Hair Ornaments: Kanzasi

Hair jewelry, called kanzasi, became popular in Japan in the 18th century, in the second half of the Edo era. It was then that Japanese women began to decorate their hairstyles a large number of combs and studs. Kandzashi is not just ordinary hair ornaments. By the form of kandazzi, worn by a woman, you could find out her age and social status.

Kanzashi are made from a wide variety of materials. It can be metal (brass, tin silver,gold), wood (sandalwood, Japanese incense, boxwood, magnolia, sakura, etc.), tortoiseshell, glass, bone. For the manufacture of kandzashi, corals and their imitation, precious and semiprecious stones, amber are also used. More cheap modern kandazzi are made of plastic. Some types of kanzasi are decorated with silk flowers (although lovers can use cheaper fabrics for making).

Wear these jewelry for your hair is not easy, but by certain rules. The choice of kandzashi depends on the type of hairstyle and even the season. Pupils of geisha (majko and hangeku) choose kanzashi with flowers (khana-kanzasi) depending on the month of the year. Some kan- zasi have the form hairpins. They can be whole and forked, made of wood, metal, tortoiseshell or bone, decorated with a ball, a flat circle or no decoration at all.

Kazashi in the form of ridge do usually of wood or shell of a tortoise, in the spring of majko decorate it with artificial flowers. More modern kanzashi, whose appearance was influenced by European hair decorations, look like forked hairpin-comb (the Japanese themselves compare this decoration with a shamisen or a beater).

But the most famous form of kan- zasi is tsumami-kanzasi. They are also called khana-kanzasi, flower kanzasi, because they are richdecorated with silk flowers. "Tsumami, by the way, translates from Japanese as" zashchipnut: flowers for such kanzasi make of the squares of silk, folded with special tweezers or tweezers.

Even now, many khans-kanzasi are done by hand,so the cost of such jewelry for hair can not be cheaper kimono, and even more expensive. There are, of course, more democratic options, and some even manage to do tsumami-kanzasi independently. In principle, the main thing is to learn how to make petals, and there are only two types of them - round and narrow. We will tell you how to make such petals.

For the manufacture of petals, you can take silk, crepe-satin, organza, capron, satin. The fabric needs to be cut into squares. To decorate ready-made flowers, beads, beads, rhinestones, sequins will suit - in general, everything that will be found and will be to your liking. Collect the flower from the petals, you will be using a needle and thread, and fold the petals most conveniently with the help of a long tweezers - sewing or medical.

To make sharp petal, fold the square in half. The resulting triangle fold in half twice. Turn the triangular blank to your diagonal, cut and scorch the bottom edge. If the fabric does not melt, simply fasten the bottom edge with a pin so that the petal does not fall apart. You can make two-colored petals of two squares, in general, fantasize.

Round petal add a little more difficult. Fold the square in half, there will be a triangle. The extreme corners of the triangle fold to the middle, so that a diamond appears. Flip the diamond and fold the side corners to the center. Now fold it in half so that the side corners that you just folded to the center are inside. Then the petal needs to be straightened and secure the corners.

Then ready-made petals need to be assembled on a string, the center of the resulting flower is something to decorate, toexample, a bead. On the wrong side of the flower can be glued a circle of hard double for the greater strength. And, having done enough flowers, you can collect kanzasi from them. It should be remembered, by the way, that kanzashi - it is jewelry for the hair, and not just flowers made of silk. Moreover, not every kandzashi is floral.

Of course, such hair decorations - not for everyday wear. But they are perfect for costume parties (be sure to complement the kandzashi costume of a geisha) and even for a wedding.