Tsumami kanzashi: step by step master class

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Kanzashi tsumami is a special technique for decorating women's hair ornaments, which appeared in distant Japan and conquered the whole world. If earlier geisha hairpins were decorated with silk flowers, now you can see magnificent fabric crafts in paintings and caskets, on clothes and bag pendants. Masters create not only flowers, but also wonderful insects, bows and baskets, Easter eggs and even New Year's toys.

"Tsumami" is Japanese for "pinch". This characterizes the main way to perform each element with the help of pinching. For these purposes, use tweezers and candle fire. Separately, each petal or leaf is made, and then they are combined into a flower or other figure. Instead of traditional Japanese silk, modern kanzashi tsumami is made from other fabrics. Most often, satin or crepe ribbons are used, sometimes nylon or satin, lurex or organza are used. The parts are connected into a single whole either with hot glue or sewn together with threads.

In the article, we will consider a kanzashi tsumami master class, we will figure out in detail how to properly fold and solder pieces of fabric to make a beautiful petal. Step-by-step descriptions of the work will help you to independently repeat the samples presented in the photographs. The kanzashi tsumami technique is a bit like the Oriental art of origami, only instead of paper, the craftsmen use scraps of fabric.

Triple leaf

To make this layered leaf:

1. It is necessary to prepare 3 identical pieces of thin green satin ribbon, a candle, tweezers and a pin for temporary fastening.
2. Put the blanks in an even pile and bend the entire pack of fabric in half.
3. Holding with tweezers, bring the fold line close to the candle and melt the edges of the fabric with fire.
4. The photo below clearly shows how exactly you need to straighten the ribbons to get a spectacular leaf.



5. Connect the lower ends of each segment together and temporarily fix with a pin.
6. It remains to melt with a candle and this part of the craft.
7. Set the finished leaf aside. You will need it to attach to the bouquet of flowers.

And then consider how to make kanzashi tsumami petals.

Intricate petal of three ribbons

This craft is assembled from two thin burgundy and pink ribbons and one wider one - lilac. Start manufacturing with a central part. A short piece of pink ribbon is wrapped around the centerpurple, folded in half. All 4 ends of the fabric are connected at one point and tucks are made with tweezers, collecting the ribbons in folds. Temporarily secure the pack with a safety pin.

The burgundy ribbon should be longer to freely wrap the first two. Melt it in the center, folding it in half. Then unfold the fabric so that the tape “hugs” the first part on both sides, and with the other side attach it to the ends united with a pin. Fix all the strips with fire. Petal in the technique of kanzashi tsumami is ready!

Light flower with five petals

Cut the same five squares from the satin ribbon. Further work is carried out alternately on the manufacture of each petal. A square piece of fabric is folded in half diagonally. It turns out a triangle, the extreme corners of which are also connected to each other. Turn the workpiece towards you with the long side, and grab the opposite side with tweezers and singe with a candle along the entire length. You will get a petal like in the photo below.

When all 5 elements are ready, you need to turn the blanks over to the other side so that traces of the candle remain on the back of the petal. It will remain with threads matched to the tone of the fabric, sew all the details together to make a beautiful flower.

Rounded Petal

For masters new to the tsumami kanzashi technique, a step-by-step photo of the work is presented. Start manufacturing by cutting square blanks.

Next you needfold the segment as shown in the photo above. Secure the folded material with a pin or tweezers and singe the edges of all layers of fabric with a candle. When 6 petals are completed, sew them together with thread.

Christmas angels

Tsumami kanzashi New Year's toys look good. Let's look at how the angel is made. How such pointed parts are folded, you already understood. Assemble the craft together with hot glue. The function of the head and chest of an angel is performed by beads or pebbles. The lower hem of the robe is made of a large square. It needs to be folded in half and connect all the corners of the part together, gently straightening the fabric. Fix the mount with fire.

The upper wings are complemented by silver inner petals. Thread a thread through the bead of the head and make a loop so that the figurine can be hung on a spruce branch. Such a New Year's toy looks great on a dark wood background.

Gorgeous snowflake

Such a beautiful craft will decorate any holiday. Making a beautiful snowflake is not difficult, especially since you already know how to fold the satin ribbon fabric for each element. As you can see, you will have to collect a large number of parts, and of different sizes.

The central part of the craft resembles a flower with six two-tone petals and a spectacular pebble in a frame in the center. Already around these large parts, small snowflake elements will be attached. Crafts are assembled with a glue gun. Snowflake rays beginholes between the large petals of the central flower and diverge in all directions.

Paste the petals in pairs. The connection point is covered with a rhinestone. The beam ends with a single blue petal. You can complement the work with hanging shiny stars on silvery thin threads.

Christmas tree on a cone

A Christmas tree made in this technique by Japanese masters will be a wonderful decoration for the New Year's Eve. You will need a plain satin or crepe ribbon. In our sample, we took a white strip, you can make a green or mahogany tree. You will also need a cardboard base for gluing small parts in the shape of a cone. It can be done with PVA glue or fix the ends of the paper with a stapler.

We took bright golden, red and purple stripes of fabric as decoration, decorating the top and bottom of the Christmas tree with interesting elements.

Each petal is made by folding a square piece of fabric twice: diagonally and vertically. Rectangular triangles are obtained, one leg of which has fabric joints. With tweezers, you need to fix them together and melt the edge with a candle. The last stage of work will be pasting the surface of the cone in a circle, starting from the bottom level. Bright beads on the "twigs" function as Christmas decorations and are attached with a glue gun.

You can also get acquainted with MK tsumami kanzashi from the video below.

All elements of the technique are fastened together by pinching and melting the edges. This saves a lot of time spent onmaking crafts, but holds the fabric better than any seam. Try it, please yourself and your loved ones with beautiful crafts!