Kendamas are all the rage now amongst students. What IS a
Kendama, you say? It's a traditional Japanese toy made of wood! Our first close-up encounter with a kendama was a small one that Big One got as a Children's Day's gift from his teacher. Big One practiced really hard and seemed really serious about it, so we got a bigger, more standard size kendama soon after. The price difference between the plain ones (raw wood handle + black ball) and the fancy ones (think lightning paint effects or Spiderman mask on the ball) was about $10-$20! Fortunately Big One was convinced that the plain one was sufficient and Mummy promised to personalise it for him.
First off, let's imprint some initials on the plain black ball! I did this using masking tape as the "stencil":
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYfZmbEjXlain8jNVGzaHPnEbFVrOJEhKDLk99jBa8LtvTmGW-XxMdI5TOEopQ1bRswiMg80Mfu6fZ4bR6q135TO-CsdPgbLBz4TFAwpwttMERxsdPLBkDzI1rw4LxH2Cj7e7C14uQ_Dk/s400/kendama2.jpg) |
Masking tape "stencil" |
Then, with a silver inkpad, dab on the silver!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDwdRxBIcalpMFnWMIqnbwBHTwwrzjzAy65yUqHVfiq9Sm_SWaxIPXnvFQnq1F52Ba8XrxjSHJXlwdBtnS4IXHVexSEtn-823r-dvsp2U9mEzcM6CKgskuANc0bSeTy03Gycm0-w49UZk/s400/kendama3.jpg) |
Inked on |
I happened to have some varnish on hand and gave this 2 coats of it, letting it dry completely in between and there you are, a simple way to personalise your kendamas! These were made as gifts:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxJdOT5IjCYu-xhyphenhyphenywXoe6uX2SP2BKuVUvFisP7kLORFpXjToAcsoiPfn-LqzogIGh3i19TF3yAlV3jxq1iDutlkDTyU_hI3F6fgRlw2UvO18nw1ofkeBnRUBoom_qIFkWBepQBCq87I/s400/kendama1.jpg) |
Customised Kendamas |