I ended up using a full section of Imposter on each of the 16 tama, arranged as shown here. I wanted to break up the blocks of color as much as possible so that there was very little “pattern” to distract the eye. There are six sections of #I48 Silvery Sage, four sections of #I31 Deep Moss, two sections of #I58 Gold Taupe, two sections of #I60 Dark Taupe, one section of #I61 Graphite and one section of #I40 Silver. The structure is a 16-tama direct expansion of the maru genji structure, where the outer pair of tama from the South move to center North, the outer pair from the North move to center South, then the outer pair from the East move to center West and finally the outer pair from the West move to center East. Adding the extra eight tama makes the braid smoother and more rounded, but retains the characteristic chevrons where the strands interlace.

I used sixteen 70g tama and a counterweight of 567g, or about 50% of the total tama weight. I wanted to create as supple a braid as possible while maintaining a compact structure. I braided the entire 105″ (2.7m) length of the Imposter instead of folding it in half as I usually do when making a necklace, because I didn’t know how much braid I would need to create the loops between beads. The finished braid was 58″ (147cm) long, but I discovered after the braid had been taken off of the maru dai that I had failed to catch a mistake about 14″ (35cm) from the beginning of the braid. I was grateful that I had noticed other mistakes and ended up with enough to complete the necklace as I’d envisioned it. While I was braiding I developed the habit of running my fingers along the completed braid to feel for any interruptions in the smoothness of the surface. Missed steps are easily felt as depressions in the braid. Three or four times I noticed one of these depressions and un-braided to just beyond the point of the error and corrected it.

Once the entire length had been braided and removed from the maru dai, I added the agate beads. This could have been done during the braiding process by adding a supplementary strand as a core and dropping the beads at the appropriate places in the braid. I chose to add them after the braid was complete so that I could experiment with the length and number of the loops. I used Tiger Tail for strength and sewed from one side of the necklace to the other, then back through all to the beginning, securing the Tiger Tail and burying it within the braid. The end caps and clasp are from Toho Shoji.

Over all, I would say that this was a successful necklace even if it did not look exactly as I’d envisioned it. I think the design of the necklace would be equally good if the braid were a solid color, especially if the beads were more elaborate themselves. Now that I have a working prototype of the necklace, it would be much simpler to thread the beads onto a supplemental core and drop them into the braid at the appropriate places so that all that would be necessary when the braiding is complete would be finishing the ends. It would also be a great way to use lengths of braid done as structure practice – just catch loops of the braid between focal beads and you have an easy but impressive gift for someone special!

My answer came when I unpacked after my return from the January class in Miami with Makiko Tada and contemplated how best to show off the package of space-dyed silk with a tiny strand shot with sparkle in each section. I used four of the sections folded in half and then each section divided between two tama to create the 16 elements for the braid. That tiny bit of sparkle makes a huge difference in the appearance of the finished braid. I braided the entire length available to me and ended up with about 29 inches (74cm) in length. The movements for creating this braid on a maru dai are as shown here:

I added a very simple silver tube from Diana Meija at Chiquita Beads in Miami which I purchased at the South Florida Jewelry Arts Guild meeting during the week of workshops. It sets off the braid and creates a very modern-looking necklace.

The end caps used here are from Toho Shoji and the magnetic clasp is from Silver Enchantments.

Instructions for the Half Twist Chain Braid on the maru dai can be found in my blog post Adventures with a Hair Work Braid, Part 1. Instructions for the 16 tama expansion of maru genji square braid are found on page 52 of Jacqui Carey’s Creative Kumihimo . Instructions for the 8 tama maru genji structure on the maru dai are found on page 25 of Makiko Tada’s Comprehensive Treatise on Braids Volume I: Maru Dai Braids, page 37 of Jacqui Carey’s Creative Kumihimo , page 18 of Carey’s Beginner’s Guide to Braiding: The Craft of Kumihimo, and page 53 of Rodrick Owen’s Braids: 250 Patterns from Japan, Peru & Beyond.

