Niwasaki Kanzashi

This is another little beauty I've been working on for Anime North's 2011 Kimono Fashion Show. I made this piece specifically to match my Niwasaki furisode: [link]

This piece features wisteria and butterflies. Wisteria is the official flower for the month of May according to the maiko and geiko calendar, and the butterflies hint at the approach of summer.

I hand dyed all the purple petals for this piece, and I found the little butterflies at the dollar store. They were being sold at 12 for $1! They had other colours too, but I figured white would be easiest to use being neutral.

This was also the very first time I've used rice glue to make the falls, and I must say I quite like the result. The falls feel lighter and they were less messy to make. I still prefer hot glue for the actual petal forming, but the rice glue is really nice for attaching the petals on the falls.

Time to Completion: 6 Hours 5 Minutes