Temari

Temari is a form of Japanese embroidery that dates back hundreds, maybe even a thousand years. Temari involves wrapping a base, called the mari, which is a round ball, with thread, and then embroidering geometric patterns onto the thread. Okay, that sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? Well, let me explain further.

Most, well, at least, most people that I know of, use styrofoam balls for the mari, wrapped with regular sewing thread. Then, they use perle cotton to do the stitching. There are tons of ways to do everything, but I'm just telling you the methods I use. I am barely an amateur at this, but I find it to be very interesting.

Anyway... here's my pics! They're pretty much shown in the order they were created. I just stuck em in my scanner and hit the button, if you're wondering why it looks a little weird.

There are several books available for instructions on how to make Temari balls. If you are interested in trying them, I suggest starting with Diana Vandervoort's series. The first book is called Temari: How to Make Japanese Thread Balls. You can prolly find it at some place like Barnes and Noble, but if you can't, I know for sure that they have it over at Amazon.com.

There are also some resources on the Other Sites page, where you can view other people's balls (damn, that sounds dirty, heh) and such.