Temari: #102 & #103

Temari #102 and #103 represent all my temari production for the past couple months.

 

The one above is #102, a C8 division. If it looks suspiciously familiar, it is because it is a C8 version of my temari #101, which is a C10.

There are less Shasta daisies on this one, but the flowers are a bit fuller appearing since there are more petals per flower.

The perle cotton threads on this ball are ones I hand dyed.

The next temari, #103, is a C10 division. There are six bands that make up the wider nine thread bands. The sixth band is a zigzag that circumscribes the ball instead of a straight line.

The remaining negative spaces were highlighted with narrow three thread bands.

A pastel variegated thread alternates with black in the wide bands. Although this might no show well on the computer screen, in person, this creates a subtle dynamic quality to the design.

Only the pale peach thread used in the diamonds and to tack down intersections is one of my hand dyed threads.

Only two temari to show for over two months is very low production for  me. With a number of health issues that are as tangled as a ball of thread after a cat has played with it, I am pleased to have achieved this much.

There is another temari in the works that is going with me to doctors appointments. Lately, the wait times have been relatively short, so not much progress at appointments.

A new C10 temari, maroon background with twelve stars, is going with me today to an appointment. What will go in the hexagon negative spaces between the stars is yet to be decided. Postponing that decision gives me something to look forward to.

 

Temari #100- a mini c10

This is my 100th temari that I have made.

It is a mini c10 stitched with embroidery floss (single, double and triple strands) and perle cotton #8. The perle cotton is hand dyed.

It is 1 1/4″ in diameter.

 

 

 

 

 

Library Temari Display

Beautiful things should be shared, not hoarded or stored where they can’t be appreciated. Temari by their nature are things of beauty: an art form based on geometry. They are artistic interpretations of spherical polyhedron structures, using line and color of thread to redefine the surface of a sphere.

Many of my temari creations have been temporarily freed from hiding in storage, to be displayed at our local library, for others to enjoy.

Three display cases at our local library are filled with many of my temari creation and will be on display for the whole month of December. It took a little longer to set up the display than anticipated since about a dozen people stopped by to ask questions and make comments. They all thought they were beautiful, but only one knew what they were and had made one before.

The display case in the picture above is the one on the left in the first picture. The top shelf has simple division temari, including a temari that measures only 3/8″ in diameter.

The middle shelf also has simple division temari. The three black temari with white thread are marked with simple, combination 8 (C8) and combination 10 (C10) markings with an explanation of markings to go with them.

On the bottom shelf in the front are the stages of producing a ball with written explanation to go with them. The temari behind them are some of my more adventuresome temari which experiment with different materials such as felt, lace, thread scraps as well as altered temari form such as a pumpkin form and a pollen grain form.

The tall middle cabinet houses C10 temari on all the shelves and on the bottom are three kimekomi balls that have temari stitching added to them.

A temari the size of a basketball sits alone on the next to bottom shelf.

The C10s on the top two shelves range in size from a 7″ diameter ball (on center of middle shelf) to a 1/2″ diameter ball (center front of top shelf).

The 7″ temari has a black background on which seven different knot patterns worked in the  pentagons and triangles. This temari is actually a scaled down version of a temari that is three times the size in diameter. The larger version was about 1/2″ too large to squeeze into the case.

The last display case contains C8 temari. The one on the top shelf, left hand side in purple, white and gold was the first temari I made.

Also on the top shelf, in the center, is one of my favorites because of the challenge presented by using several different types of embroidery stitches to create the flowers. Many stitches are difficult when stitching on a ball because it is three dimensional. Stitches that are easy on fabric do not necessarily translate to easy on a ball. In fact, they are usually more challenging. The French knot was a real pain to work on the surface, but worth it for the effect.

With each new temari, there is always something new to explore: a different marking of the ball, different color combinations, different kind of thread, different stitches, new materials, different arrangement of design elements,etc. The possibilities seem endless, so my explorations in temari continues. Who knows, maybe I will have a whole new set of temari for display in a year or two.

 

Two New Temari: stars and flowers

Using the same division of the surface of a sphere, very different designs can be achieved. For both, the C10 temari division was used. Comparing this to a geometric solid, the division lines would be the same as the vertices of a Disdyakis triacontahedron (aka: hexakis icosahedron or kisrhombic triacontahedron).

In temari #80, pictured above, there are two layers of stitching. The stitching on the lower layer has pointed ovals that follow the edges of the twelve pentagon faces. The upper layer has stitched lines that zigzag around the ball, that together create stars within each pentagon and hexagons between three adjoining stars.

This design appears to have much potential in changing its appearance simply by changing colors, so it is probably one I will come back to in the future to try out variations.

In temari #81, pictured above, there is only one layer since the two different stitched elements do not overlap. The idea for this temari grew from working on the previous temari. Seeing how the pointed ovals in the other one left interesting negative spaces, I decided to use that idea in this one. The pointed oval were replaced with diamonds to give the negative spaces a flower shape. Stitching was added to the negative shapes to suggest the centers of flowers.

The variegated threads used for the diamonds gave an otherwise static design more visual interest. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the color relationships do not translate well to photographs sometime.

Both took much longer to finish than I anticipated, but both were fun to make.

Six Temari Plus Three More

For several months before and the couple months since surgery on my elbow, my temari production rate has been way down.

