Kanzashi Flowers

Today I made my first attempt at Kanzashi flowers! First, I watched this tute. I was kind of grumbly about all of the steps and time-consumption, so I knew I'd probably just do it the lazy way and skip crud I didn't think I needed. They tell you to starch all of your fabric 3 times to make it very stiff, and to use some blah blah material I never heard of, and some blah blah rice glue that I have no chance of finding locally.

So, I didn't starch anything, and I just used some scraps from the old stash (batik & an old sheet). Instead of using rice glue that I didn't have, I used elmer's glue and hot glue. Also, instead of setting the petals on a piece of wood in a pile of glue to dry for 30 minutes, I skewered the petals on a long embroidery needle (to keep them together) and spread a thin layer of elmer's glue on the edges and let it dry for what... 10 minutes.

I only made 6 petals for each flower, but I think 8 would have yielded prettier results. Even having skipped a ton of the painstaking steps suggested for excellent kanzashi, I still grew tired of this halfway through. Since it wasn't that fun, I probably won't make many more of these. I have seen some realllly beautiful kanzashi flowers, and I applaud and revere the artists with the patience for this craft! Alas, I don't think it's for me. Gotta try at least once though :)

Speaking of new crafts.... the epoxy resin that I ordered arrive today and I HAAAD to make some pendants. They're setting now and should be hardened by this time tomorrow. I hope they turn out decent enough!