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Hi I'm Evelyn Hargis. What I have before me is samples of the art of Temari. Temari is
a Japanese word that means hand ball. It is an needle and thread art that's been traced
to Japan back seven to eight hundred years ago. It appeared in some Japanese literature
so we can prove that. And the Japanese today are the worlds premier temari makers still.
I have several books for patterns that's in Japanese. Course I don't speak or read Japanese
but I can follow the graphics hopefully. You don't need a lot of tools. What your doing
is covering a sphere which can be a styrofoam ball or just strips of cloth that is wound
and wound and wound to make a base. And then you have to create a stitching based on that
because this is a needle and thread art. And you have to have a base that will allow the
needle to pass through and carry the thread. So that takes some time to put on a thin quilt
wrap, and then a then yarn wrap and the final wrap is a spool of sewing thread and now you
have created a base that will let a needle pass through and carry the thread. What you
will need books for is to help you work out the pattern and mark it on your ball with
pens, straight sewing pins and follow the instructions of your thread goes to this pin
and to that pen and the other pen. And the fun of Temari is the combination of colors
and working on very complex patterns. This is interlocking squares, I used yellow as
the combining color. But you can go wild with your color schemes sometimes they work and
sometimes they don't. I have discarded many a ball I thought was not attractive because
of my color choice. Some balls just have a design around the middle, these are called
thimble rings. I haven't researched the name for that. This was a very complex pattern,
I haven't done anymore after this. You don't need very many tools, just make since of the
arithmetic, and have the pens and have strong fingers that can get warn out. And the needle
used is a somewhat long darning needle cause you want to really go in and come out some
distance away to create the pattern. In the Samari class in Japan. After the men
would come home from their battles. They would unwind by playing a game kinda related to
our game of hacky sack. I think that is the name of it. And they kicked around a ball.
And being the Samari class, ladies did not have to toil like the lower class ladies.
They had time on their hands and they would stitch these little bags filled with rock
or rice hulls and the men would play this game and unwind. No one is really sure but
over time the little balls that the Samari wives made became more and more artistic and
colorful. And they finally realized they were creating something that did not need to be
down in the dirt and being kicked around. So over time this became a work of ART. The
Samari wives by the way, they could afford silk thread and everything needed to make
the colorful design. Eventually this art form trickled down to the so called common folk
and they would , if they could get them, they would unravel silk kimonos to get their thread.
And like we use old clothing to go into quilts. They used old clothing to create their Temari.
And it is still done today. In Japan there are several tradition regarding
Temari. The oldest girl in each household is surprised surprised not really surprised;
every New Years day awakens with a new Temari on her pillow made by her mother or grandmother.
And through the years a mother that wants to do this will create a Temari for the child's
birthday. And then when the child marries and leaves home they take their Temari with
them to be displayed in a bowl. And that is how they are displayed. They are usually in
a bowl and they are very pretty in a footed dessert bowl to show just one. A small ornament
hanger could be worked under one of the threads and it be used as a hanging display. But the
Japanese tradition is to group them in a nice bowl and put them on a table or piano or mantle
somewhere that they can be seen.