Scans as promised!

I took time to scan a few images from two kimono books and two washi paper doll books yesterday evening. I won't be posting all the images here, but I will link you to the Flickr sets. Please go see the images there.

Casual Kimono Life by Tsuchiya Mayumi
Featuring the stunning Tsuchiya Anna from Kamikaze Girls and Sakuran.
Published 2007.

Kimono Style Book #1 by Wani Mook 66 
 I might scan more images from this book later on.
Publised 2003.

Chigami ningyou wo tsukuru by Itou Eiko
Absolutely stunning paper made doll statues. I bow to the skills of the makers!
Published 2002

Shimatsuke hitogata
Not many images in this set. The book is mostly instruction on making the actual dolls.
Published 1973.

ISBN to all but the last book are to be found in flickr.

To Cheer a Friend

The topic this time consist of a paper doll I made for a friend. I thought about making her something this morning to cheer her and halfway through she called and told how rotten her day had been because of an email. So these are the images of the doll I made to cheer her up. In the photos I see  few things I should have corrected, but I still like it.

The Purple Fairy

 Her belt looks darker than it is in real life. It's dark purple. The Shepherd's Staff was chosen because my friend is studying to become a priest.

 

An Update

Hello,
I'm terribly sorry that I have not updated for a while. I got struck by a personal catastrophe with my studies. Due to circumstances unavoidable, I flunked my thesis which prevents me of graduation. Which also means that after 5 years of school, I flunked on the final stretch. I've been rather demoralized to do anything significant.

My mood was cured a little this morning when I got a nice surprise. I ordered a kimono book from a seller I had ordered the Kimono Style Book 2 and it arrived today. My boyfriend always complaines that I get so many packages and he only gets bills in the mail, so I let him open the package. Here's what happened:

V: Honey, I thought you said you only ordered one book.
Me: I did, I could only afford one.
V: But there's two books in the package.
Me: Let me see that.

And sure enough, the seller had send me a gift: Kimono Style Book 1 by Wani Mook 66. I was complitely happy, I have never received gifts from sellers. Scans will be provided in a short while.

Also the washi paper doll books arrived last week. They took their time and I was worried that they might not arrive at all, but when I got the package the reason was clear: They had been missent to Singapore at first. But now all my packages (excluding one obi) are home safely. I remember promising scans from these books too.

I hope the start of my next post will be cheerier than this one was.

Until next time!
Sincerily yours,
Lumikettu

Yuki Onna Paper Doll

I decided to do some handcrafts one day. I've been doing dolls from paper for some time now as I feel paper is the easiest thing for me to work. This time I used hot glue instead of ordinary glue and did the hair from strips of paper.

Here's the doll when she was 50% done. This shows the basic structure I use. I make the hands differently most of the time, this time I tried felting wool. And yes, those are toilet paper rolls you are seeing there. I've always wondered if I could use them in some other way that as a help to light a fire in the fireplace. After different tries of making bases for my dolls, I tried the toilet paper rolls. They work wonders and are fairly easily obtainable. I'm still doing tests on how to use them better, but for a doll standing up, they work for me.

And here's the final result. The paper used it crêpe paper. Now I think I could have done the hems of the kimono a little better, maybe add a layer. I need to find out how to make legs stable enough to keep the doll up. I think this doll might look better if she had feet peeking out from under her kimono.


The hair was fun to make. While I was doing it my boyfriend asked why I was making a kimono lady with a rasta heirdo. I have to admit, it looks a little like that.

Here's a close-up of the face. I was thinking about making a face for her, but decided othervice. I chose black for the underkimono because under the snow, everything is dead and waiting for the spring to come. I don't know why I added the white strips of hair, I just felt like they belonged there. This is something very natural for me when I'm making something, sometimes it just feels natural to add something in there without much deeper analytical thoughts.

New Arrivals

Hi everyone, just popping through. I got two more odori kimono from RyuJapan and now I'm hopping to the wagon of saving. Here they are, more purple and white combos! I'm growing a very uneconomic addiction to them.

