Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Diane Gilleland showcases the Japanese art of Kanzashi with craft projects that have an updated, modern style. You’ll find lots of creative ways to use up your scrap fabrics to make quick gifts for family, friends, or yourself!"
—Natalie Zee Drieu, Senior Editor, CRAFT magazine

"Diane Gilleland’s charming flower embellishments instantly bring the simplest accessory, garment, or decoration to life. Best of all, her beautifully photographed how-tos and helpful tips encourage us to add our own spin to these inspiring projects, for a lovely and very personal result."
—Susan Beal, author of Bead Simple and Button It Up

"Kanzashi in Bloom is a must-have book that does a fantastic job of demystifying this ancient Japanese art form for the modern-day crafter. The colorful projects will have you wondering what you can adorn with flowers next!"
—Jenny Ryan, Contributing Writer, CRAFT magazine

Product Description

Kanzashi tsumami is the Japanese art of folding delicate squares of silk into three-dimensional flower petals. In the United States, the online craft culture has sprouted a renewed interest in making Kanzashi with American crafters devising simplified ways to create these gorgeous fabric flowers and incorporating more user-friendly materials like cotton and synthetic fabrics along with the traditional silks.

Kanzashi in Bloom takes the American interpretation of Kanzashi a step further, presenting modern, more easily executed flower designs as elements in a variety of fun, fashionable, hip craft projects. Kanzashi in Bloom offers advice on materials, three petal-folding styles, and techniques for assembling a Kanzashi flower. You’ll also find instructions for 20 projects to wear and give as gifts, including:

• Tiny blossom earrings
• Flowers-in-your-hair clips
• The happiest belt buckle ever
• Elegant floral gift topper

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (July 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823084817
• ISBN-13: 978-0823084814
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,067 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #7 in	Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Textile Arts
  #9 in	Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Decorating
  #17 in	Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Fashion

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beauty and clarity in a portanble package., August 8, 2009

By	Hl Nesmith "http://longleggedfly.com" (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Kanzashi- beautiful flowers made from relatively small pieces of folded fabric and a few stitches. Meditative, a bite size craft- uses up the boxes full of fabric labelled "scraps too small to keep" (you have one too, admit it)- instant gifts or embellishments, instant creative satisfaction.

In this beautifully produced book, Diane Gilleland takes the reader step by step through the process of creating lovely kanzashi. If you are familiar with Gilleland's instructional style from her blog and podcast ([...]), you will be as happy as I was to find the same kind of clear, unambiguous written instructions, and accompanying images.

One of the biggest attributes that sets this author's instruction apart from many others is her ability to explain things in a way that can't be misinterpreted, and to choose photographs or diagrams that show exactly what they need to show. This is actually harder than it sounds, and so many publications fall short.


Too many craft books are really about the author. They showcase the work of the author and their friends, and the teaching aspect seems really secondary- even unto leaving key points out of the instructions, like a cook who gives you her special family recipe, but you KNOW she left something out because you can never get it to taste quite the same. That is NOT the case here- you will be whipping up your own beautiful flowers in no time, and there is no reason why they won't be as perfect as the ones in the book.

The other big unique strength of this book, as in all Gilleland's work, is her casual, sisterly way of empowering the reader to take the skills she shares, and then go and make them their own. For many of us, the first step in creativity is a 'baby step' of trying the same thing in a slightly different colour or material, and Gilleland always leaves me feeling like it was my own idea. Her almost offhand suggestions like 'these would also look great as a..." really are the first push many of us got in the direction of daring to think creatively ourselves.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kanzashi in Love!, August 6, 2009

By	margot potter "margot potter" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Diane Gilleland is known in the 'craftiverse' as Sister Diane, the mastermind behind the wildly popular blog and podcast CraftyPod. Diane has an innate gift for taking a simple and striking idea and making it fabulous. I had never seen Japanese fabric kanzashi blooms prior to getting this book and I was immediately excited to try making some of my own. Diane offers 20 gorgeous ideas here that are beautifully photographed and meticulously stepped out so you can see step by step, petal by petal, how to recreate them.

I was utterly impressed with her considerable writing skills and the painstaking research she did to give this lovely art form a context and meaning for the Western crafter. Many craft books are pretty to view, but lack depth of information and high quality writing. Diane gives you both along with cleverly fashioned projects that leave you completely inspired. Every design has a brilliant variation concept. Not only are the projects well crafted, the book itself is a beautifully crafted work of art.

I can't wait to try the techniques out for some jewelry and mixed media designs. The best kind of craft book leaves you inspired to create. Diane has achieved that with a brilliant book that I think every crafter should add to their collection.

Margot Potter
The Impatient Crafter
Author The Impatient Beader series
Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed
Beyond the Bead

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blooming beautiful, August 17, 2009

By	J. A. Dickson "Jewels" (Brisbane Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I absolutely loved this book. The history behind the flowers is very interesting. The instructions and diagrams for making the flowers are inspiring and easy to follow with good detsil to possible problems that many be encountered. My Mom (90) and I have just spent the weekend making the Kanzashi flowers. Mom really made beautiful flowers and we have more projects planned. It is one of the nicest craft books I have ever purchased and I'll found lots of ideas and techniques in it. Highly recommended to the crafty who likes something simple but beautiful to add to their collection. Only criticism is I don't know how to pronouce Kanzashi!