Thursday, 16 February 2012

Kumihimo Kraziness!

My latest obsession is kumihimo! Based on the traditional Japanese art of weaving silk into braids and ornaments, the jewellery world has tons of variations to offer using silk cord and beads to make some pretty cool stuff!

Check out these links to see the tools used and more samples of finished work:
http://www.weirdollsandcrafts.com/kumihimo/kumihimo.html
http://craftdesignonline.com/gallery/

Now check out my stuff!


My first braid... simple black and white swirl with a nice white bead.


Pink and black swirl with an Archimedes quote.


Two tone red in honour of that lovey dovey squishy day :)


Some green luck for the Irish.


Four shades of brown with a silver key.


Black and grey for my favourite elephant charm!


Here's where I started getting creative with beads.
These are glass pearls woven with a fine white cord.
I think it looks like grandmother's pearls with a 21st century twist!


Pink and clear cube beads, and it's surprisingly smooth on the neck!

I used blue cord and silver seed beads... it took so
long I quit once I had enough for a bracelet!


Teal and purple are so IN this season!

Another seed bead experiment in blue :)




Metal Bouquet

My biggest chainmaille piece yet!




And some other chainmaille work...


Pink and purple donuts with byzantine chain.


Semi-precious Unakite stone and peach glass beads.