Esty Sale!

Firstly a big thankyou to everyone who has been snapping up some goodies at my book sale!
Between Flickr, Ebay and Etsy about a quarter of the things I've listed lately have been sold, mostly to collectors I know which is fantastic!
Its always great to pass something on to someone you know will appreciate it.

To help get some more stuff moving house I've marked down all my Etsy categories except for the Obidome and Book section.

Han'eri are now all $10

Obi have been marked down up to $10

Shoes have been marked down $5

Kimono has been marked down a HUGE $50

Please email if you're interested in anything.

I'm always happy to combine postage to save on costs where possible.

Thanks for looking.

Odori and random maiko postcards and posters sale

Yeah, I'm still sorting through stuff.

I had honestly been debating for the past year or so whether to sell my odori collection, but chances of finding someone who would want them is a bit slim.

But if you are interested I have all the Kitano odori I've collected for sale, my outside of Kyoto odori, Miyako-no-nigiwai odori, Onshukai ( autumn dance for Gion Kobu) and vintage booklets for pre-ww2 Miyako and Kamogawa odori.
Plus some pretty postcards, the 1968 calendar featuring Mineko Iwasaki, I've also got 4 Miyako Odori featuring her as well and some lovely maiko posters that I've personally not seen elsewhere.

I've got them put up on my Flickr again and a few things I've put up on Etsy and/or Ebay.
I'll link them under each photo and whichever avenue you'd prefer to use,cool.

Here

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There's some other things in my sales folder that I haven't put here so have a look over there if you're interested.

Book Sale!

Sigh.

I'm sure you know how hard it is to sell parts of your collections?

I've recently come to the conclusion that with a baby on the way I will need to let a lot of things go.

I'm not thrilled about it as I've spent years collecting my goodies but basically we don't have the space for them anymore.

So I started with books.

Pretty photo books.

Hard to find, only on YJA books.

just saying....

So get ready for some lovelies!

Right now I'll just be selling them privately through my Flickr and blog accounts to save on fees but if I have trouble moving things I'll list them on eBay.

( I realise some people feel more confident buying on eBay and I totally understand that too so they will eventually be for sale there.)

Of course, there's always Paypal's protection policy should something go wrong ( lost in post etc) but knock on wood that hasn't happened to me yet.

Miyako odori poster.

Is slightly creased but still would look really nice if framed and hung.

$15USD

Katsuno as a maiko magazine cuttings $50USD

Kyoto Hanamachi by Mizobuchi Hiroshi -2002 $20USD

Kyoto Hanamachi by Mizobuchi Hiroshi -2005 $20USD

Kyoto Gion by Hiroshi Mizobuchi-1996 $20USD

One hundred views of maiko and geiko by John Foster- $50USD

Gion Ichisuzu- $45USD

Hannari Gion-Kobu- $40USD

Kyo Maiko--$80USD

Bacchus- $40USD

Magazine of maiko doing her make-up $40USD

Suzuha Playboy magazine- $40USD

The world of geisha by Kyoko Aihara- $20USD

2X KIE magazines ( Kateigaho International Edition) $15USD for both

1950's Japanese magazine and some old ikebana booklets. $15USD for the bundle

The kimono of the geisha diva Ichimaru- $30USD

East wind melts the ice by Liza Dalby- $15USD

Japanese prints by Gabriele Fahr-Becker -$20USD

Madame Sadayakko by Lesley Downer- $15USD

Mineko Sun Edition- $50

All prices are negotiable, will combine postage when possible.

So head over to my Flickr and have a browse. Once I have a hard chat with myself more things will be for sale so make an offer, the worse I can say is "it's not for sale at this point in time" but you never know.

Thanks for looking!

Mannequin kitsuke- Slytherin kimono and hounds-tooth obi

Ah, so I chickened out of making one of my nagoya obi into a pre-tied obi...

In the end it seemed like far less work to just make a pre-tied obi from scratch.

That whole sentence is to be read sarcastically.... I don't know what compelled me but once I had that thought ( and the fabric) there was no changing my mind.

Houndstooth in kimono is one of those pretty rare, usually expensive, Western motifs that you see now and then on some Japanese blog, with super stylish ladies and generally makes me jealous and wished I had something for myself.

Well now I do ( although if I'm being honest I would still love an oversized houndstooth print on a kimono or yukata...)

I already had the fabric in my sewing stash, originally intended for a skirt or dress but I needed a stiffer interfacing. The one I had used previously for pre-tied obi ( see here) gave a much softer, casual feel to the obi and I thought it wouldn't work well for the look I was trying to achieve with this fabric.
I think the stiffer one works perfectly for this!

The hardest part was trying to keep the pattern straight and lining up nicely!
But I think it came up looking pretty good.
I made the wire hook on the back on the drum part detachable, so it comes off and the obi can be washed.
Except I didn't get a photo of that sorry... Good idea though...

