leaves, I chose batik. So you can say that this headpiece is an eclectic kanzashi!

Stalks for the bases of the flowers

Petals ready to be assembled

And this is the completed headpiece.

Colorful Spring Flower Bouquet Lavender Mauve Gold Tsumami Kanzashi Hair Comb Headpiece

I took 2 pictures on how the headpiece could be worn. I don't know which one is better. I liked both. But I decided to pick the first to be one of the pictures I uploaded on Etsy.

Last but not least, burgundy and peach floral headpiece. I like the combination of elegant burgundy and cheerful peach. All of the kanzashi flowers here are made of vintage kimono, except for the leaves. They're of batik.

Colorful Flowers Peach Burgundy Tsumami Kanzashi Hair Comb

Fun Quizzes That Make You Laugh Or Frown

Recently when I'm logged in on facebook, I notice on news feed of what my friends are doing or have done and one interesting thing is that many seem to enjoy taking quizzes. This is not quizzes like examinations at school or something, but more like self-examining ones.

I guess living a society, any society, generally an individual often does not recognize themselves; what they really like; what they are really like; what they're supposed to be, and so on and so forth. The reason is that there are a lot of compromises that one must make in order to live in harmony in a society that he or she forgets about what they really are. Anyway, I'm not going to ramble on and on about this since I'm not a specialist in this domain. What I'm going to talk about is how these quizzes reveal some interesting discoveries about ourselves that we have never realized before. These quizzes are meant for fun, I think. So nothing serious about it, but still it will make you laugh or frown (because sometimes they come up with silly answers that are you at all) or make you know more about yourself :)

I've taken some too and I gladly say that I agree with most of the answers. Phewww.. I found out about most of these quizzes from my facebook's news feed. Here some:

This quiz is (from quizony) about which city we should live. I in most cases people are so crazy about the cities where they live in, including me ha..ha.. ha.. You may say that I'm not crazy about Kurayoshi city, the place where I live now. Anyway, so I took this quiz, and after having answered 9 questions, the result says that I should live in Amsterdam!! It's a funny coincidence that hubby and I sometimes talk about living in Amsterdam. Not seriously though ha..ha..ha..

The other one is from survley. This one is particularly interesting since I love spices and herbs. This quiz finds out which herb or spice we are. And after having answered 5 questions, I got BASIL! And coincidentally I LOOOOVE basil! I put basil in my pasta sauce whenever I cook pasta. It says here:

You are 
Basil

You value deep, authentic relationships. You're not big on small talk. You are deeply spiritual, even if you don't talk about it much. Deep down you are good with yourself and the world. You are unpretentious and natural. You couldn't be another way even if you tried. You have a beautiful soul, and it shines through in the way you treat others.

Thanks for finishing the test! Did you like it? Share your result with friends to see what spice they are.

I don't know whether it describes my personality precisely, but I'm very happy with the answer! :)

Next one I took from playbuzz. This site offers loads of fun and amusing quizzes. I'm a great fan of The Lord of The Rings, so of course I'd take this quiz on which member of the fellowship you are. And I am Gandalf The Grey!! yaaay!! And yes, Gandalf is my most favorite character in The Lord of The Rings. I wouldn't have watched the trilogy hundred times if Gandalf weren't there.

But not all the quizzez I took came up with a satisfying coincidental answer. Sometimes, I got an answer that made me frown. For example, Which Movie Magician Are You. And according to this quiz I am Dumbledore! What?? I chose Loch Ness as my magical companion and not phoenix but that made me Dumbledore? If there's one character I sympathize with the most, that would be Professor Snape. I mean the poor guy had such a huge love for Lily, Harry's mom. That is so sweet!!

Anyway, I couldn't say whether these quizzes really told the truth about me or whether they were legit or not. I didn't take them seriously but it's just fun. It's as if someone told me what I'm like. I seldom hear what other people think about me. So it's nice to know that.

Have you taken these quizzes? If not, I recommend taking one or two or as many as you like. They are really fun and trust me you'll learn more about yourself. Or just they'll make you frown in disagreement ;)

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.

Kanzashi Inspired FLOWER Dangle Earrings

One thing I like about tsumami zaiku or kanzashi inspired flowers is that how adaptable it is. You can apply it on hair accessories as it's originally for or jewelry. Tsumami zaiku or kanzashi inspired flowers make a lovely piece of mix-media jewelry.

Take a look at this pair of earring dangles by Magpie Creations. Aren't they a beauty?

I have made several pairs of dangle earrings, too, and listed them on etsy. Some of them are of batik cotton and one pair is made from batik silk. I combined the flowers with lamp work beads, fire-polished beads, charms, and faux pearls.

  Blue jasmine with bird cage charm and faux pearl.

Dainty pink jasmine with lamp work beads.

 Tangerine toned jasmine with flower charm and orange acrylic beads.

Dark olive flower with fire-polished bead dangles.

I'm pretty happy with my first batch of earrings and will make more soon!