The Bead Gallery has some really great classes and kits for learning various jewelry and beading techniques. The problem I have is that it takes me 35 minutes to get to their store and parking is a little tough since it's in town. So with Bead It! Kailua only a few minutes down the road, I have yet to find the time and motivation to make it all the way over to The Bead Gallery for their classes. Fortunately, they were at the Soft Flex Bead Show this past weekend and that's where I learned that they're now producing DVDs of their classes. Their Kumihimo with beads DVD looked super interesting. Unfortunately, my 2 year old pitched a fit just as I was about to purchase one at the fair and with my eyeball rolling, grounded for not doing his homework 11 year old sighing every 3 seconds, I had to leave...
But, they do sell the DVD's online... so I ordered one. I wanted to order the 3mm Swarovski crystal kit to go with the DVD but it's not available online yet... but that's easy enough to fix since I have tons of 6/0 seed beads and those are less expensive to practice with anyway. (Maybe I'll get their kit when I'm ready to try braiding over $65 worth of 3mm crystals!)
What is kumihimo? It's a Japanese style of braiding cords... it's decorative as well as practical. The most often quoted use is for lashing together samurai armor, but I see it around most often with kimonos. There are multiple techniques, but I snagged this video off of youtube so you could see why this is so interesting...
So anyway, the challenge here is twofold- not losing track of 8 different strands when plaiting, and keeping them all weighted evenly so the pattern works out correctly. We'll see if I am able to figure it out!
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