Kiku herringbone (uwagake chidori kagari)
April 30, 2017
A student of mine sought my advice about making a small kiku herringbone temari as a special gift, with particular colours in mind. I gave her the following advice, complete with a 21.5cm circumference sample:
- Stitch three balls: the first to revise/consolidate the stitching, the second to think about the number of layers/rows and colours and the third to give away.
- The number of layers/rows for each colour is significant: a single row of colour can too often be “lost” in its surroundings, two rows makes a solid statement and three becomes a “band” of colour.
- The combination of colours is significant. I urge my students to work with ungen or shaded colour from light to dark in the Japanese tradition. Often the final layer can be significant, as shown in the example I provided: one hemisphere has a final row of dark blue (which seems to “lock in” the petals and reinforces the strong contrast between ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ colours) and the other hemisphere has a final row of orange which moves the colour palette more to ‘warm’ colours.
- The overall size of the ball can be significant (because the bigger the ball, the more the layers/rows), so I gave her two divided blank balls to consider, one at 27cm and the other at 30cm circumference.
- I like to keep the obi a green colour, in reference to the vegetation surrounding the flowers.
I’m pleased to report the ball my student stitched was exquisitely done!
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