A couple of days ago I got a very nice surprise as I was checking my Etsy shop inbox messages. I got a message from a customer who had bought one of my works. Along with the message, she attached some pictures of her wearing my work!! It's an obidome with koi fish on it. I was so happy!!
I felt so touched by this gesture. As an Etsy seller who doesn't have money to promote, a good review or a photo from customers will make my shop look good. But I can't force a customer to write a review or even take a picture of them wearing my work if they're busy. So when they actually write a good review or even take a picture of them with my work, it's immensely appreciated.
A customer who sent me a picture of her wearing yukata and an obidome that I'd made lives very far away from me. She lives in USA. Not only picture, she had also given me a wonderful review before that.
Although winter is not the season I hate the most (I hate summer the most), I have to say that winter often prevents me from making a lot of tsumami zaiku/kanzashi. The glue takes aaaaages to set, not to mention the coldness makes my fingers all stiff and almost numb making them so uncomfortable to use tweezers.
This is not my house :D Just a building across
If there were central heating in my house, this wouldn't happen. But just like most houses in Japan, our house doesn't have a central heating system. We use portable heater that we bring to the room where we want to do our activities there. The heater is not enough to warm the whole room, just its surrounding so I have to sit very close to it. The only room that has an air conditioning is the living room so in winter I prefer staying in our living room to staying in my working room. However, I can't do my work there. The room is so small, I don't want to clutter it up. But I didn't want to stop making things just because it's winter.
I've always been fascinated by the crocheted pieces I come across on Pinterest, Etsy, and other sites. I thought why not teaching myself to crochet. I was thinking of making Christmas presents. Besides I could always stay in the warm living room all the time!
I bought some yarns and crochet hooks at the nearest craft supply shop and started learning. There were tons of tutorials, I was unsure which I should learn from. I thought youtube was a great start.
My first project was to make a flower. This is what I made.
I found the tutorial on youtube but I can't find it now. I don't remember the url. Well, anyway, I made this based on that tutorial. I used cotton yarn.
Next thing I made was a beanie. I found the tutorial here. I was making it for me. My head got cold when I was walking in winter so I thought I should make a hat. I added a little flower. I used acrylic yarn.
But I never wore it because my husband said it looked as if I had worned bandage around my head ha ha ha. Well I'm not a hat person.
Then I made a kindle case using the same color of yarn. I also learnt from this tutorial on youtube. I had wanted to make this kindle case for my sister who owns a kindle.
It's not as pretty as the one in the tutorial but it's not bad I think ha ha ha. I sent this case to my sister in Indonesia. She loved it but unfortunately, it didn't fit her kindle case. Too bad.. I had thought her kindle was the same size as the one in the tutorial. Anyway, she likes it and said she'll use it for other purpose.
Although the highlight of the spring in Japan is Sakura or cherry blossoms, one of my favorite flowers in the spring is actually not cherry blossoms but the Daffodils or suisen in Japanese.
They grow somewhat wildly around my neighbourhood. But the shape of the blossom is really cute I think, and special. I feel that the daffodils are such carefree, cheerful and unassuming flowers.
These daffodils grow wildly around my house.
And of course, consequently it's one of the tsumami zaiku flowers I love to make. Up to now I've completed two daffodil French barrettes and two corsages/hair clips.
For the barrettes I mainly used batik, jacquard trims, and habutai silk. And for the corsages/hair clips I used the linings from vintage kimono.
I've been fascinated by jacquard ribbons or trims. They're so beautiful! I love the intricate woven patterns. Just like batik.
I had an idea of combining these with kanzashi on French Barrettes. But since both are quite extravagant in regards of the designs, I need to find balance by toning down one of them. For a jacquard trim with very colorful and elaborate design, I make very simple kanzashi flowers and the other way around. This create a cottage chic style french barrette with a Japanese touch :)
Sho Chiku Bai in Japanese literally means Pine (Sho), Chiku (bamboo), Bai (plum). In Chinese they are called Song Zhu Mei. The three plants are known as well as the Three Friends of Winter. They are named so as they flourish in this season.
They do not wither as the days become more and more cold in winter unlike many other plants. That's the reason why these three plants symbolize steadfastness, perseverance and resilience. Perhaps due to their nature of withstanding the severity of winter.
In Japan, Sho Chiku Bai is especially associated with the beginning of the Lunar New Year. Therefore, on the Japanese new year's greeting cards or nengajo, these symbols are commonly found.