I didn't have a clue which of my kimono it would look any good with so I just grabbed my old favourite- my Slytherin kimono.
I think this is part 14 in the Slytherin ensembles saga....
(actually it's the fourth... First, Second, Third just if your curious ;)


Anyway! I do like the overall look, I feel like its missing something though.
The cherry on top, per say.
Maybe I should've flipped the obijime and had the red side showing and a different coloured han'eri for more contrast?

(also made a houndstooth han'eri while I had the fabric out, if you missed it)

Not that I'll be wearing kimono a lot in the next few months but its a fun and easy piece to wear for when I do.

New obidome

I've been getting ready to list some of my new obidome creations to my etsy store.
I've made a few colour ranges, basically I just really enjoy working with a certain colour and end up making 5 or so obidome from that colour before finding a new "yummy" or "pretty" colour.

Available for sale is a classic faux "tortoiseshell" colour combination:

bird on bamboo cane

A clear "glass" design:

Glass kiku

Bright fuchsia:

Fuchsia bunny rabbit

There's also some random coloured obidome that you can see in the obidome section at Kofuji Kimono such as black plum and camellia flowers and more metallic designs.

Finally, some kitsuke photos!

Hello everyone, long time no post aye...
I swear, every year I say I'm going to blog more, and maybe I do for a couple of months and then I forget about it...

So technically here in Australia its winter, however this is kitsuke was planned for a late autumn showing but I didn't make it in time...
So let's just pretend its still autumn for another week or so and we'll be all good ;)


And let's pretend I can master the art of trying to take photos and organising my face better.....

Hands down  I love this kimono. If there was a fire in the house I would grab this over a few hikizuri ( for sentimental value not monetary, obviously with the prices hikizuri are going for these days, geeeez...)
So because I love it so much do I like to wear it each autumn, although I did buy a similar kimono here in my Ravenclaw kitsuke and it's nice, but I don't love it as much as this one.
I don't love the kitsuke though.
Let's face it, I'm not one of those people who can do clean, neat kitsuke. Mine is definitely the frazzled house wife version!
The obi is white and green hakata ( I never saw the appeal of hakata for about 5 years and now I'd like more in my collection)
Obiage and obijime are yellow and golden, to reflect the leaves on the kimono and the obidome is a clear "glass" leaf one I made hinting at the iciness of winter around the corner.
(Shameless plug, but my Etsy store Kofuji Kimono will be updated shortly with some new styles of obidome including this "glass" style)

The han'eri is a black base with painted silver swirls on it when I played with stencils late last year, it was already on my juban and I thought it would maybe work well going into the "dead" of winter.
Its a very meaningful kitsuke if you hadn't noticed ;)


I tried using my biyosugata for the musubi, obviously practice is the key with this kimono hobby, the more often and frequent you do it the better you are and it shows today.
I couldn't get the drum part right and it was all lumpy for some reason? I don't remember having this trouble before.
But then I seriously thought I should turn all my nagoya obi into pre-tied obi.
I mean why not? I never do anything else with them and it would've been a life saver today, but the thought of cutting up an obi......
I might stew on it for a bit longer, then probably pick out an obi for a practice and see how I go.
I've made pre-tied obi before so that's not an issue, its just working up the nerve to cut a perfectly good obi, even if it is to make it more wearable...
Have you ever made your own pre-tied obi? If you have, did you ever regret cutting or has it been the best thing you've done?

I imagine some pre-tied obi will be very useful in my near future, as I'm working less I may find the time to practice my kitsuke before my hobbies go on hold for a bit....
You might kind of be able to tell in the above photos but my belly's getting a bit bigger these days, and its only getting bigger!
I'm 21 weeks pregnant and it took 20 weeks to think "I'd like to wear kimono".
The photo isn't the best, didn't get the angle just right but there's a belly there.

So now I'm off to ponder which poor obi will be the first to get the chop and work out which of my kimono will be big enough to fit in a couple of weeks...

Bamboo and ume hikizuri kitsuke

So first off let me say I'm not exactly thrilled with this kitsuke.
I mean it looks ok, but it doesn't feel right.
(maybe its just because it took me two days to tie the darari obi so it looks like some decent attempt.... need to start lifting weights or something!)

The hikizuri is my most recent one (purchased last year)
It has a base of light purple with woven waves and striking bamboo and ivy leaves design.
Its not in very good condition, there are many large stains and overall discolouration.

The obi is a black based darari with gold ume flowers on branches.
It does have some worn marks where its been constantly folded for use but what can you expect from something that's probably had a lot of use in its day?

The han'eri is a very junior maiko collar, lots of red with little white embroidery, I needed to sew it only a collar base to use for the kitsuke so that's why I've been working on this kitsuke for about a week now.

The obijime is a wide vintage one, I don't think its the best choice.
Or the combination of obi/obijime/obidome colours doesn't gel right for me.

The obidome is one I made specifically for this, its a twin ivy leaf design in transparent gold and bronze, although it really only looks gold.
I had made an orange and red one as well but I felt the gold gave it a touch more class.

I have a bad habit of not pulling the collar low enough and not tying the obi high enough. Combine the two and the back doesn't look very good.
Overall its ok, but not as lovely as I pictured in my head...
Thoughts?