Temari Treasure

Temari Treasure
by Barbara B. Suess

An early morning visit to the antique market one fall yielded treasures galore – bits of antique chandeliers, beads, and metal medallions snipped from found objects. We sorted through bins to find the perfect treasures to repurpose in the creation of unique temari art.

This four inch diameter temari has a core of rice hulls and a rattling bell box filled with beads and positioned deep in the center. Thin black metallic thread makes an almost invisible marking (a simple 12-division).  Kiku herringbone designs stitched with satiny-looking rayon thread surrounds the antique metal medallions positioned at each pole, north and south. Coppery ribbon and sparkling green netted thread zigzag around the temari's equator and create frames for bamboo-colored embroidered flowers. 

March Temari Challenge

I've talked about TemariChallenge Yahoo group often. Have you joined yet? I sure hope so. Joan led us through a pattern that she figured out from one of the temari books published in Japan. I just finished putting the final touches on mine....

March Challenge Temari

Japanese Family Crests and Designing for Temari

Want to add meaning to your temari designs?  Need inspiration on arrangement of stitched motifs? The Elements of Japanese Design, A Handbook of Family Crests, Heraldry & Symbolism by John Dower has been one of my best sources. And we all know every artist needs her sources, right?

"The Elements of Japanese Design is a library of traditional Japanese design motifs in the form of more than 2,700 family crests (mon) compiled and drawn by a Kyoto publisher and bookseller early in the twentieth century, and selected and interpreted by John Dower, a leading American scholar of Japan.