Veronica Piccolo, Tsumami zaiku artist in Italy challenged Tsumami zaiku month in October 2020. This challenge was monthly challenge making tsumami zaiku. She achieved making tsumami zaiku for 31days! We would like to share her work and her effort through this interview.
Q1. How did you came up with this idea?
As I have always been into art, I follow a lot of illustrators and comic artists and many of them join the Inktober challenge. I have always been tempted to do it, because one of my favorite activities was, and still is, drawing (now I draw for tsumami zaiku or doll design).
Inktober is a challenge and this name is the mix between the words Ink and October: throughout the month the challenge gives you a theme (one different every day) and you make an ink drawing based on it. This was the very first “monthly” challenge for artists and many others were born afterwards. Like Mermay (mermaid drawings on May), Smaugust (dragons on August) and Decembird (birds on December). Everything is very social network based, so thanks to some hashtags and keywords, many people can reach different artists who draw the same theme day by day. It became a regular appointment every year for the artistic-graphic world.
After the drawing challenges, more generic artober/craftober have arrived and, thanks to this, many different artists can join with their different techniques. Because of these, I have thought that even Tsumami Zaiku could enter this world. Given that I could not find one single mainstream themes list for a craftober, because many people now make their own, I decided to make my personal one for tsumami zaiku with Kornelia from Kanzashi Yume. Being my first time, I was not expecting hundreds of participants, but it was still noticed by many people so I am happy for this first year, thanks also to Wisteria Gardens, Takara Crafts, and Kitty Kanzashi who participated.
Q2. How long did you get to finish all of them?
I have made 28 little round brooches in 31 days. At the end of September I already knew I would have been very busy a couple of days in October, so I have anticipated the preparation of 3 pieces.
In the morning I cut and dyed the fabric pieces, in the afternoon I assembled them and I decorated and refined them in the evening. Only on two days I made two pieces at once and I ended up working until around 2:00 AM, so generally it has not been too tough, but I admit sometimes I have felt the necessity of doing something else.
Q3. What was most challenging for you to complete?
Generally, I am not very constant when I start something but, because this challenge was about my main activity, I could not escape: I have put a lot of focus on being serious and do not waste time. I am also not very fast and, thanks to this challenge, I learned some new methods to save time, to choose fabrics and colours faster.
The most challenging piece has been number 14, Pampas grass: I really did not know how to represent properly its classic iridescent look, so I made a little painting with the fabric, something very natural for me.
Other pieces like masks and animals, after a good pattern design, have not been much difficult.
I would have also loved to make a proper kanzashi every day but I decided to find a compromise and design round brooches, in order to be sure to complete the challenge.
