たんすの花Tansu Flowers

Blog Sale!

2011-05-03T11:20:00.003+03:00

Due to various reasons (no job + need to move from where I live in 2 weeks) I decided I will have to sell some of the kimono and obi I've collected.

I prefer the blog option because any other site (ebay, etsy etc) work on commission base, and I need to save as much as possible.

How does it work? I will post all the items I'm selling below, along with the price. Shipping for either obi or kimono is 10 Eur for Europe, 20USD if USA (the shipping fee is huge, sorry about that). All items are shipped from Romania.

Whoever is interested in acquiring any of the items, please leave a comment, claiming the item - that should cover the "first come, first served" base. You can then send me an email with your details at kaballa@gmail.com. All payments should be made via Paypal, within 3 days of receiving the invoice. otherwise, the item will be back for sale.

I am new to this type of commerce, so please be kind with me!

Ok! That being said, here are the items for sale:

Item 1: Purple, early showa komon. Price: 45 EUR. - SOLD

Most of you have seen me wearing this komon at least 2 times. You can see me wearing it here!

Measurements: Width: 129cm; length: 156cm; can't see any faults in it.

Item 2: Golden butterfly furisode. Price 60 Eur

I'm wearing it here!

Measurements: width: 132cm, length: 165cm.

For all the items above I can take additional pics for those interested. I didn't want to make this post too long.

Also, you can check out my Virtual Tansu and if there is something that catches your eyes, let me know. Like i said, I need the money, so most of the items there will be for sale. Just email me and we'll take it form there.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Fire Komon @ Mr. Gay Europe!

2011-04-20T22:30:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone!

This past weekend was a very good one for me! Not only did I manage to visit my hometown after more than 4 years, but it was also the first time I got to dress-up ever since I was 5 or 6, when all this started :))

As some of you know from my facebook page, last weekend Mr. Gay Europe was held in the lovely Poiana Brasov ski resort... where there was a lot of snow.. for the whole weekend!!! Mr. Gay Italy won the competition. Well deserved, although I had a secret crush on Mr. Gay Ireland...

Deciding on my outfit was a complete fuss. I initially wanted to wear my early showa komon, then made plans for my furisode with musubi and all, and then finally decided on my fire-red komon with a very cute fan design, with my black based nagoya obi with kikko patterned clouds, hot orange obijime and pale pink ougi obiage.

This is the final result:

I look almost skinny in the pic below:

and something about his bow tie made me think i'd look good in a pic next to him:

All in all I had a wonderful time there! Aaand, I also wore my yellow, gold and silver saree:

I really missed my hometown.. so spending 3 days there was a complete and utter bliss!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi part II

2011-02-27T10:25:00.000+02:00

So I finished the sewing part of it!

Now will come the hard part: finding ways of wearing it into a musubi other than the otaiko. I'll keep you posted with whatever comes to mind!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi

2011-02-02T07:09:00.000+02:00

After a long quarrel with myself, I finally decided it was time to cut my olive hakata obi and turn it into an easy obi.

There are 2 reasons that led to this decision: 1. too short for any proper musubi kitsuke and 2. the tesaki part seems to have been first cut to pieces and then resewn together (see below).

tesaki part cut and resewn

So, the first thing I did was to measure how much would I need for the otaiko part (initial taresaki part). It worked out to be about 110 cm, which was about the same as the reinforced, 2 layer part:

that's where I did my first cut

Then I folded the rest of the obi in half, on the wrong side, and sewn each end, like this:

then turned it around on the good side:

So far, the halfwidth part of my easy obi is done. I am still debating whether to add strings to it or just leave it as is and use those obi metal clips to hold it wrapped around the waist. We'll see which one works better.

Still to finish is the otaiko part. To that I will just hem the cut side, and then add the strings. I'll get back with the finished product. I promise!

nontraditional kitsuke

2011-01-30T10:34:00.002+02:00

PC080009
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Last night, while browsing youtube, found a makeup tutorial which immediately made me think "go punk!"... So I did!

I paired my omeshi yabane komon, the pale yellow haneri I got from a fellow IG member, with the golden karakusa fukuro obi... and a 3-layer skirt... and boots... and feathers...

I got all crazy and then... bang! It hit me to try and do the musubi in the front... I *was* going clubbing after all.

So there you have it: punk make-up (I love it, btw!), non-traditional kitsuke AND musubi in the front... Can it get more scandalous than that..? Oh yeah.. Forgot to take a pic of my collar.... really low tonight.
More pics:

The entire outfit:

the front musubi with the feather accent:

Any good? :)

ume no houmongi

2011-01-26T07:29:00.001+02:00

houmongi
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Yaaaaaay! I finally got to wear the houmngi I bought last summer!

paired with my golden karabana fukuro obi, red& blue shibori obiage, asanoha date-eri and navy obijime. The outfit *screamed* for some salmon pink accesory, but alas, I have none so far... so I went ahead and worked with what's in my tansu so far. More pics on my flickr account!

