I have been working with wire for my kumihimo designs for many years and I have experimented extensively to find the best way to use wire on the foam disk to make effective designs, which are also pleasurable to make. My first success was with a wire necklace design, which was a finalist in the Jewellery Maker of the year …
I am very excited to be bringing a wire kumihimo workshop to Riverside Beads in Lincolnshire on Saturday 9th June. Wire is a popular medium for kumihimo and there are many different ways of using wire effectively in braiding. I have been working with wire for over 6 years and my favourite approach is the muti-strand method. In this workshop …
Cabochons and kumihimo may not be the most obvious partners, but it is possible to find a wide range of ways of working them together. The challenge with a cabochon is that it does not have a drill hole, so a secure method of capturing the stone needs to be used. In the past I have demonstrated ways of …
I have been very busy working on the instructions for the designs I showed on Jewellery Maker on Wednesday (20.5.14). They can be found here and are intended to be used together with the YouTube video. However, I want to make it really clear that they are very different to the tutorials for sale in the shop, which are extremely detailed, …
For my second full show on Jewellery Maker I demonstrated a couple of wire designs and a new way of using chain in kumihimo. These photos show just a few of the designs I made using two beautiful kits. The show can be seen on YouTube by following this link, Additional bullet point instructions will follow, but I have now …
To make this bracelet I used 0.2mm copper wire with a red coating. I used two strands together and found that the beads could be threaded on very easily and the braid worked up beautifully. Once the braid was complete I was able to tighten it by twisting it. This needs to be done with care because wire will stiffen …
There has been renewed interest in my other wire kumihimo designs, so I thought the time was right to publish this one. It first appeared in Beads & Beyond magazine in the summer and much to my delight it made it to the front cover. I have rewritten the tutorial to include much more detail than can be accommodated by …
Lovely Jamie North has made these stunning bracelets with a definite Wow Factor, using my tutorial and some of her fabulous clasps. Using wire to make kumihimo braids opens up a whole new world of design possiblilites. Wire works in a completely different way to cord and yarn and some familiar braids can look unrecognizeable made with wire. A certain amount …
Happy New Year to all lovers of Kumihimo! This is the time of year when we can look back over the year and see what we have achieved, as well as looking forward to what we hope to accomplish in the coming year. I feel that I learnt a lot in 2013 about how to play with Kumihimo to achieve …
I was really delighted to learn that my latest Kumihimo design is featured on this month’s Beads & Beyond magazine. It should be in the shops now, so look out for it and if you see it tucked behind other magazines, please do me a favour and bring it to the front! Kumihimo deserves to take centre stage. The design …