I’d been unable to resist some mesh beads in my favorite colors, and this seemed an ideal time to use them. The beads are available online from Fire Mountain Gems. I chose Imposter colors from Braidershand: #I1 Sky Blue and #I9 Lime. In order to make a braid small enough to pass through the openings in the beads, I used two sections of each color, folded in half and then each divided in half to wind the 16 tama.

Although it’s possible to count the number of repetitions worked in each structure, I almost invariably miscount at some point during the braiding process and fail to notice it until I have taken the braid off the maru dai. I’ve learned to use a disposable wooden chopstick when alternating braid structures so that I can make a pencil mark on the chopstick itself to use as a measurement for the length of the sections. Of course, I make certain that the chopstick is very smooth, and I take extra care when placing and removing it at the point of braiding when I adjust the counterweight or walk away from the maru dai. With these two structures it was very easy to find the first “bump” of the maru genji section with the end of my thumbnail and place the end of the marked chopstick there in order to measure the length of the section I was working on at any given point.

I used four sections of Imposter rayon from Braidershand, each folded in half, to wind the eight tama which formed the edges of the braid, then four single sections (folded in half) of four different colors to form the genji section worked up the middle. The edge color was #I21 Cream, and the four colors for the center section were #I12 Pale Orchid, #I13 Pink Ivory, #I42 Green Tint and #I45 Pink Tint. The initial color arrangement for the threads at the North of the mirror was I12-I13-I13-I12, and the threads at the South of the mirror was I42-I45-I45-I42. All of the tama at the East and West were I21. Because the take-up in the tama forming the yatsu se edges was more than for the colored-thread tama, the finished length was about 29 inches (74 cm).

The end caps are from Toho Shoji and the button like closures are from Braidershand.

I arrived with skeins of karakumi silk I’d ordered long ago from Giovanna Imperia Designs in Houston, Texas. Karakumi silk has a very tight S-ply which is difficult to find. It is a delight to work with on the karakumidai. As you can see in the photo above, I spent the first day working on the more traditional straight-edged karakumi band. The karakumidai was developed in order to allow for the creation of wide bands comprised of many of the diamond structures. (You can see a photo of a karakumidai band in progress on my “What Is Kumihimo?” page.) A single diamond is a fairly simple finger-braiding technique, and a band two diamonds wide can be created by two braiders side-by-side, but it would be impossible to regulate the tension on a finger braid with more than two braiders. Anyone who has attempted braiding on the karakumidai can confirm that the quality of the finished braid is entirely dependent on the tensioning done by hand throughout the process. Instructions for the basic karakumi structure can be found in Space, Time and Braid, Tada and Hamada, Editors (2007), and a booklet from Braidershand.

My ultimate goal in learning karakumi was not to create the traditional wide sash, however. I had seen examples of mats done from the center outward in rounds, and I was very curious to know how that type of braid begins and how it progresses. USing knitting yarn – an enormous increase in scale – I used many colors to create samples and learned how they intersect to form the twined diamond-shapes that are the basis for the braid. Each diamond is created using two sets of 6 pairs of threads. During my day of sampling with the karakumi silk, I had discovered the effect of color order within the sets of threads, so I chose to begin my “star” experiment with sets of 7 pairs of #5 perle cotton in colors 742, 666. 321, 815, 321, 666, and 742.

My husband was very intrigued by the piece as it grew. He decided that it looked like a sunburst and asked if I could attach it to the back of a jacket for him. That brought up the question of how to finish the edges. I could have continued braiding and adding sets of threads until it became roughly circular, but I decided on a different approach which would create more of a star shape. I completed each available intersection after the second round of additions, which left me with three diamonds on each side of every point.

I continued the twining technique along the sides of all three diamonds until I had used all four of the colors.

