kumihimo with beads

Whilst doing a bit of blog hopping yesterday, I came across a blog called... the crafter's apprentice.  It's a wordpress blog, set up in 2014 (I've been here since 2010).  Surely it's unlikely that someone else would think up the same strange blog name and not check if it's already taken?  I feel a bit strange about it.

My experiments with Kumihimo braiding began in August 2013 and lasted most of the summer.  I don't think I've touched my discs since, but I've always wanted to try kumihimo with beads.  I bought a kit to make a beaded braid at one of the shows and I finally took it out and had a go.

It was really easy.  This is a mixture of pearls and glass faceted beads, so it's nice and sparkly.  Hard to get a photo of...  Unfortunately, there's a major flaw which I discovered the next day when I put it on.  The clasp is absolutely pants.  I doesn't work.  That little toggle is far too small and just drops out and down the bracelet falls!

The toggle is part of the end cap which is glued in so I have no idea how to fix this.  Anyone got any bright ideas?

jewellery - finishing

It seems to take me forever to make a piece of jewellery.  I make part of it, then it sits for months before I do anything with it!

I recently made the worlds longest kumihimo braid (disclaimer: that's not actually true) and wasn't sure what to do with it.  In the end I made a double wrap braid and used the rest as a necklace for this knitted copper wire heart pendent I made ages ago.  The twisted wire necklace it was hanging had become kinked and misshapen so it was time to rehang it.

I finished this peyote triangle pendent in a bead class ages ago.  I wasn't sure what to hang it on, then mum gave me this beaded cord.  It was ready made, I didn't make it.  I thought the pendent would be ideal to hang on it.

The only problem was that I couldn't get the beaded cord through the bail as the bail was tiny.  I used a bit of wire to create a hanger instead.  Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it works.

I love this beaded cord and have a bit more of it, I might have to make a pendent to go with it...  give me another year or so and I'm sure I'll get round to it!

finishing off

I have been finishing off WIPs!  Yay for me, not something that happens round here much, despite my best intentions!

I went to a class to make this bracelet in December last year.  I then had a 'mare trying to sew the ultra suede on the back as I cut it too small. Fast forward 9 months and I tried again, and succeeded!  I didn't enjoy sewing the backing (and all those edging beads which are size 15/0) on, which is a shame as I enjoy bead embroidery in general.  This is now a brooch and I'm very pleased with it.

I'm less pleased with this, which has only been a WIP for a couple of weeks.  It's my knook spa cloth, relegated to being a dishcloth, and what a bloody mess!

I added a loop so I can hang it from the tap, and a crochet edging to try to neaten it up.  Didn't work, did it?  Ah well, first time knooking and all that... 

This kumihimo braid is only a week or so old, but it was nice to get it out of the box where I keep half done jewellery components.  I added some lucite flowers held on head pins with Swarovski pearls, and hung them from a short length of chain.

I'm really pleased with this one and have worn it already.  I'm also pleased with the alternative method of putting on the end caps that I came up with.  Not so neat, but I have long hair so it doesn't matter.  I know how to do it better for next time.

I made this bracelet back at the beginning of August, and all it needed was a clasp!  Clasp added.

Bracelet done.

I feel all virtuous now.  I might just go and start a few (dozen) more projects!

Kumihimoing

I got my kumihimo disk out again recently, it's been ages since I used it.  My mum had given me a kumihimo book and lent me another, Kumihimo Basics & Beyond.  It's a brilliant book, designed for working through from beginning to end and full of great hints and tips along the way.

One of the projects in the book, and also in the Beadsmith Kumihimo book was to use 2 different stringing materials of different thicknesses.  I'd recently got some C-lon which is used for stringing beads or doing micro macrame.  I thought I'd pair the purple C-lon with blue 1mm rattail.  The rule of thumb is you measure where you want the braid to go, then multiply by 3.  I must have multiplied by about 10 judging by the length of the finished braid!

The spiral effect is very gentle as there isn't too much difference in thcikness between the two materials.  It was going to be a bracelet, but I'm thinking I could make a 3-wrap bracelet, then cut the rest up to make a necklace, maybe with a double braid...  I'll think on it.

I tried again, this time with green C-lon and 2mm rattail in white.  Much better.  And a much better length, though it's two times too long for a bracelet!  I also used the No Knot Start technique from Basics & Beyond which is such a simple thing, yet I'd never thought of it.

I hope to do something with these braids soon, and I also intend to have a go at kumihimo with beads...

There will be some non-jewellery posts coming up soon, so my sewing and stitching friends, please don't despair!

Linking up with:

Craft Book Sew along

somebody take the Kumihimo disk off me...

Yes, yes, I know, but it's fun!  And so satisfyingly quick...

This is a 12-strand spiral using purple and black 1mm rattail.  I followed the tutorial over at Dream A Little Bigger.

Next I wanted a bracelet that went round my wrist twice.  Again using 1mm rattail, this time in red, silver and white.  You can't tell the white and silver apart, not a good colour choice.  I used the colour placement tutorial at Dream A Little Bigger for this one.

Finally, I made a black and silver 1mm rattail braid that will go round my wrist 3 times.  I made all these braids last week and just can't be arsed to glue the end caps on.  It's a little job, doesn't take long... why am I so lazy?

Kumihimo - what's it all about

Back in the summer I wrote about my experiments with Kumihimo.  From some of the comments I go, I realised I'd just dived right in and expected you all to know what Kumihimo is!  My apologies for that, but I hope this post helps explain.

