Temari Coral Challenge

This is my 4th Temari using the Pantone 2019 Color of the Year. Mixing it up with colors that vibrate very nicely. The very fine metallic braid, from Kreinik, was fabulous. It carries a bit of all the colors  but it’s fineness doesn’t overpower with too much sparkle. At 52 cm. this 32 face Temari has big presence. Several ‘entangled’ patterns make up the finished design. It came about layer by layer rather than a plan from the start. I’ve worked like this before and find it suits me well. Just beginning with the first lines I see floating over the surface. when that first pattern is set down on the surface then I look further to see what could tie the 2nd pattern to the 1st. On an on depending on how the arrangement of design elements come together.

 

 

Temari Curved Stitching

I’ve been teaching myself and exploring this technique for the past year. I have been seeing many examples of the technique in online shows. There are some basic elements that come from the field of mathematics. Parabola’s and astroids being the makeup of most. Some forms are individual, some mirror each other. We all recognize ”String Art” designs and this techniques follows that avenue as well. All the curves are the result of how the straight lines are combined.  It’s a simple stitch really but the combinations and arrangements of elements, how color is used and how many faces each ball receives has everything to do with the outcome. The members of this grouping are all from 41 to 50 cm. circumference. They are stitched with #8 perle cotton. The self imposed challenge for the grouping was to use a very limited palette and to recombine the basic elements in arrangements I hadn’t seen anywhere else. The starkness of this color group really challenged my love of the broad spectrum colors, however, limiting the palette was a great teaching tool for me. . Simple divisions, C 8, C 10, they each work wonderfully. They all require added support lines. What was most interesting is that a white mari using black thread appears very differently than the same design using a black mari and white thread.

Oh yes, size does matter! But then I’ve prefered making larger sphere’s from the beginning. Big girl balls have so much more presence.

Another wonderful aspect of this design study has been an online connection with a Temari friend from Australia. We have Temari in common, this technique in particular we have pursued together and the mutual benefit has been remarkable. It is a complete pleasure to share the why’s and whatfore’s, good grief moments, successes and redo event’s we’ve each had along the way. I feel as though without her support and input along this path I’d never have stuck with the learning curve.

Temari C 8 Pentagons a Cool Mark

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The ‘Curved Stitching’ technique is a method I’ve been exploring. It uses all straight stitches to form these wonderful shapes and patterns. The pentagons are created within the normal C 8 marking. Each of the 8 6-way centers holds 3 pentagons. 

Cosmo 3 Temari #3

Oh I am so happy. After 3 balls start to finish using this design, I got it. Hoopla, bells and whistles. Don’t get me wrong here, all 3 look good even in their individual details. This follows the colorway from the Cosmo book and I’m glad I waited for the 3rd ball to use it. I struggled with design the first 2 times, it just wasn’t quite the ‘rightness’ I was wanting. Well, perseverance furthers. What a great feeling. 37cm. circumference, using 5/2 mercerized cotton. It’s my first time using this thread for embroidery and I like it a lot.

Cosmo 3 Puzzle Temari 2

They look different don’t they? Same design but the 2nd, the green dominant one has different proportions to the design elements. I missed an essential design detail in the first, purple dominant one. The little triangles at the big triangle centers.  Made them with the 2nd ball. Hooray! Both are the same circumference, believe it or not. Perception is everything. I started my initial rows closer to the pentagonal pole centers with the 2nd, leaving a bit less space for the green rows to build up, this also allowed the big triangles to get bigger. The difference between these two is a great reminder of how very much I still have to learn and take into consideration when figuring out how to begin a new design.

Color dominance and the differences between them, has me contemplating even a 3rd one. Perhaps in the colorway of  the original design in Cosmo 3.

Cosmo 3 Temari Puzzle Ball 1

What a huge and complex Temari puzzle. The Temari Challenge mentor group I learn with had a photo with Japanese instructions. The size is what was clear at the start but no real idea on how to proceed, at least for me. Once again 2 layers stitched at the same time, one row of each at a time. Now as I begin a second one putting all the ‘learning’ from the first into play I can see what I missed in the order of the final stitching pathways. I missed some small triangles at the edges of larger triangles that form by weaving under and over previous rows. I hope my 2nd attempt will be the one that engages these additional triangles into the overall design. More to come……..fingers crossed.

