Mini Wagashi Experiment
Friday, July 23, 2010I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I was going to give one of the projects in Kumiko Sudo’s book, Wagashi: Handcrafted Fashion Art from Japan, a try.
Here’s my version of the Little Drum, which I challenged myself to make as small as possible. The size of my completed drum is just slightly smaller than the size of a nickel coin.
What I learned from this exercise, is that if I center a motif from the fabric on the button, it makes it super-easy to space the spokes of thread that is wrapped from the center outwards. The motif in the fabric acts as a stitching guide.
Due to the small size, I used a single button rather than 2 sandwiched together, and folded the raw edges of the circle to the wrong side of the fabric before gathering the fabric circle around the padded button. I used a single strand of DMC 6-Strand Cotton Embroidery Floss in my needle instead of the 2 called for in the book, and wrapped this thread twice in each location.
In my version, I have used small beads – including a tiny cloisonne bead – for the trim at the bottom of the drum.
One completed, 11 more to make… I’d better get busy!
~Emma
