My first Treasury on Etsy

I made my first treasury on Etsy. As many of you know, Treasury is a collection which you can edit your favorite items from other seller's as a curator. My theme was colors of early spring. Then I found these beautiful treasures. I think I will make more treasuries because it was pretty much fun!

Shabby and Rusty Vintage Look Pendants

I eventually listed what I really wanted to do for long time. It is Jewelry. Now you can see two chic looking pendants in my Etsy shop. These pendants are made of multicolored glass beads and artificial pearls.

I named this one "Nostalgia".

This one is "Relic".

I tried to represent "nostalgia" and "a relic of bygone days" by combining many different kinds of beads in sepia tone. All the beads are fastened to the filigree base with copper wires.

I would love to make more jewelries as many as I can. Surprisingly my eyes are getting old steadily...... That makes me slow down a little bit, though, I  really like to find cool jewelry making materials on Etsy or at local craft stores and play with them. I will put more pictures of them on Flickr soon. Please check them out too.

Embroidery Tutorial / Good Use of Gingham Check

I am working on several different embroideries which use the character of Gingham Check. Today, I would like to share one of those techniques. It is how to make an interesting pattern with some simple stitches on Gingham. It is simple but it is also effective. Do you see a pattern of formal octagons? I'm gonna show you how to attach sequins with seed beads as well.

You will need to prepare #25 cotton embroidery floss in white. #25 embroidery floss is made up of six strands twisted together.  I separated them into groups of three for this project.

1) Let's take a good look at the pattern of gingham check  first. It is made up with squares of white and two tones of another color (which is purple in this tutorial). Stitch along horizontally with Running stitch. These stitches should go over the light purple squares in the middle.

2) Do same thing but vertically this time. There you will see many white squares which have four arms sticking out of each sides.

3) Bring the needle up through the fabric from where one of four arms touches to the side (of a white square) .
Thread under the other three arms around the white square then insert the needle back into where it first came out.

 There is a figure I drew. I hope you will get the idea what I am trying to say from this picture.

4) You will see many purple octagons and little white diamonds in order. Get a fine needle (has to be able to pass through a seed bead) loaded with a hand sewing thread. I doubled the thread for durability. Bring the needle up through the fabric in the center of a octagon. Pass through a sequin and a seed bead. Then go back through the same sequin again and insert the needle back into where it first came out. A sequin is attached. I put them alternately for this design.

5) Done!

It is a very simple and easy work but it makes interesting texture, doesn't it? There are some more techniques for using the character of the Gingham Check like Smocking and Cross stitch. I would love to introduce those techniques sometime in the future.

This Embroidered piece will be used for a new clutch. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and try this technique sometime. I am looking forward to hear your review of this tutorial.

Have a happy weekend (with your embroidery needles perhaps)!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

P.S.....This tutorial is featured on CRESCENDOh.com on January 23 2011. Thanks!

Mirror Work Hand Bag / Fire Works in the Winter Sky

This embroidery I named "Fire Works in the Winter Sky" is finished! I made a elegant hand bag with it.

 

The fabric I used for the base of the embroidery is silk dupioni. The shiny objects in the middle of the fire works are mirrors which were made for mirror work embroidery. There are many kinds of stitches to fix the mirrors on fabric. Otherwise I used some seed beads, tube beads, sequins and metallic silver threads for beads work.

I used a metal frame for the structure. The handles are made of the same silk dupioni. The bag looks beautiful and I think it will suit any formal situations.

 

 

The lining is a silk from old Kimono which has Roses on the black back ground. There is a simple small pocket inside. 

I would like to show the process of mirror work sometime soon. There are more pictures of this project in my Flickr pool if you are interested. And also this bag is listed on my Etsy shop Harujion Design.

We are having a big snow storm since last night! We already have 20 inches of snow in South Bend. And it is still coming down a lot! I have never had this much snow since I moved in US (It has been five and half years). There is no wind, the snow is falling down more and more peacefully. It is beautiful. I feel cozy in the house and even feel we are protected by snow. That's funny. A couple years ago, I never thought snow like this. Snow was always what I couldn't like......

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Sneak peek / Fire Works in the Winter Sky

This is what I am working on now. Did you see fire works in the dark Winter sky? Maybe, for celebrating New Year?

It is a combination of mirror work and beads embroidery.

I am hoping to be able to show you a process of mirror work soon. Please stay tuned!

What we eat for the New Year Day in Japan

How was your New Year Day?
We invited a couple of friends (they are Americans) over and had a Japanese  traditional New Year Day dinner with them. These on the large plate are mostly preservable food which are cooked with sugar, soy sauce and sake. Ingredients are fish pastes, eggs, beans, seaweeds, sweet potatoes, chestnuts and  so on. And we also have fresh vegetables like Daikon radish and carrots salad, and some salted herring roes.

In my family, we always have this dish which is called "Chikuzen-ni" for New Year. This has many kinds of vegetables and chicken meat simmered with sugar, soy sauce and sake. And also we have a simple soup of Mochi (Rice cake) , chicken and some green vegetables like spinach. All the families have a little different traditions and it is also varied depending on where in Japan they live.

 This is Chikuzen-ni I cooked this year. It is kinda hard to make it tastes same every year. But it turned very well this time so I am going to record how I cooked it for next year. Everything is very healthy.

I am so glad our guests loved the look and taste of my food, and we had great time to celebrate the start of 2011. It is very fortunate that I have my family and friends all healthy and welcome new year with them.

2011 New Year's Greeting from us with Animals