Tsumami kanzashi also regards these plants as one of the important themes in the seasonal kanzashi. January is the season of Sho Chiku Bai. Kanzashi in this month consists of pine, bamboo, and plum blossom. Sometimes a crane ( or some cranes) is added.
This January I've made a batch of Sho Chiku Bai themed kanzashi: three hair combs and three French barrettes. I use a variety of fabrics - vintage kimono, chirimen, shibori, habotai silk.
These pieces can be worn as bridal hair accessories, or hair accessories for special occasions or as gifts.
Sho Chiku Bai in pink and gold tone.
Sho Chiku Bai in soft pink and grey.
Sho Chiku Bai in purple and lavender.
Sho Chiku Bai French barrette in red and white with a crane.
Sho Chiku Bai French barrette in purple, cream and cardinal red.
Button is one of my favorite item in the craft world, especially fabric covered button.
I've been fascinated by cute fabric covered buttons and how versatile they are. The range of their versatility is amazing: from hair accessories to jewelry. The projects that you can do with fabric covered buttons are countless!
To make the fabric covered buttons I use two types of covered buttons: the metal ones and the plastic ones. The plastic ones are known as kurumi buttons. The difference is that kurumi buttons don't have metal backs. Kurumi buttons are used to create projects such as small coin case.
When I use kurumi buttons in my tsumami zaiku projects, I have to create a base made of cardboard which I attach on the back of the kurumi button. When I use the metal buttons, I don't have to do that.
I will write about how to make it. But briefly, it's pretty easy. Cover both the metal top and the back with a piece of fabric. On the back attach 2 pieces braided elastic crisscrossing each other. Then attach the back on with strong glue. Leave it for a couple of hours. When set, it's ready to be decorated with tsumami zaiku flower or petals.
This can be attached and detached. Attach it on a hair clip, headband, brooch, or even a choker ribbon to make is as choker pendant.
This my first batch of fabric covered buttons with tsumami zaiku. Some of these are available on my Etsy shop.
I've been an on-and-off vegetarian since I moved to Japan. I was a vegetarian back in my home country in Indonesia. But in Japan, I found it a bit hard to become a vegetarian. Mainly because the vegetable protein is quite expensive in comparison to that in Indonesia. For example tempeh. I always love tempeh and used to eat that on daily basis in Indonesia but in Japan, it's kind of luxurious.
Fortunately there thousands of vegan/vegetarian recipes on the net, which I can easily adjust and improvise. One of them is tofu spinach potstickers.
I've always loved potstickers! Can't get enough of them. I just LOVE dumplings.
I've been making different types of potstickers or dumplings. My most favorite ingredients for the filling are shitake mushroom, cabbage, and tofu. Sometimes I use the inggredients alternately e.g. mushroom and cabbage, mushroom and tofu, cabbage and tofu.
I just got a lot of vegetables from my mother in-law. I got carrots, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, and many more. I also got some spinach. I always get home with a lot of vegetables whenever my husband and I pay a visit to my parents in-law for dinner.
Anyway, I was going to make tofu cabbage potstickers when I saw the horenzo or Japanese spinach in the kitchen. I thought why not making tofu spinach potstickers?
I got this recipe TOFU and SPINACH Potstickers.
But I made some changes in the recipe. I didn't use frozen but fresh spinach. I also didn't add soy sauce, scallions, or Worcestershire sauce. I also didn't prepare any sauce. My husband and I seldom need dipping when we eat potstickers.
So this is the recipe. The filling is just enough for maybe 34 - 40 potstikers depending on the size of your wonton skin. I have difficulty guessing how much ginger needed as some people might LOVE ginger and some might not so. So you can always add the amount of ginger according to your taste. And another difference is that I add ground sesame instead of sesame oil.
Ingredients:
400 gr (14 ounces) of firm tofu crumbled (if the tofu is not firm enough, you can get the water out by wrapping the tofu in a cloth and press)
200 gr (7 ounces) of chopped spinach
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1" ginger, finely chopped
1 - 2 tablespoons of flour
1 - 2 teaspoons of ground sesame
1.5 teaspoons of salt. (or 1 teaspoon if you want to eat the potstickers with dipping sauce.
Wonton skins
1. Mix well all the ingredients.
2. Stuff the wonton skins with the filling. Check here on how to wrap the filling. Wonderful and easy technique.
3. Prepare a skillet and add a little oil and fry the potstickers. Don't let potstickers burn (though I sometimes do ha ha ha). Just fry until they're slightly brown on each side.
Now the potstickers are ready!Sorry for the not-so-good photo! But the taste is yummy!