I did feel good wearing this outfit though... Maybe because it's been sitting in my tansu for over 6 months now and every time I saw it I'd say "anytime now - just wait for a bit of real snow outside".. Or even because I haven't really worn kitsuke in a while and it just felt right doing it...

Enjoy!

my latest purchases!

2010-06-30T06:26:00.000+03:00

Monday morning was a good day for me! It was a good day because, after a considerable break, I finally got to buy something from Ebay:

1. purple hakata obi!

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the listing, and wasn't going to let it go without at least trying; I was lucky!

2. my first houmongi, with a ume branch design:

and a little detail:

So, like I said, Monday was a good day for me! Now I just can't wait until everything gets to Romania..

The enigma behind geisha tsunodashi musubi

2010-06-13T13:06:00.001+03:00

hello again everyone!

I am writing this tutorial based on a kind request of a fellow IG-er, and if it will be helpfull for other people, even better.

The enigma behind geisha tsunodashi musubi is uncovered!

Things to start with:

1. You will need either a hakata obi, or a stiffer Zentsuu Fukuro Obi or even a maru obi (fully patterned - and you'll see why) or any obi that is at least 3.85 m long and, the wider the better. Stiff nagoya-shaped obi won't really work.

2. As usual, I am doing it in front and slide it on the back afterwards.

3. i'll refer to knot as the actual thing, while "musubi" will be considered the final product of our work.

4. I will be doing it with 2 different types, covering both hakata and regular fukuro obi.

5. I am not wearing a kimono - way too hot outside, but I wore a t-shirt that matched both obi :coy:

Let's get started!

I. Hakata Obi/Zentsuu Fukuro Obi/Maru Obi

a. fold the tesaki part and, leaving out about 20 cm/just above your chest, wrap twice to your right, around your hips, finishing with the taresaki over the tesaki part:

b. make a knot, unfolding the taresaki part, just like below, leaving the lower part of the taresaki in the knot:

c. arrange everything so it looks straight.

d. lift the upper part of the obi , so you have a clear view of the knot you made earlier.

e. now comes the coolest part :): take the tesaki in your right hand and bring it over that knot:

f. put your left hand through the loop you just created with the tesaki and catch the the inner layer of the upper part:

g. now pull both hands to side and tighten, until it looks like so:

h. congratulations! you just made a square knot or more specifically a clam musubi under the outer part of the hanging obi, whether you realize it or not!!!

i. you should still be having part of the obi hanging; if not, start over the latter knot, and repeat until it looks like this, or similar:

j. another cool part :P : pinch the layer of the obi that just comes out of the knot and push it under the knot to either side; this will cause the knot to turn and lower a bit, but it's ok; that should happen:

k. push the obi fabric until it looks similar to this:

l. tadaaaaaa! you're almost done!

m. take your obiage and arrange the upper part of the musubi, then tie it in the back:

n. more arranging on the bow part...

o. now slide it in thhe back and make final adjustments! You're done!

II. Rokutsuu Fukuro obi

Since I know some of you only have a fukuro obi, usually 60% patterned, I figured out how to work around the unpatterned part. So here we go:

a. Fold your obi upto where the unpatterned part ends, towards the taresaki, and place that spot over your navel:

b. now wrap the tesaki once around your waist, to figure the amount you have to leave out on the tesaki:

c. now fold your obi again and wrap twice to your right, around your hips, finishing with the taresaki over the tesaki part.

d. follow steps b-d from above version.

e.now take the tesaki and fold it in half, just like i'm doing it here, and place it over the knot you made earlier:

f. follow steps f-o from the above version.

Tips for both versions:

- it helps to have some karihimo at hand (temporary koshihimo)
- you can tie a koshihimo inside the obiage, just to make sure the whole thing stays in place and the tie the obiage loosely, so as not to damage it.
- you can wear it slightly different by adding an obijime to your outfit; this will not only add a splash of color on the obi, but will also secure the obi that's pushed under the knot.

And, surprise, I have a third version, that will work better with rokutsuu fukuro obi. but I will attempt that maybe later tonight.

I hope this was useful to some of you. If there are any questions, I'm here :)

Tsukuri Obi instructions

2010-06-10T06:44:00.002+03:00

Hello everyone!

I've had this book for a while now, but still don't know the name, since I do not speak Japanese. However, inside there is a small chapter on Tsukuri Obi, which some people might find interesting. They give instructions and measurements and the shapes of the easy obi look quite nice and easy to do, so enjoy!

