Other supplies

• Wire – different colors and gages. Needed for both structural support and sometimes astetic reasons.
• Midollino – a thin reed that comes in different colors. Typically manipulated. Can be made into spirals and other interesting shapes.
• Stapler – uses as a way to affix manipulated leaves into a specific shape. Typically holds for a long time. Staples work better on some leaves more than others.
• Glue dots – the best are U-glu. These are double sides and work with plant material. Also typically used with leaves.
• Pin straightener – all kenzans have some form of metal pins. They get bent over time or with particularly hard use. A straightener is a tool to fix that. These typically have two sides. One for straightening and one with a sharp point, used to clean the kenzans.
• kenzans rake – used to clean your kenzans. I much prefer to use this tool to get plant matter out from the pins.
• Japanese rust eraser – a cleaning tool for your scissors. Removes the blackish stuff that accumulates on your scissors. No functionl use.
• Whetstone – for sharpening your scissors, if you want to do it yourself. Sharp scissors make things so much easier.
• Small watering container. I have used empty mustard container for this. This is useful for filling containers with small mouths.
• Green floral tape – especially useful for small thin stemmed materials. In many cases you group these tiny stems together. Even with grouping they may not stay affixed in your kenzan. Wrap the bottom of the stem group in tape and that usuly does the trick.
• Misc accents – tiny birds, ribbons, pinwheels, paper, feathers, whatever. I hardly ever have need for this type of supply, but sometimes the right accent can take average to dramatic. Midillino is used in this way.