It's Temari Time!!

OK...so now I'm up to date...let's get onto temari!

Temari making took over my spare time in April this year. It's (as many would tell you) something that very quickly turns into an addiction. A big thanks to Temari Addict Australia for helping me develop my orbsession (get it?!) so quickly.

I dont have the longest attention span when it comes to focusing on one particular hobby, so imagine my surprise to find that I not only made one temari, but then made several more, and as yet, haven't found the fascination to be dwindling at all.

I have a few Japanese books, and a few of the English ones as well. I'm fascinated by the patterns and the shapes, the layers and colour combinations possible. I'm learning different techniques. And I'm having a ball (oops...there's another one!).

So a little while ago, the idea for an International Temari Appreciation Day (ITAD) was born (thanks Rebecca), and it's October 22nd - yep - that's tomorrow! There is a Flickr page for ITAD, and a fantastic competition aimed at spreading the temari word. Go have a look at some of the great pic's that are there already. Thanks also go to Rebecca for setting up a International Temari Day blog page.

To celebrate ITAD, I have put a small display at my workplace, and also done up some leaflets for my local craft shop. I'm also working on a ball with a group from the Temari Challenge group on Yahoo, an original creation with inputs from seven of us. It's interesting to see what each person adds to the design, and I'm itching to see how it turns out.

I also decided to add this blog to my signature on the Yahoo groups so that someone other than me knows it exists! Anyhow, here are some photo's of some of the temari I have made.

My favourite temari is the black base with the purple, yellow and green kiku pattern. I have my threads seperated into four colour groups - blues, greens, earths and pink/purples. I challenged myself to choose one colour from three of the four boxes, and this was the combination that resulted. I am repeatedly amazed that a change in colour combination can alter the apperance of a relatively simple design so drastically.