Having a Ball

I'm one of those people who can't just sit and do nothing. It drives me mad. Watching tele, on a train, in a doctor's waiting room, I can't just sit. I have to have something to do. So sometimes I knit, or I spin, or draw. Lately I have been making temari.

Temari is a Japanese craft form. It literally means Hand Ball. Basically it is a decorated ornamental ball, hand made and hand decorated in thread. Traditionally they were given between women as a sign of worth and/or respect. Given Japan traditionally valued women poorly these were important and heartfelt gifts, both for the maker and the recipient. They were made upon a base that started as a child's toy.

Before rubber made its way to Japan, mothers would make balls for their children from rags and other bits and pieces. If you make them correctly they bounce really well. And unlike rubber, when the bounce goes out of it Mum can just tighten it up again and the bounce comes back. Great recycling.

We are so used to throwing everything out these days, but in the past everything was used until there was nothing left. Worn out clothes became rags for cleaning or whatever. When the rags were done they were made into toys. In the West there were rag dolls, in Japan there were mari.

Depending on where you are in Japan the centres of the balls take different forms. In Tokyo it was traditionally a tightly bundled rag (which makes a heavy ball, but it bounces well), along one of the coasts the centre is dried sea cucumber, other places a bag of rice husks (these have to be really dry or they end up combusting - that would make play time interesting). The centre is wrapped firmly, tightly and above all evenly, in strips of cloth. Keep it spherical, wrap it tightly and the ball will bounce really well.

Someone somewhere, probably someone up the social scale, had the idea of stitching patterns on mari for decorative purposes. You have to put in a couple of extra layers to turn a mari into a base for a temari. The ball has to wrapped in yarn of some sort (I use wool or cotton knitting yarn, depending what I have to hand) and then in sewing thread. This is quite wasteful of precious resources which is why I think this is an upperclass thing in origin.

After that the mari is divided into sections so patterns can be wrapped or stitched onto the ball. And I love the method of division - a strip of paper and some pins. There is no measuring, just find the circumference and then fold the paper into the appropriate segments and mark the folds on the mari with the pins. Repeat as necessary. Divisions can be basic (divide the ball into quarters or eighths, for example) or complicated (called combinations - such as dividing it into eighths and then using the division lines to further divide the mari into eighths, but along a different axis to the original division - not as complicated as it sounds). These are designated as C# in instructions, so C8 or C10 or whatever. Marking up accurately is important. Let it be wonky here and it will be even worse when it's finished.

The start of the temari I have been working on, It has a C10 division, marked in gold thread

There are lots of websites on marking and making temari. The best ones are in Japanese, but they are pretty easy to follow. I still have enough Japanese to translate my temari books and to read through the finer instructions, but I know quite a few people who make these who have no Japanese at all, and they don't seem to struggle. Once you get the basics down the rest follows on fairly well.

Sewing can be in silk for deluxe versions or in perle cotton. Something with a bit of a sheen. I use DMC perle cotton, I want to try Cosmo perle cotton (Japanese brand) to compare the two.

Sometimes I make temari just for the fun of it. It is handy to have some ready as gifts. Others I make specifically, for a particular person for a particular occasion. That's the case with the one I have just finished.

We have a lovely deputy principal, Mrs. Dawes. I have written about her before. She is retiring (tomorrow is her last day. I'm told she is sailing around the world so weather timing is important. Keen sailor is Mrs Dawes. And I don't mean she's going on a cruise. She is sailing, in her own boat. More power to her).

Mrs Dawes has done a lot for our school, she has a no-nonsense approach that I really appreciate, and she has been very innovative in the programs she has put in place. Remember the careers fair? That's one of her babies. There is also the annual art show. All the children put in two works. Parents may buy the works for $5 each. Money goes back in to the school. If you don't buy your children's pieces, you don't get them at the end. Good motivation. There is a proper opening night and everything. It is a great event for the kids, they get a taste of what art can do and what an exhibition is like. But it is a bitch of a thing to curate. And she works hard for fair treatment, resourcing (always a struggle for a public school), education outcomes for all the children, and on and on.

Hmm. A temari seems woefully inadequate to express worth and respect. But it's a bit late now.

The pattern I chose is quite simple. You just stitch interlacing five-point stars around each of the twelve division points. The black one was first, then there are succeeding rounds in blues, from dark to light. It's a versatile pattern. You can stop halfway through and end up with flowers (I should have photographed that. That's another "bit late now"), or you can keep going and end up with a whole lot of triangles. With which you can do this:

The finished temari. See the triangles under the black lines?

This was made over a number of nights while the Steamgoth and I were watching alternating episodes of Buffy and Angel. I unpulled it about four times in the process of stitching it. The Steamgoth would sigh and ask if I was ever going to be happy. But it paid off. Some patterns are quite forgiving. This one isn't. Allow your stitching to get uneven and it becomes glaringly obvious.

Now my son has chosen a temari each for his teacher and the teacher in the other OC class as farewell gifts (years 5 and 6 OC have quite a lot of interaction). So my hands shall be quite busy over the next week or so.

And just to keep to the Japanese theme, one of my favourite Japanese ads. Like the temari sites, you don't need to know Japanese. You know what they are singing.