Let'S Learn How To Make Kanzashi (Japanese Hair Ornament)!

Hello time for Japan outpost, I'm Yuka today, I'm here in la cuchara. Why am I here, let's find out so I can really breathe. My name is Casey Taunton and I'm the designer and maker from Kikuyu kanzashi, Oh table. So that mean these beautiful colors who you made yeah. This is all my work and I've been making kanzashi for about four years four years. Oh, so, how did you start? Why do I do circle? Yeah, I've always been really interested in Japanese culture, in particular Geisha culture. It'S something that I've studied quite a lot, so I wanted to make something for myself once I would be able to wear in. My hair was representative of what the Geisha would wear in their hand, so I started very small folding trying again and again and again to get something and that I could wear and it's just gone on from there. So the first thing that I made - I was very, very proud of it at the time, but I look back now and I'm very embarrassed haha. These are self-taught them. Yeah yeah holy get any book working. No I'm I started looking and pictures online. I created an image Bank of different designs that I really liked and started to practice different types of folds, so it's a similar technique to origami but yeah break instead, so lots lots of trial and error really grab eyes. Irish, you, you learned from a book or something, but he didn't know you just look at the photo yeah, I'm gon na drive civilian started and making cans. Actually, there wasn't many resources, so it was kind of trying to look at something and think how did they make them help and I try to make the same thing hmm. So I think now there's lots more online tutorials on YouTube. That'S on some more book songs like that so and since since I've been learning and developing, I now some books I bought in Japan that I can do different techniques, learning will use and I try to always learn more. So you said, though, you are making all this and then it's basically self thought. Yes, howhow. Did you mind to make this, and this this particular comes? Our she here is a replica piece of what a Maiko an apprentice geisha would wear in the month of October. Mmm and geisha kanzashi and change month by month during like different seasonal flowers. So this one is a chrysanthemum Emily born in October, hmm. So with this one, I have an image bag that I keep different photos. I see and I saw a picture of a micro wearing a chrysanthemum kanzashi and I tried to replicate that by making and a similar piece, but with more modern technique, yeah. So so, when you started to create this, you didn't have any book or anything and then you just did on your own yeah. So, like I said it's, it's it's a lot of trial and error and it's spending the time to try new techniques, see what's going to work best. Some things don't work. Can you start again and try again and then eventually I found you know - might develop my own techniques that I find work for me as an artist, so this particular piece, I think, there's probably approximately 160 individual panels that make up this particular kanzashi. So it's been made, each petal starts with a one inch square of fabric, hmm, which is then folded and attached to a base to form the flower, shape, hmm and then is the various embellishments as well that I use the comb and the old Center that help To make it a finished piece - hmm, that's quite amazing, so you learned how to do it just by looking at the image of it and then doing by plough alone. Yeah. Now it's quite amazing, so you started from running a book. You know first, that's quite amazing. In fact, you've got a lot of these beautiful fabric. To do you get live in July. Yes, so all of the fabric here I bought in Japan in the textile district of Tokyo. So last time we went to Japan, we filled a suitcase with as much as I don't worry. We worked it through suppori, a new Gurion see yeah yeah, so there's lots and lots of fabric shops very um, so we bought lots of beautiful Japanese fabric back with us, so these ones are Cotton's, but I also have Chariman fabric in the southern fabric as long So I do make comes ushi, weird, Japanese fabric, but also I do use English Cotton's as well as I do my modern hands a shoe. So if I'm not doing a replica piece, you know I might design something. That'S a bit more my own design and then can you tie the Japanese or English fabric um, so I'm going to demonstrate how to make a very simple kanzashi made using a needle and thread rather than the traditional rice glue. So this is something that everybody can make is their very first kanzashi. So it's a round petal shape made of five pieces of fabric, so I've already stopped and cut the fabric to two inch squares. So that's the size that I'm going to used to make this particular kanzashi. So it's really important, I think, to starch the fabric first, because it gives it a nice crisp feel to it and it helps to hold the shape more when you've finished your cans. Our sheet, it will stay nice and crisp. So what I'm going to do? First is fold the fabric in half and then I fold the sides in together turn the fabric over and what I'm doing is going to bring these two corners into the middle, so folding in each side like this and then what I'm going to do is fold. It over on itself to form the shape of the petal so for this particular