These are Kumihimo disks.  They cost £2 - £5 each and are readily available in bead shops, craft shops and online.  There is no difference between the small and large circles, they create the exact same braids.  The square one creates flat braids.  I put the ruler in the photo to give you an idea of their size.  They're made of foam with slots between each number to thread the cord through.

My first braids used cord, but I then used rattail and much preferred it.  I bought some more rattail - this is 1mm but you can also use 2mm.  To be honest, you can use anything you like from embroidery floss to yarn and, I suspect, wire - I must try that out.  I bought my rattail from a supplier in ebay based in China.  27m of a colour for just over a pound.  Buying it from the UK was a LOT more expensive than that.

The rattail comes in nicely wound skeins as above.  Once you've opened it to cut some off, it looks like this!  I must make some large card bobbins to wind it onto.

I'm not going to give a full tutorial here, just an overview.  There are a lot of good free tutorials already out there and the discs also come with instructions.  You take 8 lengths of rattail for an 8-strand braid (you can also do 16 strand braids, but they're very chunky), the rule of thumb is 3" of rattail for every 1" finished braid you want.  Tie a knot in the bottom.  The instructions and some tutorials say to use a weight and to wind the rattail onto tangle-free bobbins.  It's not really necessary, I just give the end a little tug with each round.

You put the knot through the middle of the disc and put the strands into the correct position to start.  This is the positioning for the basic 8-strand braid.  Colour placement makes a difference.  You could make a single coloured braid or use anything up to 8 different colours/shades.  In this example I'm using a colour placement designed by Dream a Little Bigger - I did the 5th one.  Dream a Little Bigger has a lot of kumihimo tutorials so I'd recommend a browse if you fancy trying this.

The basic premise is that you take one of the strands from the bottom and move it to the top.  You then move a top strand to the bottom.  Turn the disc 90degrees anti-clockwise and repeat.  That's it, it really is that simple and that quick.

Here you can see the braid starting to appear.  It takes about 15 minutes to make a braid long enough for a bracelet and can be done whilst watching TV as it's quite mindless once you get into a rhythm.

I turned back to Dream a Little Bigger to see how to put on end caps for the braids I'd made.  You should use 6mm end caps for 1mm rattail in an 8 strand braid, the endcaps I'd bought are 4mm but it worked fine.

These are the end caps.

All you need is some glue, some tape and the end caps.  I've now glued all the braids I made and just need to add the findings.  Unfortunately they're in a box in the dining room along with the cupboards etc for our new kitchen so that won't be happening any time soon!

If you're looking for Kumihimo tutorials or patterns, check out my Kumihimo Pinterest board.

Is it all a little clearer now?  Next up, I'm going to try braiding with beads, I also want to try wire now I've thought of that!

more Kumihimo...

Yeah, yeah, I know, you're all bored of the bracelets!  This is my final post on the subject, promise.  Actually, that's a lie, I've got another loom bracelet to show you and I'm pretty sure I'm not done with macrame.  How about, this is my final post on this subject today? 

I showed you my attempts at kumihimo in the last post.  I made those bracelets using cord and the large and small round kumihimo disks (there's no difference between the large and small... not sure what the point is?).  This is also made on the round disk, but using rattail.  As a result, it's soft and smooth and quite silky to the touch.

Of course, none of the ends have been finished off yet as I've actually been away on holiday, but took this with me to do, leaving my findings at home.  That means you WILL have to see them again...

Back to the cord for this one, but this time using a square disk.  Is a square disk possible or is disk always disk shaped?  And is it spelt with a k or a c?  So many questions.  OK, this was made using cord and the square kumihimo square.  I went with just two colours.

The photo above shows one side of the braid, the photo below shows the other.  I like the pattern, but I'm not sure about the gaps and I don't like how uneven and wobbly the edging is.  I think this would be best done with rattail, I'll have to buy some more and try it out.

I struggled to find patterns for kumihimo, I found how to do an 8-strand and 16-strand round braid and the square pattern above, but that's all.  Anyone got any sources for me?

kumihimo

I've been braceleting again.  I can't seem to help myself.  Over the past few months, I've accidentally bought 3 Kumihimo disks.  I did mean to buy one, but not 3.  First I accidentally bought a square one when I wanted a round one.  Then I bought a round one and forgot about it.  So bought another.  It was time they were used.

With one of the disks I'd bought some rattail, but wanted to try it with cord first as I seem to have a lot of cord.  This is a simple 8 warp weave.  The colour placement  is random, it's going to take some experiments and taking notes for me to figure out how the placement of the first 8 warps affects the final colour.

These whip up really fast.  It's long enough for a bracelet, but I don't have the Kumihimo ends that I need to finish it off.

At the top of the picture is the 8-warp weave, the lower one is a 16-warp weave.  It wasn't really that tricky, once you get the rythme it's fine.  I miscalculated.  You start with cords that are 3x the length you want it to be.  I measured my wrist at 6 inches, so cut 20 inches.  Except I didn't, I cut 20 cm!!  Ah well, it's a bit too chunky for a bracelet anyway and was good practice.

See how pretty they are close up?

This was made with just 2 colours.  I love the spiral pattern and just wish I'd made a note of where the colours started on the disk!  I really need to keep a notebook to hand...

This is also in my favourite colours.

Now, Kumihimo wasn't on THE list, but it was on the secondary list.  So it's not a WIP crossed off, but almost!

I've since played with the square disk... I must remember to take some photos...

Joining in with New to Me in 2013 at Fiona's blog.