What I learned today

It's been a long time since I added anything to this blog but since I'm in learning mode, I thought I'd use it to post some new ideas.

Kumihimo


I tried kumihimo a couple of years ago, but gave up because I couldn't get the tension right using those small foam disks. I got my disks at Michael's and they came with some of that plastic cord.

If you do a Google search for kumihimo, you can find lots of places that sell the disks. The kind I have show up as the first item on this page for Weir Dolls.

So, back to my big discovery.

As I mentioned, I gave up because I couldn't get even tension and my cords all looked raggedy. Then I was cleaning out some crafting drawers and found all these unfinished cords and realized that I have at least 4 of these disks.

What if I stacked two of them? Would that hold the thread better?

Yup. With two disks stacked one on top of the other so the slots line up, I can get even tension using 6 strand embroidery cotton.

I'm going to try with 3 or 4 disks and different size yarn to see what effects I can produce.

I want to add some seed beads, I bet if I used 3 disks, I could get away with having the seed beads on Fireline in one or two slots and 6 strand embroidery cotton in the other slots.

I'm off to try that.

But here's a video, in case you haven't seen or tried kumihimo.

My latest free-form bracelet. I really like this one, think I'll keep it for myself.

my podcast

Is this bright enough?

I've been trying to get out of my comfort zone in terms of color, so here it is!
The yellow background is loomed and will make a nice credit card holder, and the freeform piece will fit nicely on the front of it. Then I'll have to come up with a funky strap and some fringe..........

Another free-form project. This one is a slider - in other words, the free-form piece will slide right off the necklace and you can replace the necklace with a different one. I'm going to get off this "fall colors" kick and start with some brighter colors for my next project.
I was hoping that the C-Lon cord that I ordered would be here for the weekend so I could do some more macrame, but alas, the doorbell didn't ring so I'm off to find some cool colored beads to work with.

I've spent the past few days learning free-form micro-macrame. I only have one spool of the cord used, so I ended up re-using the same cord on several practice projects. The one in the picture turned out the most pleasing and far surpasses my earlier attempts.
I don't know if I'll ever get around to attaching a chain to this project, but I enjoyed doing it.
I have more cord on order and should get it later this week. I'll post more projects as they become available.

I'm calling this one "snow white" - all white and clear or clear silver-lined beads. This is my favorite so far.

This is for Allison. The base is a pretty deep purple but you can barely see it in the the picture. I hope she likes it.

Two new bracelets today. Sean tells me that I need to learn more about color theory and when I look at Margie Deebs book "The Beader's Guide to Color" I can see what he means.
So far, I've just been grabbing whatever bead soup that's laying around. My next project, I'm going to try to apply some principles of color.
We'll see.

Second free-form bracelet

Another free-form bracelet. When I first looked at free-form, it looked hard to do, but I'm finding it rather relaxing. Just pick up a bead, stick it somewhere. Often the beads don't go where originally intended but slide off to one side or the other and always end up in the right place.