comes our sheet like I said, I'm going to use a needle and thread to form the kanzashi. So what you want to do is put your needle through the fabric so that you're gathering those corners that you made so that everything stays nice and secure together. And then you need to make sure you trim the excess fabric from your kanzashi so that it's all nice and neat so you're just going to cut away your needle here and remove those to the side. So that's your first petal okay! So I'm going to make four more petals and I'll do those a bit quicker so that you can see the finished result. So you can also choose what you think is going to be the nicest part of the fabric. Each time you make a kanzashi with fabric. That'S patterned, like this they'll, be slightly different because of the different pattern on the fabric. So it's quite nice to be able to look at it and think what that's going to look like when you have finished the kanzashi. Okay, so threading the needle through again, and you want to make sure that they're very similar size as well, so that everything's nice and neat and looks pretty when you finished so trimming the excess fabric. There'S lots of different ways to make kanzashi petals. You can fold these on tweezers as well. So if you're working with silk or chairman fabric, then it's nice to do it on tweezers, so that you're not damaging the fabric. Put the oils from your hand, and you can get a nice crisp line with the tweezers as well, and I like to use these tweezers that I bought in Japan. They give a really nice firm grip and you can use them for doing lots of delicate work because they're so long and thin, okay Neela. Obviously you can take your time with this have just a very familiar with this process, so I can do it quite quickly and the last pencil okay. So once you have all five petals on your string, you want to gather them together so that they're all nice and neat - and I'm going to then cut here and I'm going to make this side a little shorter, a source, it's easier, okay, so to make the Flower shape, what I'm going to do is tie a simple knot. That then brings the petals together. So, as you see as I've pulled the thread, it's starting to form the shape of the flower, so once you've got the right shape, you might need to rearrange this. A little bit tie your knot a little bit differently, but once you think that's going to come together nicely, you can then tie and knot to secure that in place, and what I will do, then, is just tie another couple of knots so that everything's, nice and Secure and it's not going to come undone so once you've done that if you trim the excess thread here, just be careful not to drop through your knot and then you're going to actually form the shape of your flower. So at the moment you can see it doesn't look that great. So what you're going to do is you're going to press down lightly on the tips of the petals to form the round shape, so I'm pushing in the middle and I'm pressing lightly at the top, and I'm shaping the flower with my fingers. So all the way around okay and then once that's done just go around. Look that you're happy with the shape and you can also see which side looks the best in terms of where your pattern is, and that is a completed flower. So what they need then, would like to do. Is you can choose all sorts of different embellishments to go in the middle of your flower? So here, for example, there's just a simple pearl that I put in the middle. You can use die Monti, people, you can people use buttons thread anything. You want flower statements, anything that you think will look nice to decorate the flower, and so you can add your embellishments. What I would also do is finish off the back of the flower here and make it nice and neat by adding some more fabric that covers those raw edges and mix the flower, look neat and tidy, and then you can either add a clip directly to the Back of the flower like this one has here or you can use a long pin or combed and whatever you you want really to finish your kanzashi and that's it okay. So I'm going to fold two different types of petal melts. So, first I'm going to fold this pleated style of petal that I used to make this kanzashi design and then, secondly, I'm going to fold this open style of petal and I used to make this design okay. So this is this style petal, just pop that on a pin two years later and the other store. Okay - and this is this style of petal - it's I'm going to make the second style of petal okay and then to form the shape I'll, just press slightly, and that gives that the open petal shape for the future into the future. You think you keep on doing this for a long time to come, yeah, and I certainly would hope so, like I said, I'm still learning every day and I'm still aspiring to make beautiful designs such as I see Japanese artists making and for me kanzashi, is a Way for me to travel in Japan, so the money that I make from selling the kanzashi I keep completely separate and used to go to Japan every I don't know two years or so, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to do that. So, for me, the hours I spend making plans. Are she a worth it when I get to spend time in Japan which isn't a place I love to visit, and so that's that's. What keeps me going. I understand. I see okay. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.