This is probably the longest of these odori kimonos I've gotten so far. Most of them are 155cm, but this is nearly 160cm.

I got this book on Tuesday and took some scans of it to my Flickr. I will post a few of my favourite images here too. Please see the rest of the images in my Flickr:
Kimono Style Book 2

The scan does not give justice to this kimono. It's beautiful dark turqoise/coral iromuji and it makes me droooool. I would probably go willingly bankrupt if I could have this kimono. Luckily I only know it's existence in a photograph.

For the first time I have to say that I'm drawn to the checkered pattern, but something in this black and white combo is speaking to me. I've seen a fabric with similar pattern, so I might attempt to make one oneday.

Chocolate brown houmongi? Count me in! I think I need to take course on painting silk...

Rest of the books have not arrived yet but I'm waiting them to come soon. More scans coming up then!

Happy Happy, Purse Unhappy

I've been scraping to get myself a little extra to go shopping and I've also been working with paperdolls lately and this is going to be a long post...

I'll start with the two odori kimono I got from RyuJapan.

At first I thought that the smell that came with this kimono was because of the plastic package, but I was wrong. It smelled very strongly of vinegar. A lovely person from IG, LightspeedGoddess suggested that it might be the smell of old sweat. After sniffing the kimono all over (yup, I turned into a bloodhound) I realized that the smell came from the bottom of the kimono, not from the places you'd expect the smell to come. After airing it a few days the smell seems to have dissappeared. Also my screen shows the colors as ivory with dark red pattern, the real color is more like peach/very pale pink base with aniline/fuchia pattern.

I was afraid that I would have to fight over this kimono, knowing that I would lose the fight instantly. Luckily the price stayed under $6 and I was happy to have it home. On my screen the base looks white, but it's actually doused in very very pale violet and the pattern is more reddish purple than the bluish purple I get on my screen,
but I'm not complaining, I like it even more!
 

 I was supposed to stop shopping after the kimonos, but I stumbled onto my other weakness: Books. I've been making paper dolls for some time now and when I saw these two books, I coudn't stop myself for getting them. So now I have to stay off eBay until November. Hopefully.... These books are about the japanese paperdoll making with instructions, so I'll be scanning some of them to my Flickr after I get the books. As always, I will not be scanning the whole books. The first book is from Showa era.

This is a newer book about the japanese paperdoll making. aboutjapan on eBay seems to have a few copies of these books if anyone is interested. They cost me more than I'm willing to admit and now I'm going to a strict savings spree. Which means that I have to stay off eBay and Suomalainen bookshop.

Upon other news, here's my newest handmade dolly. She came out front heavy, so that's why the scissors are in the photos; to keep her from tipping over. She also looks like she's dancing "Domo Arigatou Mr. Roboto!".

How she looks from the back. I'm still puzzling about the sleeves, but maybe the books I ordered will help me to clear that problem.

Close up of the head. First time doing hair from paper and it certainly shows!

Lastly the mail delivered the my cheering for the weekend: My orders from Orpheelin came! Yippee! That's Toxic vol. 3 and Reunion scetchbook. I've been a fan of Orpheelin for a few years now. These were in preorder in November/December(?) and they finally arrived. Yay, me so happy!

To get more info on Orpheelin and her work please go to her DeviantArt page: Orpheelin in DeviantArt

That's all folks!

To be away

I'm terribly sorry not to have updated for such a long time and not to share the kimonos I've worn. So, my kimono experience practicly crashed on itself because of personal reasons, school pressures and financial trouble. I've been running errands around the town and it's easier to move in the snow in western clothes, especially since I'm mostly running from place to place.

I will keep adding stuff here later. I've gotten two odori kimono to my collection that have not yet been worn and a week long holiday is coming next week.

Again, I'm terribly sorry for those who would have wanted to see me continue teh experience, but for a while, I need to put it on hold until atleast half the problems are solved.