Windmill Temari

The design for this Temari was a puzzle. Having seen one and had discussion through the conversation thread on Temari Challenge on how to do it, I contacted  my Russian Temari friend and asked her if she could help me figure out how to do the design. Language is always a big issue. She sent me 2 partial stage photos and I went at it from there. The first one was indeed a bit of struggle. The following 2 went quite easy as I used the ”faults” in the first to modify the process for the next 2.

What a fun reveal! Any colorway really works like a charm. I used some variegated thread colors in the last 2 and like the effect. Over-all designs such as these are difficult in that what’s showing at the finish isn’t revealed at the start. You are stitching on 2 layers at the same time.  I have the nagging apprehension that all the pointy bits should be aligned and approaching the pocket bits but aren’t. Thread tension and shape of the first rows was where I had the biggest change in technique. The second 2 Temari were much easier in that those changes made the rest of the stitching smoother and the final grooming considerably easier.

I guess the final thing is that I recognize in this design that I’m learning more and have more working knowledge of just how to visualize what needs doing. Now that is a breath of fresh air!

Safflower C 10 Ultraviolet Temari

This was a wonderful adaptation of the last design. Jumping from a C 8 grid to a C 10 grid. The way that the continuous designs came together pleases me in every way. Bigger sphere at 51 cm, and smaller thread offer a lot of detail. Maybe it’s the bright flower spots that give me the happy feeling. Every time I sat down to work on this one I could feel that happy portal pop open. The whole medium gives me  an endless stream of pleasure but this particular sphere seems even more joyous. The continuous design of green began with a question. I made an error when I laid out the center support lines for this design and while trying to decide if pulling it out and redoing was the right thing to do I determined that I really liked the spaces inside each center. they became a secondary pattern that would appear in each star center.

Temari in Ultraviolet, Safflower

She’s big and beautiful at 45 cm. This ball is the January Temari Challenge project called, Safflower. This mentoring group is a wonderful and ”instructive island”. I started this project with the purpose of learning more advanced techniques and using a smaller thread. Both these areas make me doubt myself in several ways. Those being the advancement of skills and techniques beyond where my comfort level is snugged in. The ultraviolet color way is a continuing direction this year. It’s a great challenge in and of itself as it’s not a go to color for me. All this and more is why I like this group and having a mentoring format to work with, a place of openess,  encouragement and generosity. True delight in the learning by doing atmosphere that is offered.

Learning to read and puzzle  out what is actually happening and how it does so when the design direction is written in Japanese. Understanding line,  proportion and construction as well how color translates is huge. Trying different thread size and behavior is a welcome addition to the skills bag. Guess what? The smaller guage thread used in this manner is wonderful. 

Temari Hot’s Neutral Faces.

I really find this ”negative” of the Temari Hot Colors Sphere an exciting view.  This was wrapped much more tightly than has been my normal habit. My fingers are sore from getting the needle in and out. At moments even a small pliers was handy! Geez, the ‘softer’ surface of most is a joy to penetrate. 

When this ball was an idea only, that image was very different in terms of how the forms showed up. I wondered through out why it wasn’t fitting into the imaginary Temari in mind. Questioning color palette choices. Would it work visually? Not till the finish did I change the picture to look at the negative image and I feel it does work, allowing all the patterns to show up. There isn’t enough value difference in the centers that have red stars/turquoise centers sitting on pink. The 3-way corners however, being Turquoise Y’s/red center points sitting on pink have more contrast. The line work that is so intrinsically present in Temari shows up stronger here than in color, in my opinion anyway.

The pop and heat of the real deal pleases me very much. I held this underneath several types of light this evening, each light had a different effect on the how the colors showed themselves. It was fascinating to see how the surface pattern changed intensity and saturation of color. Certain pattern elements were much stronger visually under certain bulbs. The odd thing is that so far my favorite one is underneath the 12yr. old funky under-cupboard fluorescent tube, that quiet creamy dull/yellowish glow those those fixtures make. Every pattern is distinct and the depth of the layers building up shows up nicely. The color progression from pale edges to red at the center is value wise good.

So, another year playing in the Temari Field, the sweetness overflows. At the center is Joy. The mind at play in the Temari Realm is an awesome experience.