Flickr Album Set

first time in yukata!

2010-06-06T10:35:00.000+03:00

It seems ages since I last put on a kimono (was for my birthday, in March), and last night it felt slightly uncomfortable (put on some weight, and did not take that into consideration when I tightened everything together). I planned to go out, but ended up just taking the pics and then undressing.

As you can see in the pics below, I tried to wear the yukata as a regular komon (juban, nagoya obi& stuff) and so I paired it with my light blue lace nagoya obi, a light pink obijime that I crocheted a while ago and even added a obidome (a rose).

I really wanted to see how it would feel to have the lace nagoya obi on, and it was a nice surprise for me.

After the 2 pics, my battery died, so there are no back pics of this outfit. I promise I will wear it again though!

One thing I realized is that using a koshihimo instead of a korin-belt, kept away the horrifying side flaps! So that was a good thing!

bingata, my love

2010-06-03T06:33:00.000+03:00

I proudly present to you my love: a bingata komon. After having bought it from Yamatoku in october 2008, it stayed in my drawers for a long time, as I was too scared to even try to pair it with any of my obi; they are so colorful, that many a time, I feel I have too many chioces and yet none being the perfect, THE match.

That is until one fine day when I decided it was time to break the ice, and finaly paired it with my black, kikko nagoya obi and my red shibori obiage. It was a good outfit, in my opinion, but I felt there was something missing from it; again it was put in the drawers, for a better chance.

Next time I got to wear it, I pulled all of my obi and, in a crazy afternoon, after a lot of trials, I found a better match: my bluemarine obi with large golden karakusa and a purple and white bokashi obiage. Again, a very nice surprise and, at the time, I thought I found the ideal match.

That is until I realised that the blue in the obi was drawing all my attention to the blue in the kimono, making the other colors pale, and since I love my bingata to bits, I decided I still have to look for a better match.

One obi I did not consider previously was my olive hakata. I bought it as a part of a 10 obi lot from Yahoo Japan Auctions, and when it arrived, I saw that is was sewn in places, and it was too short to make even a tsunodashi or a bunko musubi the traditional way.

So that will be my next challenge: pair this beauty with a new obi, hopefully, THE match!

Fortuny Dress

2010-04-04T16:20:00.002+03:00

I bought a habutae red silk bolt about 2 years ago and, except the occasional cut-outs for kimono sleeves, it's been staying under my bed eversince. Today, after browsing the net, I remembered one of my many forgotten projects - a Fortuny style dress.

So I cut out apprximately 6m of that red silk, and then I just twirled it and twisted it until it became a red, creased mass thing and now boils on my stove. And, because I want it to simmer at low heat, completely sunk under water, I put over a bowl.... which will probably change color, since the fabric bleeds. It's normal, given the high heat. Or at least I hope so.

15 minutes later, I turn off the heat, and now I'm waiting for the whole thing to cool down, until it's safe to handle it. Depending on the amount of creasing, I may repeat the process once it's all dried.

I will keep you all posted with everything I am doing. :) Happy Holidays everyone!

the apple musubi..

2010-03-10T07:31:00.000+02:00

In my last post I showed you a new musubi I've been trying... Now here's the tutorial!

I did mine in the front and the slided it in the back.

You will need a fukuro obi that has at least 30cm of design on the tesaki part.

a. fold the tesaki diagonally and fan it, like in the pic below; I secured it with a small rubber band:

b. fold the rest in half and wrap it twice around your waist, finishing with the taresaki part over the tesaki part:

c. make a knot just like here:

d. bring the folded tesaki under the taresaki, but over the knot you previously made...

e. ... and then fold the taresaki part in 4 (fold in half and then again in half), putting it over the tesaki and secure the whole thing with a koshihimo:

f. unfold the rest of the taresaki...

g. ... and then prepare it just like you would for a otaiko and place the makura and part of the taresaki right over the koshihimo:

here is where you add the obiage, which I only added later - I forgot :oops:

h. continue doing the otaiko, and secure the musubi with the obijime; I forgot to take a picture of that too.

i. this is where you slide it to your back; if you didn't use padding (like me :) ), you will need to add something inside the taiko part, to make it look bigger/fluffier; I used a purse wrapped in a furoshiki:

j. lift the ends of the folded part of the taresaki, to create a pouched shape to your musubi and you're done:

If anyone feels I left anything out, please let me know. And I apologize for the non kimono presentation, but it's past 11 pm here.

I hope you'll enjoy this one :)

30th Birthday!

2010-03-07T10:27:00.001+02:00

tdy5
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

After a long break, I finally got to wear kimono tonight. I went out to celebrate my 30th birthday (coincides with Hina Matsuri) with some of my friends (those who know my kimono habits).

