Before I tell you about lesson three, let me show you a two other temari I made as part my bonus round for wrapped bands (Lesson 2) - the purple mari and the yellow mari use advanced techniques, for me, of stacking the bands and wrapping them so they don't slip off.

Then for the 2 weeks I have been working on the third Temari Lesson - Squares.

I have done squares before but not in a long time and my first square, which I did for practice, for this lesson was bad - it wan't even a parallelogram, it was more like a really bad trapezoid. I ended up doing two more practice squares on a mini-mari just to ensure I was working it correctly.

For the actual lesson, I had to make two temari: Square Dance (black mari) and Six Solid Squares (white mari)  and of course I did a bonus temari (green mari). The bonus temari is based upon the pattern called Rose Garden which is usually done in pinks, reds, and yellows but I don't like pinks so I did it in greens and I call mine Spruce Woods. 

What I learned from this lesson:

• Don't work on very complex temari when you are tired you will make mistakes.
• IF the square is getting "out of square" pull out the stitches right away and do it over NOW because trying to fix it while stitching can just make it worse.
• Don't use the grip of death when holding the mari - your hands will hurt the next day.
• Put the threads back in their numbered slots immediately after cutting a length otherwise you will spend hours sorting all the thread colors, again!

This week I worked through the second lesson: marking and dividing as wrapping bands, and I am already noticing the quality of my work has improved.

The first thing I am noticing is that the time to wrap a mari is less and they are more symmetrical but most of all I noticed that when using a Styrofoam core, the are less round and I have to work more at making it so. Where as using rice hulls or fabric, batting, and thread scraps for the core, it is easier to obtain a round/symmetric mari. 

Then of course with a more symmetrical mari, when I divide it, the marking are spaced evenly and I don't have to do as much fiddling.   Speaking of dividing and marking, I knew how to divide and mark simple 4's and 8's but this week, I learned how to do a simple 10 (S10) and a Complex 10 (10), more on this in a bit.

After marking a S4 (simple 4) I wrapped bands of different colors along those divisions as well as the obi which is the equator of the mari.  The lesson material listed 4 different Temari from which to select one. based upon your skill level.  Being the over achiever I am, I decided to do them ALL and that is where the C10 came into play.

The third temari was a challenge for me not because it was an S8 nor because it had woven wrapped bands but because it has stacked wrapped bands as well. Learning to stack and wrap was a bit confusing, to get them to lay properly along each other and on top of each other. Now that this one is done, I can see where I went wrong and where it was correct. I am going to look through my Temari books for another design like this and make that one in the next few weeks to help me improve working with that design element.

Finally, after making the other Temari, I practiced dividing a S10, which I had not done before, and from there dividing the S10 into a C10.  Along the way I got lost in several times so I had to start dividing the C10 over, but luckily I had left the S10 pins in the mari along the equator so I did not have to start ALL the way over.  After placing the pins, I had to measure the distances between all the pins to ensure they were the same distance apart, resulting in a symmetrically marked ball.  After adding the division lines, I selected 5 colors, one for each band and I then wrapped along each division and when I came to a previously wrapped division, I went over or under it to interlace the bands. And this I did over as well because part way in to the third band, I realized I was wrapping on the wrong centers so I cut it all of and began again.  At 10 pm on Saturday I finished wrapping the 5th band and then I realized,  had done it wrong AGAIN!!! I was once again on the wrong center; despite that I do like the colors and the look.

Today, Sunday I wound a new mari, marked it and then located the centers for the pattern and then I started wrapping. 6 hours later I finished it and you can see the Temari below. 

I have sent the images to my Temari Teacher, Barbara, and she has responded that they all look great especially the C-10. 

All told I finished 6. I hope you enjoy the pictures below.

It has taken about 3 weeks but I finally finished the first lesson of the Temari course I am taking.
This lesson was about making the mari, the base ball for the design which when done transforms it in to the TEMARI!.  Yes I do know most of this, but I have learned a few things I did not know.  The temari to be made for this lesson were free hand embroidery which presented a good challenge since I have not done any embroidery in 30+ years. 

The first temari I made is what I call Buttercups. The first thread I chose was too light in color against the mari background so I layered darker colors, all yellows, to also give more depth and texture to the flowers.  The second temari was to be a portrait so I did ME, I call it the Pensive Girl with Curly Hair. This temari took two weekends to make since I had to investigate stitches that would work best for part of the hair - A cast on stitch is what I chose. 

Next up is Lesson 2 where the simple divisions and wrapping are covered.