Making Mari Cores

Making the Mari for Temari

        While many beginner books and classes start people off with using Styrofoam balls for mari cores, making the mari is indeed as much a traditional and essential part of the craft as marking the ball and stitching the design - it's something every temari maker should know how to do. Better yet - once you try making your own maris it's a safe bet that you may never go back to using a styro base again. The feel in hand that a made-from-scratch mari gives to your finished project is wonderful. Plus, when you make your own mari bases, it usually gives you nicer stitching surface from the beginning without having to "cushion" something like Styrofoam.

        What to use for the mari core truly ends up being a matter of personal preference... in a sense Temari is an age-old recycling project since it's believed the original mari were made from scraps of old clothing and kimono. That can still hold true today, though we are not limited to old kimono! Some crafters also find it hard to believe that it's easier to MAKE a mari and have it come out round, than it is to KEEP a preformed ball (such as Styrofoam) round while wrapping over it - but it's true! There is a law in nature and science that guides everything along that if you apply even pressure to a mass (lump of stuff), that "lump" will take on the smallest surface area - which just happens to be (by natural definition, trust me) - a sphere. This translates into making a mari as: if you gain a little practice in wrapping with even tension while keeping the "lump" moving, you get a round ball. Honest. Truly.

        So - many people trend to making maris rather than using Styrofoam balls. That's not to say that there may not be times when styro fits the bill - if you are making a hanging ornament where weight is something to think about, then the lightness of a styro ball may be just the ticket. On the other hand, most people come to prefer a little more "heft" and feel in hand of using something that has a little more substance to it. What you can use in the core of a mari is limited only by imagination for the most part - you just need to be sure that it's not going to deteriorate (i.e., rot) - it needs to be dry, free of bugs, mold etc. Many materials come up routinely on discussion on TalkTemari - and among the favorites are: pieces of old socks; pieces of old sweaters, t shirts, etc; old nylons; dryer lint (honest); scraps of old fabric, yarn, etc; plastic grocery sacks (see, they ARE good for something!) ... but you are not limited to these suggestions. Almost anything that is dry and can be mushed into the form of a ball can be recycled into a mari core. On the traditional front, in addition to using pieces of old clothing, rice hulls are a very common and successful material for mari cores (check out the Rice Hulls page for info on how to use them and where to get them).

        The basics to make a mari core don't vary much:

Choose your stuff, and then contain it if needed (like if using rice hulls) - usually a small sandwich baggie works well, or an appropriately sized plastic bag for the size of the mari you want. Another method is to stuff your starter material into the toe of an old nylon or tights; tie off and use the rest of the stocking to wrap and smooth the ball. Fill to the desired amount that will mold into the size ball you want, and tie it shut. Start layering your mari.
Other materials (like grocery sacks, old fabric, yarn, etc.can just be wadded into a ball shape and you can begin layering the mari from there.
Some people find it helpful to use a piece of batting as the first layer to smooth things out (I actually like lo loft thinner batting), while others just start in wrapping with 4 ply yarn. Keep "mushing" into round as you start and work....
If you want to insert a noise maker, stuff it into the center of your core material but - you may need to be sure that you can still hear it, since denser mari cores can muffle the sound a bit.

and remember the rule of even pressure - strive for even tension as you wrap and keep the ball moving all the time in random directions. Build up enough of a yarn layer to roughly hold the ball shape and then continue your mari prep as you normally would. Check out the other pages on Temarikai for help and hints on wrapping, using noisemakers in the mari, using rice hulls as the mari base....