Currently, some days are better days for sewing than others, so I limit how many minutes I can sew each day to prevent inflammation making it get worse. The overall trend is improvement.

Temari #64, is relatively simple C8 with minimal but has a dramatic impact visually. The thread is a bamboo silk blend for which the four ply yarn was split to reduce it to two ply yarn about the size of a #5 perle cotton thread.

Temari #65 above, is very similar to #48, which a friend really liked, so it got remade in a different color scheme. This is a C10 division. The threads are all hand dyed except the white.

Temari #66 is also a C10 division. This temari is unusual for me in that I used only one color for the embroidery, and one that is not even dyed.

Temari #67 is a C8. I tried adding more stitching to this one, but the empty spaces needed to stay empty and uncluttered, so the stitching got removed. This uses more of my hand dyed thread.

Temari #68 is similar to #64 but different. There will eventually be a third temari with black and white bands on a C8 division to go with these two to be displayed as a group. It just has not happened yet as other new ideas come up and distract me from finishing the triad.

Temari #69 is one that I started back towards the beginning of last year for an online temari group, completed less than half and then set it aside for quite a few months. It is a small scale version of temari #26. With a diameter of 7″, it is 1/3 the size of #26.

I finally finished it before surgery. And then there was surgery. Since then, I have made only three temari.

The little C10 above #70. It is only 1 3/8″ in diameter. The size was less of a challenge in making it than the limited use of my hand and arm which were in a brace at the time. The camera refused to accurately record the colors. The background thread is actually a rich emerald green.

Temari #71 is a C8 with interlocking triangles and triangle knots. The two green threads are some of my hand dyed threads, but the blue is not. This is a variation on my temari #44.

Temari #72 is represents the start of a new direction in temari for me. I had made a couple of felt pincushions with an embroidered design on the tops which were inspired by temari stitched designs. Those in turn inspired this temari.

Above is another view of #72. In this picture, how much the stacked felt circles sit proud of the ball’s surface is more apparent than in the first picture.

This is a C8 with additional marking lines to change it to having 16 faces- 4 hexagons and 12 pentagons. Cutting out all the little circles was a bit tedious, but I enjoyed the process of making this temari and am pleased with the end result. The felt has created an unexpected tactile quality that makes the temari irresistible to handle.

Both this temari and the previous one are sporting threads from my latest batch of threads that I hand dyed. The latest batch includes some pastels to help round out the color pallet of threads.

By the way, this is the same pink ball that is pictured in my temari project tote bag blog post.

With a fresh new batch of hand dyed threads and an arm that is getting better, I am looking forward to making more temari soon.

Another Mini Temari

Temari 62

This is a C10 temari stitched with single strand embroidery floss. The diameter is just shy of 1″.

Turquoise: a temari and a kimekomi temari hybrid

For some reason, turquoise was the color of choice when I made these balls. I started the temari and ran out of silver thread and was unable to finish until I bought more a couple days later, so I moved on to making another kimekomi temari.

temari #7

This C10 temari was a bit challenging for me to make since it required the use of pins where the silver stars connect to keep the tension correct until the stars were connected. Otherwise, if I pulled too tightly, then the stars would have been too small or lopsided. I am not very fond of pins and this project reinforced that sentiment. The silver thread kept catching on pinheads, even though I kept them pushed in most of the way.

When the silver thread ran out before the ball was done, I was ready for a break and switched to making another of my hybrid balls.

kimekomi temari hybrid #3

Three different hand dyed turquoise fabrics were used in this hybrid ball. Bits of other colors in the fabrics are reflected in the thread colors. The kimekomi is a C8 division and the temari is a C8 division. Turquoise crochet thread was braided and used for the thread marking lines. I rather like the heavier line look on this ball and plan on experimenting with different weights and different braids.

Temari 3

temari #3

This lovely ball is my third temari.

This C10 division temari was made on a 2 ½” Styrofoam core with three layers of
cotton/poly batting and then wrapped with a variegated ribbon yarn. The ball was
marked with red cotton perle then stitched with lavender and purple cotton perle
and a variegated hand dyed cotton thread.

There were some difficulties in making this ball.

One I should have expected is trouble with accuracy with marking lines. This should have been expected since: 1. I have never made a C10 ball and 2. C10 divisions are supposed to be more difficult than a C4 or C8. I had no problems with accuracy in measuring and marking intersections on the ball with pins, but the way I applied the thread made the intersection go off center of the pins. When presenting my problem to the Temari Challenge yahoo group, a member sent me a link to a video on accurate marking of a C10 division. Great video. For my next C10 division ball, I will follow the video while working on marking the ball.

Another difficulty I  encountered was working with a “z” twist thread. The beautiful hand dyed yellow/orang/fuchsia variegated thread has a tight “z” twist and as I was stitching, the thread kept tangling. Most of the threads I work with have an “s” twist, which is in the opposite direction, and I usually have the problem of the threads twist becoming untwisted. Here the tight twist was just getting twisted tighter. So, I learned that I need to train myself to sew without spinning the needle to prevent both problems.

The ribbon yarn was turned out to be easy to work with and gave the ball a unique background  for the stitching. The ribbon yarn is not slippery, so stays in place while marking the ball with thread. Also, it was easy to slide the needle under the edge of the ribbon to bury thread ends.

The end product is beautiful and one that I learned from the process of making it.