January Kanzashi

The New Year is just around the corner, so for the maiko of Second Life it's almost time to change their kanzashi. January's ornament is now in, and once again includes hana kanzashi for junior and senior maiko and is available in either mod/copy or mod/trans.

This is the junior version:

New kimono, new store and something to keep the sun... er... snow off you

Finally! The Flower & Willow great update is done! Every single one of my kimono has now been upgraded to feature new, more realistic, sleeves and obi and I have to say I'm very pleased with the way they've turned out! I've also dropped the prices and introduced the option to choose whether you want mod/copy or mod/trans items as well as opening a brand new store. Now I just have to update all my onrez, exchange listings...

Anyway, here are the new releases. First up, two new kimono:

And a new freebie:



There are also seven parasol designs now in - these are scripted to open and close on touch and have a built in animation override for both the open and closed states. Here are a few pictures of my favourites:

Flickr photostream

The observant among you may have noticed that I've added a Flickr slideshow to the side of the blog. Well, cause just having pictures of me there will get boring, I've started up a Flower & Willow Flickr group here. Please feel free to join and add pictures of you in Flower & Willow stuff!

Back on home shores

I'm back in the country after my break overseas, so if anyone has any outstanding enquiries please do feel free to drop me an IM.

Things may still be a little quiet on the ground for a while, with a lot of behind the scenes work going on. Every single one of my kimono is currently undergoing an overhaul, with new and updated prim work, and there are also some new designs in the works.

Group members will be getting a free preview very shortly!

November almost upon us

I'm going away on October 28 and won't be back until around November 19! I do have some exciting things lined up for when I return, but before I left I wanted to get next month's kanzashi out.

And here it is:

I also reworked my maiko hair. It now includes flexi ribbons at the front and scripted colour-change hira kanzashi and bead ribbon accents, with a choice of 12 colours.


While I'm away I'll have limited internet access and no access at all to SL, so if you need me, drop me a notecard or, better still, email me at hatsune@hotmail.co.uk

Second Style Magazine

*falls over in excitement*

I'm in October's Second Style Magazine! My Sakura hikizuri appears in the 'Costume Couples' Halloween feature (page 46)! Seeing as many people view Second Style to be the magazine for fashionistas, I'm pleased as punch!

The magazine is free to download, and you can find it here.

*squees*

So that cheered up my Monday morning a bit ;)

In shop-type news... I made hair! Expect a momoware and wareshinobu to be on sale soon.

I'm still alive!

Phew - long time no releases! Very sorry about that - what with one thing and another it's been a bit hectic. For starters Java Island has been revamped, which meant I had to move all of my stuff into a new building. It's smaller than the old one (boo hiss) and because of the VAT debacle my rent has gone up (double boo hiss!). Ah well, such is life and my landlord has been lovely about it. I completely understand why he's had to take this course of action.

But on the plus side there are some big developments afoot and some new items to boot!

Two more hikizuri - you must be sick of them by now! These have a slightly more silky sheen to them and some bold embroidery.


I'm a little late, but I also now have October's kanzashi in store. Yellow is pictured, but a pale pink version is also included.


In non-design related news, I've been nominated for the SL Fashion Bloggers' Choice Awards, run by SL Fashion Notes - I'll let you know how that goes!

Hikizuri round two

More hikizuri for you today - another five in fact! With their release I am officially out of room at Semple Truth, so if you see things start vanishing from that particular store it's not that I've retired them, it's just that I need the prims!






The hair, in case you're wondering, is a very slightly modified version of FerretHerder Kitsune's Geisha 3 hair, available here (along with some other gorgeous styles).

Geometric Hikizuri now in!

Finally, I hear you say. The first range of my new style of kimono are now in store.

They include a flexi kimono trail (which looks pretty good when dancing if I do say so myself). Also included are an optional 'no trail' kimono skirt, geisha and maiko style obi (with one and two-part versions) and both patterned and plain varieties of the sleeves and top so you can mix and match.

