Temari - A Prayer for Janet
...and teaching again - demystified but not dissapointed
Sunday, October 7, 2007
I’ve had a marathon teaching week – the first in several years because I took a break to write Japanese Temari and to work on the second book. Seven new students on Thursday, five continuing students on Friday and six more new students on Saturday. Sharing the craft is exhilarating for me! I well remember having a very nervous, excited feeling when I first tried my hand at temari. Temari balls are so different, so exotic and so intricate looking – I just didn’t know if I could do it or not. Many first time students feel the same way. Put 6 or 8 of them together in a room and the tension is palpable!
And then there’s me – I am so excited to share the craft that I want to tell them everything I know all at once. It takes great restraint for me to remember to take it slowly, explaining the process step-by-step in a logical order. Don't overwhelm them, I keep telling myself. I’m so eager for that moment to come when the group can see and understand the basics – it doesn’t take long, I just need to be patient - so hard for me!
One of my favorite parts of this craft is the symbolism involved and the connection of the stitched designs and construction of a temari ball to our daily lives. Yesterday, I began talking with the group at the French Knot about how temari are often made to be given away as a wish for good luck. Think about what you put inside the rattle when you’re making a gift for someone. Shells, polished stones, jingle bells, a coin, or a wish or prayer jotted on a small slip of paper. I had to cut that part of the talk a little short before I teared up too much. I glanced across the table and thought I saw tears welling up in the eyes of a gal across from me.
I was thinking about my friend Janet who thought not long ago that she would never survive her cancer. Another friend, Deb, had shared with me how she makes temari that she calls “focus” balls which she creates especially for friends with cancer. Each ball is filled with Deb's good wishes for not only for a successful recovery, but for strength along the way. So, I made a focus ball for Janet. Inside are things I know she would like. I thought she would like a purple chrysanthemum stitched on the ball. While I was making the ball, I was thinking of her happy laugh that might be quieted by cancer in the coming months. I am happy to tell you that Janet’s surgery was a total success and she is cancer-free and enjoying being a grandmother.
Recently, I had the chance to share temari with a reporter from the News and Observer. At the end of our second session teaching Marcy how to stitch temari, she made the comment that I had "demystified" temari for her but she was not dissapointed. She noted that often when a secret is revealed, one might feel that the charm has evaporated. Not so with temari.
The beginning lessons only tempt you further in the door to solving these embroidered puzzles. Look at just one of the temari books out of Japan and you’ll see that what began as a simple folk craft hundreds of years ago has morphed into an art form with exquisitely intricate puzzles stitched on larger and larger balls. There is always the temptation to use finer threads – silks and real metal metallics. “How about if I stitch a square here and interlock it with a triangle stitched there?” “Oh, I see how they made that one – it’s a 10-division ball!” There are literally thousands of possibilities, but there are only a handful of basics. All begin in the same place – a north pole.
The relaxing process of wrapping the ball and stitching simple repetitive shapes creates calm in the soul. Your thoughts are naturally and easily brought away from the day’s activities and problems as you focus on the process of stitching – lay the thread, hold it in place, take the stitch, turn the ball, lay the thread, hold it in place, take the stitch, turn the ball…... meditation with a needle and thread. When done, you not only have a soothed, peaceful mind but a lovely temari to hold.
I hope you, too, have the chance to share temari with someone. Make a special temari as a gift or teach a class. You learn to love the craft even more.