I had the opportunity to explore more of the Fashion District in New York recently, and I discovered lots of fiber, findings and beads that gave me ideas to add to my list of projects to try. My first stop was Habu Textiles, where I was unable to resist four colors of the 69% silk/ 31% stainless steel thread or the superfine copper. A serendipitous detour in a taxi revealed the delights of 6th Avenue, where there were at least a dozen bead and finding stores. My favorite was Toho Shoji Crafts & Parts, whose head office is in Tokyo. I found an amazing array of findings I had never seen anywhere else that appeared perfect for kumihimo projects, including the half-inch-wide magnetic clasp I used in this week’s project. When I stumbled across this Bead Landing Weave-It Bracelet Kit of links for a friendship bracelet at Michael’s, I knew they were just the right size for the clasp from New York.
I wanted a braid structure that would give me a very thin profile, so I chose the flat braid that appears on page 34 of Jacqui Carey’s Beginner’s Guide to Braiding: The Craft of Kumihimo, page 38 of Carey’s Creative Kumihimo , page 70 of Rodrick Owen’s Braids: 250 Patterns from Japan, Peru & Beyond, and page 28 of Hoko Tokoro’s Kumihimo in Japan: The Round Rack.
Because I didn’t need the finished braid to be very long, I used one section of Imposter rayon from Braidershand of color #37 Dark Gray and another section of color #20 Black. I divided the 105″ (2.7m) sections into fourths, so the initial warp length was about 26″ (66cm) long. This structure is very easy and fast to braid on the maru dai – in about 45 minutes I had 14″ (35cm) of finished braid. Of course, that meant I used as much of the warp as I could (you can see in this photo why I always tie the warp onto the tama with leaders). I used a counterweight of 8 ounces (227g).
The thickness of the links and the clasp allowed me to fold the end of the braid back under itself and stitch the sides closed to encase the ends. The finished length of the bracelet (including the clasp pieces) is 9 inches (almost 23 cm). In order to weave the braid through the links themselves, I wrapped a small piece of masking tape around the braid end and squeezed it tightly to give myself an end to pass through the openings in the findings. This bracelet was a fun, fast project to make and I’m glad I purchased more than one set of links and several clasps. I’m eager to see what else I can do with these findings.
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