Initially, I wanted to wear my furisode for the last time, but then decided for the more subdued early showa purple komon. This time I chose a fukuro obi that had shades of green in it and, though you can't really notice it, the white and purple obiage.

For the musubi, I decided I's give a try to Yamatoku's "How to wear townwear kimono" musubi which I named apple musubi. Still a lot of work to get the shape right, but I hope I am getting in the right direction.

More pictures on my flickr account.

tsubaki time

2010-01-10T11:28:00.002+02:00

tsubaki1
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Loooong time no nothing :) but I bring pics :) so be kind!

It's the first kitsuke this year, and I've been dying to wear my camellia tsukesage ever since i bought it from yamatoku, in 2007. Of all obi in the house, my large karakusa obi seemed the best option - after an afternoon of...well.. a lot of tests

i used again my mom's scarf as obiage because I have no green in the house, and a dusty pink obijime, matching the bokashi on my lining

Also, used a yellow kanzashi piece as netsuke, just because it kinda went along with the whole outfit.

More pics on my flickr account.

shiozawa hitoe and wool obi

2009-08-08T21:01:00.011+03:00

I've had this kimono for a while and only recently learned that the way the silk is weaved comes from Shiozawa, hence it's called Shiozawa style kimono. It's hitoe and comes from a lot of three that I bought last year from Yahoo Japan. Cream background and weaving is with black and wine red.

The heat outside made me think to downgrade it a bit, by pairing it with a pink-ish wool obi, a maroon indian shawl-turned obiage/heko obi - still thinking about it - and a white home- crochetted, flat obijime, tied in a kai-no-kuchi style.

I am still contemplating whether to wear my tsuke eri or simply wear it as a yukata - maybe a BIG NO-NO but I find the idea at least interesting.

Plus, I have this furoshiki and a pair of geta (got them as trades with a fellow Immortal Geisha Forum members) planned to accessorize the entire ensemble.

I am really excited to wear this tonight. I'll post pics of the final outfit probably somtime tomorrow.

This is the "sometime tomorrow" part; I ended up wearing it as hitoe kimono with the tsuke eri and no juban. It was quite cool.

New flowers... after a long break

2009-07-31T23:03:00.000+03:00

Well, yesterday, after a long break, I couldn't keep myself from not buying this pretty cool ensemble from Yahoo Japan Auctions:

It consists of a Michiyuki - my very first one, and what find for a first: bingata - and a sky blue iromuji.

And to top it all, I only paid JPY500, as in USD 5.30.. How could I resist? Of course, add to that the Japan Auction Center commissions and fees + shipping and it doesn't sound as cheap anylonger, but still, if I were in Japan, this would have cost me under 10 bucks.

Now I do have another 2 iromuji, but they are the common pink you can find on ebay and even though those are very nice, I don't think I can compare the color. It's completely different. You know those little girls that squeal when they find or get something they really like..? That's how I feel right now, and I am already planning coordination looking in my obi drawers. Which reminds me... I have to take a picture of all my flowers one of these days.

*Squeal some more*

First post... first thoughts

2009-07-22T23:18:00.000+03:00

Thus begins my first typing in Japanese. I have been struggling for a while to put it all together and up and working, but I am so proud of myself!! I spent almost 2 hours with Google translating for me back and forth English/Japanese and the other way around.. and still I am not sure I found the correct form of what I wanted to say so, just to make sure, I put it in English as well.

So why Tansu Flowers..? For all those not knowing, a "tansu" is a traditional Japanese chest of drawers aka wardrobe, apparently the best way to keep kimono and all things made of silk. And flowers... I kind of think of all my kimono as fragile flowers.

I've always been fascinated by Japan, and like any other ignorant, lived happily with the idea that geisha are high class prostitutes - shame on me... that is until I saw the infamous Memoirs of A Geisha and got mesmerized by all the kimono the ladies wore. That was the first thing that changed my mind, and for that I will forever be in thankful. I know now, looking back, that it wasn't a very good movie, but I still like it, and still watch it from time to time. A lot of people think it's a crap movie, that it doesn't do justice to kitsuke and to Japanese culture, but for me, it was THE thing that started my hunger for more. So, at least for that, this movie has my appreciation.

From February 2008 and up until now I've started buying kimono and all necessities, ending up now with over 20 kimono and about 30 obi which I love to bits.

Learning to put it all up correctly was a whole other story. After seeing the movie, the first thing that came to my mind was that I NEEDED a kimono. So I went on and searched patterns for sewing one. I will look for some pictures.. hopefully I still have at least one somewhere.

*To be continued*