Kumihimo Class Saturday and Sunday

Bobbins and other kumihimo supplies are in! Drop in at Anita's Beads Saturday or Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and join us for a beginning kumihimo class. A materials fee of $25. will cover all of the tools and supplies that you will need to make a 20 to 24 inch necklace braid. Our sample above illustrates only one of many color combinations that you can choose from. In addition to your braid, you take with you a set of eight bobbins, Zap Jewelry Gel, and Kumihimo disc for future braiding projects.

Kumihimo is a popular form of Japanese braiding. We will be making a basic 8-strand braid to introduce this ancient craft. Hope you can join us. Contact Anita at 603-522-6529 for more information.

History of Alphabet Beads

This morning I discovered this image of an Infant Identification Kit manufactured by Deknatel.

And then I found Deknatel's advertisement in The Modern Hospital magazine from June 1922. I'm wondering what's up with all of those little blue beads. There should be pink ones for the little girls, don't you think?

New Kumihimo Books

We've added Karen DeSousa's latest book, Braiding with Beads On the Kumihimo Disc. It is the third in her popular series which also includes Necklaces Braided On the Kumihimo Disc, and More Necklaces Braided On the Kumihimo Disc.

Also on our shelf is Braiding for Beaders; Second Edition by Anne Dilker. Here she is on Youtube giving a Kumihimo demonstration.

New Kumihimo Discs

A shipment of Kumihimo supplies has arrived! Three sizes of braiding discs are now in stock: round, mini round, and square (for flat braids).

The mini round is perfect for braiding thinner cords, like our new Tex-400 cord. About twice the thickness of S-Lon, Tex-400 comes in 35 yard spools and is available in 24 colors. It is thin enough for stringing Czech beads.

Stop in and see my latest modification of the Illusion Necklace strung on Tex-400 cord. I've done an 8-strand version which transitions into Kumihimo braided cord ends around a center of beads. Kits will be available soon!

Online Color Challenge

I want to share this great color acuity test. Perfect score is zero. Low is 99. My score was 16. I'm off to try again! (Color matching wheel available at Anita's Beads).

Some improvement on the second try. My score was 11.

Kumihimo Braiding

I was introduced to Kumihimo, the art of Japanese braiding, over a year ago by a friend from South Africa. The idea took some time to incubate but a few weeks ago I decided to order the necessary supplies and finally try it for myself.

Now I am totally hooked! I started with 1mm cotton/rayon cord (usually referred to as "rat tail" cord) in two tones of green plus coffee and gold to make the basic round 8-cord braid. In the photos above you can see that my first braid is slightly irregular. For my next braid I used green only, dark green (6 cords) and chartreuse (2 cords), and then made one with coffee (6 cords) accented with gold (2 cords).

After that I needed more colors of course so I increased my selection to the twenty shown below. I made a 2-tone blue braid, followed by a teal version. I have a few more color combinations to explore before I branch out into cords of different thickness and texture. The addition of beads will allow endless modification as well!

As soon as I receive a back-ordered shipment of supplies, I will be offering Saturday morning Kumihimo classes. Stay tuned for the notification here, as well as future posts on Kumihimo books and findings.