Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Learning Kumihimo

This one has been on my 'to-do' list for a while now.  Last fall, while shopping at (the now world famous)Mardens, I found some embroidery thread in some really wonderful colors - on sale for fifteen cents each!  I, of course, could not pass up that bargain, so I bought an arm full of them with the thought that I could use the threads in jewelry - at the time I was thinking macrame, but whatever! I've seen some Kumihimo pieces that incorporate beads and I really love them (mostly because it looks similar to bead crochet, which I have fumbled trying to learn over and over and, yup, over), so I really wanted to try it.
I got the disk and the bobbins from my LBS (here)........the disk comes with an "instruction sheet" - which just tells you the most basic steps of the process - and didn't mention the bobbins at all.......so I cruised the web and found an awesome video on you tube (here) that explained how to get started - from threading the bobbins to weaving with the disk - really awesome video! So, I loaded my bobbins - I used four different color threads
(open bobbin)
(closed bobbin)
and believe it or not, after much less time than you would imagine, I had this length of woven braid.....
to which I added this fabulous vintage African Brass Spiral focal..........and some gold end caps......
here is the completed necklace (sans clasp - still have to make one for it).

6 comments:

Jim said...

Keep an eye on the classes and workshops at Halcyon Yarn in Bath. Michael Patterson sometimes teaches Kumihimo there. Probably would noit hurt to contact them (or him) to register your interest.

BTW: by braiding with that disk instead of a "proper" marudai you're missing out on my favorite part of kumi -- the meditative "dance" that is the act of braiding.

Cheryl Moyer said...

Kumihimo for quite some time, but could never decide what type of cord or fiber to use. But when I saw your pieces, I knew I wanted to begin by using embroidery thread. Is yours the type that has 6 strands, undivided? And is there a "size" to this type of thread? As you can tell, I know very little about the thread end of the deal! :)

mrs beadsley said...

Cheryl- I checked my embroidery floss - the only markings on them that may (or may not) denote a size of any sort is a 3. I cannot tell if it is 6 strands -- it looks rather like 3. As you can tell, I also know very little about the thread! If you have the disk, I recommend that you just go for it. I used the floss because I had such wonderful colors - but if you look at the more recent blog entries, I've tried almost evry type of yarn, twine, string and even leather (I haven't tried the really thin leather, but he 1.5 is too thick to make a neat braid). I hope this helps, although I suspect it hasn't.

Anonymous said...

This looks like pearl cotton, and DMC has a pearl cotton #3 (thicker). Pearl cotton is " a highly mercerized, twisted, non-divisible lustrous cotton thread"
The color choice is beautiful, BTW.

mrs beadsley said...

thank you "anonymous" - for the helpful information and for the compliment - hopefully it will help Cheryl.

Cheryl Moyer said...

Thank you, Anonymous. That gives me a very good place to start. And thank you, too, Mrs. Beadsley. For some reason, I did not see either of the two comments until today.

Thank you both again.

Cheryl