During the summer of 2001, we came upon a lovely website of a lady in Japan who makes Temari - and in particular Bin Temari, which loosely translated is the Japanese version of the American craft of a ship in a bottle - in this case, Temari in a Bottle (from Sue H, our resident Things Japanese Reference..."Bin (pronounced like bean with a long e sound) is the Japanese word for "bottle"... so Bin Temari would translate as Bottle Temari... or in proper English - temari in a bottle!"). While most of us sat there bugeyed realizing just HOW these come to be, (if you know how ships in bottles are made, you know that the ship is built, and then the mast and rigging is collapsed to allow the model to be slid into the bottle - then the ship is "rerigged" inside the bottle.) - well, it was rather daunting to realize that one makes a Temari, including the mari, from scratch and in making the mari, does so that there is a stick of some sort stuck into the mari. After completing the Temari, you merrily unstuff the thing, mush it into a bottle (more like a jar) and restuff it inside.  One of our intrepid TalkTemari members decided to give it a go. When I realized what Amy was musing about in a list note, and I fired one off to her asking her if she really did dive into one, and would she share her experience.... here Amy most kindly does:

"OK, I'm here-I read all the posts in a daily digest form, so sorry it's taken so long to respond.  I made the bintemari following the pictures on the site Ginny mentioned.  Pretty much all you do is thread the end of the yarn through a straw (I "borrowed" one from McDonalds-they're pretty sturdy, but a narrower one would probably work a little easier) and wrap the yard to form the base.  I was originally worried about making it too big, but it's really the other way around.  I made mine with about 1/4" space all around, so it wobbles and wiggles in the bowl.  It would probably be better to make it larger than you think you need to, that way when you stuff it, it will form to the shape of the bowl and won't wiggle.  Anyway, once you form the base with the straw with the yarn sticking out, you wrap a plastic bag around it. Next, wrap the usual yarn layer, thread layer, and embroidery.  Once the ball is done, pull the yarn out through the straw, and pull, and pull, and pull..........Squish it down and put it in the bowl, then fill it with fiberfil through the straw.  I used a steel crochet hook (smooth end to push the stuffing in) to place the fiberfil.  Once it's stuffed, pull out the straw and squish the ends of the plastic lining bag inside too.  I forgot to mention, when you are doing the final thread wrap, carefully place extra wraps around the straw since it will leave a gap when the straw is pulled out and you can use the extra thread there the fill in the space.  Just push the threads around a bit and it will cover all the yarn underneath.  I got my bowl at Wal-mart for something like 75 cents in the floral dept (ivy bowls)......."

        Now - there is more to this story - the year 2001 was not a particularly kind one to me personally, and I was very blessed with much love and care from many people, including the TalkTemari group as well as TemariKai webreaders....   imagine my utter shock, disbelief and then utter glee when through the holidays, Amy sends me off a wonderful little surprise box - and inside is my very own Bin Temari that she made for me - up to even working my Carousel pattern for the Temari. (I have to fully confess, I have no intentions of trying a Bin Temari, let alone making one for someone else.....) - so with deep appreciation and pride I share with you my Bin Temari from Amy: