kumihimo

Advent Tip – Day 8

  Extend the life of your disk. Use a sharp knife to lengthen each slot on your disk. You only need to extend the slot by about 2mm. When you braid be sure to pull the cord into this new section for renewed tension. I only recommend this as an emergency measure because I have found that the new part …

Advent Tip – Day 7

This is my kumihimo tip for the 7th day of advent. Don’t forget your stretches! All kumihimo braids will stretch to a greater or lesser degree, even if the cord used does not stretch at all. This is down to several factors, such as your tension, the texture of the cord and whether or not you have braided with beads. Traditional …

Happy 5th Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday to this website! Five years ago this website went live and this was the result of several months of hard work and planning. I had already been enjoying kumihimo braiding for 3-4 years and my work had been published in 3 different jewellery magazines, so I was already reasonably experienced as a tutorial writer. It seemed a …

Box Knot Braid on the Kumihimo Disk

I need to start this blog with a big thank you to three people. First to Ellen Welling, who introduced this technique to my Facebook group. Second to Monique Kooij, owner of the Limited Edition beadshop in The Hague, who taught the technique to Ellen. Third and most importantly, to the unknown person who originally had the idea of making …

Speed Braiding? What is that?

I have just uploaded my latest vidoe to YouTube, but I had a bit of trouble deciding what title to give it.  In the end I decided to call it ‘Speed Braiding’ because I demonstrate how you can build up quite a bit of speed on a kumihimo disk by breaking what is a commonly believed rule. In my videos …

Peyote with a Twist on Kumihimo (aka PWAT or Peytwist)

Although kumihimo is my great passion, I am always interested in how other techniques can be used with kumihimo to add a new angle to this ancient art. When I came across a new development in the beadweaving world I immediately wanted to give it a go to see how I could incorporate it into a kumihimo design. The new …

Workshops for 2018 at Stitchncraft

The first kumihimo workshop I taught was at Stitchncraft in Dorset, so I always enjoy returning to this beautiful shop with its comfortable and well appointed workshop room. As a tutor it is wonderful to be invited to return to teach, year after year, but it does require careful thought for the proposed projects. I am lucky enough to have …

Back in stock! My books and disks are now available for sale.

My books and disks are now back in stock on this website. They are available in a variety of options in order to get the best value out of the shipping costs. The disks are very light, so up to 4 can be shipped for the minimum shipping charge. The extra thick disk is slightly heavier, so up to 2 …

Learning a new braid structure – the Chidori Braid

One of the aspects I particularly like about kumihimo is that there is always so much more to learn. Not only are there hundreds of different traditional braid structures to try, but there are so many new ways of adapting traditional braids to comtemporary jewellery waiting to be discovered. Yesterday I spent the day teaching at a workshop, so I …

What is your favourite glue?

On 27th July I created a poll in my facebook group, Kumihimo by Prumihimo and Friends, to ask what sort of glue is most popular among the members and here are the results. Members were asked to indicate which glues they use most often and would recommend to others. The most important use for glue with kumihimo is to stick …