So I participated in the Haru Matsuri festival at the Japanese Canadian Cultural centre this weekend. I had a table to sell my kanzashi, crafts and artwork. I can't say it was an incredibly profitable experience, but it was good to at least try it out.

As I was setting up my table on the first day I had a rather fortuante meeting. An older Japanese man who had been setting up a booth for a kimono seller came to look at the things I was setting out.

All of a sudden he exclaimed, "Oh! You do tsumami kanzashi too!"

He went on to tell me that it was an art he used to practice as well. Unfortunately, due to arthritic hands he's been forced to stop. He still had much of his equipment though. He asked me if I've used habutai silk (which I have) and then offered to let me have the remaining silk fabric he has - it's pre-cut and dyed as well. He was even about to offer me all his left over hair pins and bira-bira when a woman he was working with reminded him that she wanted them.

The next bit of fun came as I started to put on my Chaya-Tsuji Furisode for the day.


Just as I'd begun putting it on, two older Japanese ladies stopped in front of me and said, "Oh, you can't put that on by yourself!"

I kind of replied, "Just watch me." and started dressing myself. I got the furisode on; ohashiori and all and took out my cream fukuro obi. The two ladies were still watching.

At that point an older man came by and added, "Oh, you'll need help to tie that!"

Once again I told them I could do it on my own. And I did. At that point, the three walked off utterly amazed. One of the kimono sellers had also been watching this and was quite excited to advise me on different ways of tieing the obiage and obijime and we discussed various kimono related items for a while. It was quite fun.

On the following Sunday, I wore my geiko dragon hikizuri and dragon fukuro obi.


Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of both ensembles at the event.

Well, Haru Matsuri aside, I'm heading off to Africa on Thursday. I'll likely be busy with packing over the next few days so I probably won't be answering comments or notes until I get back. Otherwise, I've also closed my Etsy shop for the time being. I will re-open it in April.