Then I threaded each pair onto a tapestry needle and wove it back into the rows just completed.

Once all of the pairs had been woven back into the body, I carefully trimmed the excess thread.

Here is the sunburst ready to be attached to the jacket. I left threads at the tip of each point to be gathered into a tassel or turned under as the piece is sewn to the jacket. I haven’t yet decided which would look better.

The scarf was started with a point start, bringing in cords two at a time until all had been included. After a repeat or two all the way across, the ends were worked in two sets to create a slit for the end of the scarf to pass through.

The ply-splitting method gave roses on the top and crosses on the reverse, as you can see in this photo.

I was glad that I was able to catch on finally (this technique was not intuitive to me), and that I stuck with it until I had completed the scarf. I doubt I will be rushing in for another ply-split project very soon, though. Back to braiding…

The Ayagaki Class I taught on Thursday was very different from most of the other classes being taught. The only “samples” my students left the room with were completed charts for pickup braids, and the room sounded more like a library study hall than the lighthearted chat that accompanies working on a new craft. My students and I found 4 errors in the keys to the Exercises that appeared in the Appendix — embarrassing for me but a good opportunity for them to demonstrate that they understood the concepts. I am grateful to know that the copy which will go to the printer will be correct, though. The workbook is designed to be a complete series of stand alone lessons, and I hope to have it available for purchase this fall.

The conference banquet was a wonderful chance to see attendees in beautiful garments, enjoy a delicious dinner and good company, and say “thank you” to our hosts. It was announced that the next International Conference on Braids will be held in Seattle in 2016 – I hope to see you there!

I had another class on Friday with Julie Hedges, who graciously allowed me to restart the project I was unable to grasp in Tuesday’s class. I finally was able to make a bit of progress on my scarf, and have continued to work on it today. It may take quite a while for me to finish, but I am determined to complete it. You can be sure I’ll be posting a photo here when I do!

My class for today was Ply-Split Scarves with Julie Hedges. We began by sampling with short cords to review basic techniques. My foundation row:

After a few rows of sampling, it was time to move on to our choice of scarf structure. It was obvious to me that the cords I’d prepared at home were not twisted tightly enough, so I used some of the extra yarn I’d brought to make more cords using the Apollo Cord Winders that were available for our use. After lunch, I had the eight doubled lengths I needed to begin work on my scarf.

This type of ply-splitting proved to be quite a challenge for me, so my scarf is not complete. I’m hoping to work on it some more before we leave the conference!

After classes ended this afternoon, we were invited to visit the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry’s Textile Gallery, where we were able to view the Braid Society Biennial Exhibition. We ended the day the same way we began – looking at incredible examples textile excellence. So many inspiring pieces to marvel over amidst the wonderful exhibits at MOSI. Tomorrow’s tours in Macclesfield will have a tough time topping this!

In spite of my best intentions — I have been in the UK for nearly a week in an attempt to overcome jet lag — I overslept and missed what I am told was an excellent lecture this morning before classes began. I was relieved that the official representative of Manchester Metropolitan University who was testing all computer equipment brought in from outside to ensure its compatibility with the University’s equipment was still available since I was so late to arrive.

Happily, I was in time for the start of my class for the day: Bobbin-made Braid from the Sixteenth Century with Gilian Dye. I had never done bobbin lace before, but Gilian is an excellent teacher and had assured me that my lack of experience might even be an advantage since the techniques we learned today were different than traditional bobbin lace. By the end of the day I was convinced that I will need to add a pillow and lace making bobbins to my collection of fiber equipment, and I had finished samples of three types of braided lace.

We began by learning how to wind the threads onto the lace bobbins.

Our first assignment was a braid with picot edges.

We then added two more pair of bobbins and made a double picot braid.

Close-up of my double picot braid (through the afternoon I learned how to sequester the colors).

By the end of the day, I had samples of three different structures and the desire to keep trying, so overall I believe the day to have been a grand success!!