Personalizing my Kanzashi

Recently, one of my sensei sent some kanzashi to our dojo, for all the female iaidoka. These handcrafted Japanese hair ornaments were a great reward after an energetic evening of training at Ka Muso Kai. Long ago, Japanese hair ornaments were used for self-defense. Some sources say that the tips of the kanzashi were dipped in poison.

As you can see from these photos, kanzashi could be useful if one were to be attacked. 

These days, "hair sticks" are used to create simple, yet elegant hair styles.

The kanzashi that I received from sensei blends in with my hair. To make it stand out more, I painted some sakura flowers onto the handle:

To seal my flowers onto the wood, I put a couple of coats of Mod Podge and let it dry.