Sunday Kitsuke

Hello everyone :)

Want to know why today is an awesome day? Its my first day off in three weeks!
Oh, and I finally had some time to wear kimono :)

As its spring down here in Australia I was faced with a problem... I don't really have any spring specific kimono. The only kimono I have is a mid Showa Furisode with wisteria:

I was going to pair it with my silver and green swirl fukuro obi:

However I just couldn't use it. Nope. Wasn't working for me, I pulled out my biyosugata but it still wouldn't cooperate with me.

So I was bad and used a nagoya obi   :o

(which I don't have a stock photo of, sorry!)

Today I headed outside to take photos :) It was a lovely sunny and windy day... so I had sleeves and my wig flying everywhere XD but nevertheless I'm happy how the photos turned out.

I took the obi shots inside so you could see the obi design better as it just got washed out outside.

Also a bit naughty as both the kimono and obi have wisteria designs... but that's about all the "spring" stuff I have...

The obidome is my trial chidori obidome. 

It doesn't show up well in the photo but the colour is this shimmery pearl white which is very pretty

Maybe I should've drawn a wing on it too... I'm in the process of doing a pink one so I'll put a wing on that one and see how it looks. Actually the pink chidori would've fitted better with this kitsuke colour wise...
Ah well.
I'm also working on a cherry blossom idea for obidome:

I was trying to create something that looked like a bunch of petals blowing away in the wind, but so far the trials of that design have turned out crappy :(  and then somehow I just fiddled around until I came up with the above design. I would still like to add some detail to the center of the flowers though.
Thoughts?

And that's about it for me. Besides working lots and moving into our new house (Yay!) I haven't had much spare time but hopefully I can find some more kimono time soon :)

Have some blossom photos...

Interesting things on YJA.

Hello everyone :)

I've been a little busy trying to learn how to sew, I'm working on a 1950's inspired dress for a good friends wedding and I'm nearly done!

I haven't been doing any odori programs and my Etsy shop is a bit slow so I thought I'd share some interesting YJA auctions I've found.

In no particular order:

Junior set of Maiko kanzashi featuring sakura and butterflies.
A bit expensive though... And I don't have any spring hikizuri so I hope someone else gets this.
Auction link.

These Katsuno magazine clippings, although I already have them many people seemed to have enjoyed them on my Flickr and I'm sure someone would like to own them.
Auction link.


Next is 8 uchiwa with maiko/geiko names.
Only my Internet is really slow/annoying right now and I can't seem to link the photo.
Auction link.



Hanameishi:

Auction link.

Auction link.

Now I know these have both finished but the seller Yukimi085 has many of them for sale, they also have the miniature tsuamami hana kanzashi that maiko wear with casual kimono and odori programs.

Lastly is this amazing kimono (Sold for 95,000 yen) with palms!
I considered bidding on it for a millisecond before the price sky rocketed!

Auction link. if you wish to check it out.

Thanks for looking, now I'd better get back to my sewing, I only have until Friday to finish it!

Book sale!

I've mainly got books up for sale this week, most of them aren't kimono related but just fiction books, but I'll post what I think might be of interest to you:

*Blue iro-tomesode with wisteria.

*Meiji era girls furisode.

*2X Daruma magazines. One has an article on kanzashi and the other has an article on obi ( why I originally bought them, pretty pictures!)
*The Gion quarter book. Fantastic black and white photo book of Gion Kobu between the 1930's and 1960's I think. Cover has had something spilt on it but otherwise good condition.

Other books I have for sale are some bonsai/ikebana/how to draw manga....

Please have a look at my eBay here. Thankyou :)

More goodies for sale :)

I'm sure most of you are getting bored with me posting only about selling stuff but I am finding new homes for things, so soon I'll take a break from selling.

I sold 7 things last week! That's great!
 I sold the Marumage wig :) that made its way over to Western Australia to its new home.
A few obi I sold to a lady also in Victoria and I even sold an obi to a lady in Bendigo (!) who was giving it to an elderly Japanese friend for Christmas, Awww! I think that's so sweet :)
And a few geta are going over to Westerna Australia as well.

Ok this week I have:

Geta:

*Clear varnish wooden geta with blue and white hanao

*Black painted geta with red hanao

*Plain wooden geta with gold and black hanao.

Kimono:

* Sky blue iro-tomesode with wisteria design

*Pruple komon with hexagon design

* Shiromuko

*Meiji era girls furisode

Obi:

*Red and black hakata obi

*Brown and white stripe with swirl detail

*Ro fukuro obi with water wheel.

Please have a look at them in My eBay :)

In the next few weeks I might start on scanning more odori programs as I'll be receiving them soon.

Hopefully I'll be sharing with you my latest sewing project soon... Its only taken me a week... and two years!

Miyako odori uploads and more kimono photos

Firstly I uploaded my:
2008 Miyako odori
2009 Miyako odori
2011 Miyako odori

Will be uploading my 1913 and 1964 Miyako. Also coming up is a 1939 Kamogawa odori and three 1950's Kyo odori programs.

Now some more (bad) photos of my kimono...

My pretty sha hikizuri with hagi desgins. She has bad red stains on the back of the body and a few tea stains on the front but otherwise in ok condition. The lining situation is a bit different, the back panels are lined but the lining stops halfway down the front of the body panels. Not something I've seen before..

My salmon maiko hikizuri with autumn designs. I remember when I first started searching the internet for kimono, and then later maiko hikizuri there weren't many photos of maiko hikizuri but there was this photo:

And then ta-da! it turns up on ebay. Took me a while to decide that it was the same kimono and I jumped on it right away.

And lastly my beautiful waterlily and hydrangea maiko hikizuri! My awful photos don't do it justice but it really is a stunning piece!

Next are my darari obi:

I think the orange one is from a henshin studio because of the unusual mon amd the fact its not double sided like the others..

The white and gold one is a two piece easy obi that is probably also from a henshin studio.

Then my lovely black and gold with ume designs! My most expensive one but also the best condition and probably the legit thing. 

For more detailed photos see the folder Here.

On to normal kimono:

My wisteria haori. I bought this a few years ago, it is quite stained but looks great over black tights XD

A Meiji era girls kimono. It is lovely with all its subtle colours and designs but I really don't know why I bought it... Bit badly discoloured in some places.

More wisteria! This is a really lovely Showa era furisode with wicked wisteria design. Unfortunately the fabric across the shoulders is badly damaged and the cream fabric really shows up the stains and general dirt from years.

More wisteria? what? I bought this from Ichiroya about four years ago (wow that long ago?!) and its a lovely purple ro fabric with long sleeves :)

A blue irotomesode with mirror design. Got this for a good price off an Australian ebay seller, a few discoloured spots but in good contion otherwise.

Kuro furiosde. Bought this from an American seller, it came with a kurotomesode but it looked like someone had put it in the washing machine and when it dried the red lining fabric had bled everywhere!!! it looked sunburnt :( so it was really nice that this furi was in really good condition compared to its sister...

Still got more stuff to photograph but getting there!
Here is the folder with all my other kimono photos if your interested :)