Minari obi and custom fitting

Because I'm a sucker for being as accurate as possible, I've released a set of minari obi, which are basically the darari style but tied at half length. They're in the same colours as the maiko obi I released a while back.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention a couple of things here. When I test my kimono, and particularly the prim attachments, they all fit Hatsune's frame pretty darn well (if I do say so myself). But if you are a substantially different body shape - cause let's face it, Hatsune is pretty small on the SL scale of things - you might need to adjust a few things here and there. If you're not comfortable doing this for yourself, I will do it for you. The best way to do this is to send me a copy of your body shape - or let me know the settings at least - and I'll send out free resized collars and obi.

My obi are made in two parts, which means they flex with small hip movements. But if your AO means you move your hips around a lot you'll probably find it gets distorted and looks a bit wonky. The quick and dirty answer would be to wear only the top half of the obi - that's the bit that has the bow and obijiime on anyway. I will be looking at an alternate obi bottom style though to try and eliminate this problem, or at least reduce it if I can.

I'm also perfectly happy to do 'variations on a theme' for you. If, for example, you would rather have a different combination of material used in your obi than the one provided, let me know. If you tell me before you make a purchase, I'll replace the one included with a kimono. If you tell me after, I'm afraid it's a $L50 charge for every additional obi I make you.

Last, but by no means least, if you want a commission job done let me know and we can discuss it. Prices will probably vary depending on how much work would be needed to provide the finished item.

Hikizuri

What is more iconic than the geisha in her hikizuri? The hem of a hikizuri, or tailing kimono, would drape on the floor and swirl gracefully as the Geisha stands, and of course, as she dances.

It's taken a while, but I am on the brink of introducing hikizuri to my collection. Expect the first releases to hit the shelves shortly but for now, some pictures:

A new store and an autumn sale!

A second branch of Flower & Willow is now open at Java Island, you can find it here. My existing stock looks rather puny indeed in the larger surrounds, so I suppose I shall have to go on a mad flurry of designing now. Ho hum!


To celebrate the new store opening, and the start of autumn, I'm also holding a sale. Expect a few more designs to hit the shelves (or rather, the walls) as the sale continues.

First autumn releases

There's a lot going on over in the Flower & Willow camp at the moment! To start with, I have released three new kimono designs ready for autumn. They are:

The Kyomurasaki Chrysanthemum Furisode (kyomurasaki being a shade of purple that is, as far as I can tell, pretty similar to the colour of this design. And I already have a 'purple chrysanthemum furisode'... ):


The Chrysanthemums & Waterfalls Furisode:


And finally, the Chrysanthemum (noticing a theme here?) and Swirls Furisode - which is free to Flower & Willow group members!


These are all autumn appropriate designs and I plan to keep releasing them, along with some new tomesode, as the season goes on. Some of them might not have Chrysanthemum on them. You never know.

News - and updates on the horizon. Honest.

Phew - it's been a while! But I have news!

Today I was putting some finishing touches to a new obi (more on that later) when I met one of the Karyukai Geisha, the beautiful Gee Nakamura - pictured left. She is opening up a new shop at Kyoto BAKUMATSU selling geisha and maiko accessories, and she kindly asked me to place my darari obi and kanzashi vendors there - along with a landmark to my Semple Truth store.

You can find her shop here and the Okiya here

Anyway, back to that new obi... with Autumn approaching quickly, I've been working on some seasonal designs. I have a good dozen or so in the pipeline, so expect to see them filtering through in the coming days. At least two of those will be with you by the end of the week - hopefully more.

Out of town

Bit of a break in updates at the moment as, as of now, I'm out of town on a business course learning how to video-edit.

There are plenty of ideas swimming around in my head though - from a new style of kimono (she says, fingers crossed), to a variety of shoes, haori, more kanzashi and a line of traditional men's clothing.

I'm still working on animated parasols and fans but hit a bit of a snag when I discovered that my walk animation is set at priority four and is therefore conflicting. I ask you, WHY would you feel the need to set a walk animation that high?! Bah. Anyway, this has meant I've got a little side-tracked with trying to sort out a walk animation for sale (and while I'm at it I might even consider selling my custom stands) but it's proving tricky.

