Temari Techniques: A Visual Guide to Making Japanese Embroidered Thread Balls

by Barbara B. Suess

The unique craft of creating embroidered balls began as a folk art in ancient Japan. Originally made as playthings to delight children, temari balls later were crafted by ladies of the Imperial Court from the same silk threads used to weave elegant kimonos. Over time, temari became a sophisticated art form in miniature, lovely representations of centuries-old patterns embroidered onto perfectly round handballs. Now it is your turn to experience this unique craft.

Temari Techniques offers all you need to make beautiful Japanese temari balls, following patterns from simple to exquisitely sophisticated! Start by learning how to make a smooth, round base and add guidelines around which to shape the design. Progress to mastering stitching and embroidery techniques with hundreds of step-by-step drawings. Then learn how to layer threads to develop more elaborate patterns, color, and texture, creating dazzling designs where the threads overlap and interlock in amazingly intricate ways. Scattered throughout the book are dozens of patterns that can be used to advance and refine your skills.

- Beautiful photos of dozens of temari on display

- Hundreds of detailed drawings that demystify techniques

- Patterns that help practice skills and lay the groundwork for your own designs

- At-a-glance stitch guide for left-handed stitchers

- Illustrated visual reference to help you locate specific techniques quickly

- Lesson plan for temari teachers

Temari Techniques is a great guide for beginners and introduces challenging designs for more advanced temari stitchers. Barbara Suess’s beautiful presentation will inspire you to create your own exotic and playful works of art.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Kelly (Maybedog) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Temari is yet another craft in the craze of appropriated Japanese arts and crafts that has taken America by storm. It's not the most useful technique as it's very specific and is really just something to look pretty. But that has it's usefulness, too, and is no worse than the plethora of food and everyday object items made from felt that are apparently so popular they have their own books. (See my review for Big Little Felt Universe: Sew It, Stuff It, Squeeze It, Fun!.) The book says the roots of Temari were from the latter half of the first millennium C.E. from a men's kickball game and another game where women rolled balls between each other. (Oooo exciting! Well that era wasn't particularly pro-women's sports. I mean, how do you kick a ball when your feet have been bound so you can't walk?*)

I like this book in that it shows a traditional way of making these balls unlike another book I read that had the base being a Styrofoam ball. The instructions are quite good and make the art actually seem achievable despite the complex and perfect look of the samples. I don't think mine would be as perfectly round, though, without using a pre-molded ball, but that would come with it's own host of problems as it's a lot harder to embroider something solid.

There's a wide variety of designs and patterns although there is insufficient information to make the projects, in my opinion. In the back is a section on design and display as well as some motifs to get you started.

*My family has a sick sense of humor. My feet are tiny, disproportionate to my height even though I am short, and my parents and relatives joked on multiple occasions that my feet were so small they wouldn't even have had to bind them if I lived in ancient China. Had to?

[Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book needs more structure. Step by step.

[Jhawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents good guidelines for creating Temari. There are lots of ideas that build on one another. Well done.