I was really delighted to find my latest design for Beads & Beyond magazine splashed across the front cover. 2013 was a good year for seeing kumihimo in print and as this is the January 2014 issue I hope it is a good omen for next year! I believe that kumihimo can only continue to grow if the flow of really innovative ideas keeps up. The challenge with writing for magazines is that the projects need to be straightforward enough to be tackled by a beginner and need to be explained in about 8 steps. However, they also need to look new and exciting. The magazines don’t want to run the same old ideas. This is where playing around with different materials can work really well. Either by introducing newly developed bead shapes or by employing non-traditional jewellery materials, it is possible to come up with designs which look contemporary, but do not frighten off newbies!