Anyway, with all this stuff in the pipeline I've decided I probably need to find a bigger space to sell it all, in addition to the Semple Truth location. Ideally I want somewhere in a nice, preferably themed, locale with the ability to be added to the places search. So I'm not difficult to please! *cough cough* Anyway, if anyone happens to know of any decent places, I'd be eternally grateful ;)

I was chatting with one of Amatsu Okiya’s lovely minari at the weekend who happend to mention she was very pleased to see the maiko style dangling obi included with my kimono as they are, apparently, quite difficult to get hold of.

Inspired by that, I have released a range of maiko obi that are now on sale as individual items. Currently they come in eight colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and white - with a nineth style that is black and white and therefore ripe for tinting. The obijime (obi cord) is tintable on all versions.

There is also a multipack available, which includes all nine designs for a L$100 discount. Hurrah!

New designs and a note on gift giving.

I'll slow down with these updates soon enough, but here are three more new arrivals at Flower & Willow.

First is the jade koi furisode - a vibrant green kimono with rainbow fish and the traditional 'wave' pattern in the background.



Then we have a summer design with a peacock and peony pattern (alliteration for the win!) on a rich (some would say peacock) blue.




And finally a lovely purple irotomesode with a pretty floral design at the hem. This one is *just* an irotomesode (ie, no additional mix and match options) and is therefore slightly cheaper.



In other news, prototype versions of fans and parasols are now sitting in my inventory, so hopefully these will be available to match the various kimono styles before too much longer.

Also, I have been asked to deliver my first gift. Those of you who have been to the store will know that my designs are no transfer (mostly because I want to give people the option to modify the prim attachments to fit, and the ability to make safety copies in case of accident!). I am pleased to say that I am very happy to help with gift giving though. I'm hoping to get a gift vendor up and running in the not too distant future, but for now if you want to let me know what kimono you're after, who you're giving it too and include any personalised 'gift tag' you'd like included, I'm more than happy to deliver them myself. I'll even gift wrap them for you at no extra charge.

Summer fans and spring wisteria (at least the background is white...)

Two new furisode styles for you today.

First up is the red fans furisode - fans being a summer design so nice and seasonal. As usual, geisha and maiko options included with this one.




Next up is the wisteria furisode. It's a little out of season - wisteria are for spring but I simply couldn't resist. Not everyone's cup of tea I imagine - it's the 'loudest' design to date, but I love it! I've only included a maiko version, mainly cause I have a slightly hard time imagining a sophisticated geisha wearing this but if you want the other obi style just send me an IM/notecard and I'll be happy to put both that and the white collar together for you for L$50.



Enjoy!

Free Tomesode!

I've added a free tomesode to the store, so drop by and pick one up.

Futher offers and freebies will be group-only; it's free to join so why not sign up?

The case of the missing skirt

I have just been informed that the Cherry Blossom Furisode vendor is missing its skirt! Unfortunately I'm stuck at work and so am unable to rectify the problem immediately. It will be fixed by around 7pm GMT when I get home, so in the mean time if you've made a purchase do send me an IM or notecard so I can send you your missing kimono bottoms!

On a related note, if you ever notice that one of my sets has a wrong or missing item, or there are any problems at all with your purchase, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do my level best to address the issue as soon as I am physically able. After all, customer service is free of charge.

A new summer kimono and one spring design (I know it's out of season, but I couldn't resist!) to come shortly.

Open for business!

Flower & Willow is now open! Though the range is still rather small at the moment it is expanding - and there are plans afoot to launch new lines of accessories and the like for all your kimono-wearing needs.

The geisha and maiko among you might be pleased to know that one of my future projects will be a seasonally accurate line of kanzashi. I'll admit up-front that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so they might not get churned out at a rate of knots (unless I find myself terrifically inspired) but watch this space.

For now though, here's a little sample of what you might find at the shop:




And something a little brighter: