Fiber Kumihimo Necklace with a Heart

Fiber Kumihimo Necklace

with a Heart

 

Last week, we were on Cape Cod for Thanksgiving week. We celebrated with about 15 family members with the usual Pinochle games, ping pong, Oh - Hell, Sequence, more Pinochle and of course eating.

 

 

I took along a bag full of jewelry projects and managed to make two - three wrap leather bracelets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My main project, however, was to make a Fiber Kumihimo necklace to go with a heart shaped pendant I had in my stash. Before we left, I made a trip to our local yarn shop, Auntie Zaza's Fiber Works.

 

 

I noticed, when I had visited before, that she had some long samples of yarn in various textures and colors. Perfect for my current project. I picked out two bundles and brought them with me to the Cape.

 

 

Our family did not arrive until Tuesday so I had time to "play". And play I did. It took five different tries to get a color mixture I liked.

 

 

 

 

Finally, I loaded up my Kumihimo disk and the first inch (my test patch) looked good with the Heart Pendant. I now had a project to work on watching TV or just chatting with family. I finished the length needed but I needed to add the pendant (that took some fiddling) and the clasp.

 

 

And the results:

 

 

 

It is hard to see in the picture but it is a combination of several violets and purple with a hint of green in both the necklace and pendant. I added several strands that I had from previous projects.

 

I have two more similar pendants and may make more like this one.

 

So, what do you think? Let me know.

 

 

 

Oh, yes the other combination. It may take longer to choose colors and find a pendant. I wonder what that one will look like?

It should be fun figuring it out though.

 

 

 

 

I changed my mind

 

 because I can!

 

 

Remember last week when I said I would finish the Grapevine necklace using the plan I had to make it from two bracelet kits?

 

Well, I decided that it wasn't going to work as I wanted. So, I will now have two Grapevine bracelets.

 

 

Now what? I do have other unfinished projects.

:-)

 

One is using the Fiber Kumihimo necklace I made to go with the Picture Jasper pendant I made.

 

 

 

 

 

(Another change of plans project) I ended up using Antique Bronze chain instead. It really looks much better. But now what to do with the Fiber Kumihimo?

 

 

 

I, also, have a pendant that is waiting to be used. It needed a bail. I purchased some Vintage Bronze wire for that and added to the Fiber Kumihimo. Voila a new necklace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture does not do the pendant justice. You can't see the lovely "sunset" for example. I like this combination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That wasn't the only thing I've been doing. I saw a nice video with an idea for earrings. I'm always looking for new earring ideas as I get a lot of earring requests.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the picture shows that I'm not consistent with my wire work but if they are on different ears, I don't think it will show as much as in the picture. Or, I could "treak" them a bit.

 

 

Let me know how you like the new pieces

Bev, I think...  

 

.

 

Until next time,

 

Bev

 

 

What is Kumihimo?

Well, I'll tell you.

A few years ago, a group I belong to, South Shore Designers, learned the technique of Kumihimo. (We teach each other new things.)

Kumihimo is a Japanese form of braid- making. Cords and ribbons are made by interlacing strands. The traditional "tool" is the marudai. It is expensive (relatively) and not portable. The newest "tool" is the foam Kumihimo Disk. It is portable and easy to use. One of our group saw a disk and we were off learning to make Kumihimo braids.





Here is a Kumihimo Disk all "loaded" with various fibers. If you look closely you can see the finished braid laying across the disk.






While learning, I made several different types of braids. Different cords, different colors and patterns and then the best Kumihimo -  with beads. A ha .....

The left and fourth samples are made with beads and the others with ribbons, rat-tail or silk cord.
Here is a short video of some pieces I made.


Now we are getting to the good part.
Remember the new beads that I received before we went on vacation? Some beads (called magatamas) were for a new Kumihimo pattern I found in a recent Bead and Button Magazine.
While on vacation, I started a bracelet.



Well, that is only part of the story. (Of course it is!)


The tutorial in the magazine was for a necklace made with both small seed beads and the magatamas and one for a bracelet. I decided to make the bracelet.
The magatama beads are fairly large for seed beads.

As I worked, I realized that a bracelet made this way was not going to work. The result was much too wide/big for a bracelet. So, since I had lots of beads and fortunately had more cord than needed for a bracelet, the plan changed to making a necklace.

Magatama beads           

         

OK now I have a necklace started. The same thickness that  helped decide to make a necklace rather than a bracelet, helped decide to not make the whole necklace that thick.



So, off to the bead store with some plans in mind. Probably a  length of chain to  make the desired necklace length. Then perhaps make it adjustable. Always a good thing to be able to wear with different necklines.

At one of my favorite bead stores, pflora beads in Canton, MA, I chose a nice silver chain from the many available; added a lobster claw clasp and voila:

Here is a better picture of the chain and clasp:

I wondered if it would be heavy but during a trial run when I wore it Sunday, it was very light. (I received lots of nice compliments too.)

You like? Let me know what you think.  Would you like to see the necklace in other colors? Which ones? Let me know your thoughts.

Bev

New Kumihimo Necklaces

Since I had to quickly clean up my little card table when we moved the Bird of Paradise in, I made a pile of everything on the card table and have just now been looking through it. I found several unfinished pieces. This Kumihimo necklace is made from a variety of blue fibers with a pretty blue pendant. I finished it by adding a clasp and a two inch extender. I'm finding that I like extenders on necklaces. My necklines vary from turtle neck to "V" neck and require different lengths to look right.

This one is similar, just different color fibers and pendant.


Both are about 18 - 20 inches long (plus the pendant) I'll have them on my web sites very soon.

Which is your favorite?

B


www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

Kumihimo Necklace

Last week we had beautiful weather and I started a Kumihimo necklace. (You can see the post here)

I finally finished the necklace and here it is:




I was lazy and did not take the time to get a good picture of the pendant. (I'll show the picture I took last week) It is too pretty to not see a closer picture. Unfortunately, this is still not a good picture.





At least I finished a piece. Now on to finishing some more pieces I have started.


Today is cold (51 degrees) and encourages me to stay inside and work on unfinished pieces.


B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

Newest Kumihimo Necklace.

Here is the latest Fiber Kumihimo necklace.

The pendant is from a shop on http://www.1000markets.com/

Now matter what you do to photograph fused glass, it never looks as nice as in person.

I tried to capture the colors in the pendant and chose black with gold, plain gold and a bumpy purple cords to use.

Never sure if the colors look right together, I put it aside for awhile to get a "fresh eye" perspective. I think it works.

The fun part of this Fiber Kumihimo is that I made it during my "waiting for my computer" time. You know, waiting for the computer to boot up, waiting for things to download. I guess I never really realized how much time is "wasted" just waiting.

B

Goals and new things for 2009

While we were still on vacation in MD, my husband, all my kids and grandchildren took off to see the Air and Space Museum in VA. (It was raining and I opted not to go since I was still getting over my head cold.) So I was surfing for new things to learn and learn about.



It has been pointed out to me by several websites, newsletters etc that it is a "must" to have video on your web sites and blogs (unless you want to be behind) Of course, I don't want to be behind, so I've been looking into how to make a video for my web site and/or blog.



My mind is spinning! When it comes to communicating in the modern age, I do have a cell phone. But I never turn it on unless I want to call someone when I'm away from home. (Ask my daughter) So, iPods, Blackberries and the like are beyond me. But I've been working on it.



I now know about Audacity, and something called Lame MP3 and you must have iTunes on your computer to put it all together. (Even though I have a PC) I think I will need at least a microphone to do the audio file which is how I thought I'd start. My camera does short videos which does include the audio. Need to get organized but one step at a time.



I progressed during the afternoon while all by myself, to down load Audacity and iTunes. Now, I must explain that I had also, at the same time, completed about 6 inches of a fiber Kumihimo necklace I've been working on. You know the status lines that show the progress of your download? Cracks me up: 33 minutes left, 39 minutes, 20 minutes, 70 % Oh, yes, that was just for the first step. Now status is 25 minutes, 33 minutes. and so on and so forth!

Thus Kumihimo accomplished!!


And soon they came home! More later.


B

Vacation Kumihimo bracelet

We got back from a week on Cape Cod on Saturday. We had a great time with many relatives joining us for Thanksgiving. Five from NH, two from NJ, four from MA, two from VT and one from MD. The usual gathering - rounds of Pinochle, jig saw puzzles with my youngest grandson. (The one who doesn't take "no" for an answer) The older grandson was more interested in the adult card games and is slowly learning how to play Pinochle. He'll be a "Carlson" yet. We also had several games of "Oh, Hell"and interesting round of Balderdash late Friday night. Plus lots of food!

My husband and I arrived on Saturday and had several days before the others came. So, I had some time to make some jewelry. Not having much in the way of Internet access, it took me until Wednesday to find out I had an order for 7 Lexie Bracelets. Yay! Fortunately, that is one of the things I was working on, until I ran out of daisy spacers. (They are on order) So I started some Kumihimo bracelets. It is impossible to bring everything you need to make jewelry, so, they are not finished but I thought I'd share what is finished. The "mixture" of seed beads in the first bracelet seems to pick up the colors in the focal bead.

The second one is black and violet. Now (my excuse and I'm sticking to it) is that I didn't have much other than my camera with me to take pictures. That is the coffee table in our little house in the background. The worst picture is the only one that shows the color as violet. All the others came out black and blue. Got to work on that when it is finally finished with a clasp and all.

Sorry for the poor pictures but that's the way it is right now. I hope the daisys come tomorrow so I can get busy on the Lexie bracelets and the last show of this season on Saturday. (Homepsun Treasures in North Easton, MA)

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too.

B

New Kumihimo Necklace

Awhile ago I showed the Kumihimo disk and the "set up" for making Fiber Kumihimo. I promised to show the finished version.

I had a blue pendant just hanging around in my "stash" and it looked as if it would work together.

They seem to.

It always surprises me when a plan comes together. Nice though.

B

Fiber Kumihimo Necklace

I was able to find a great focal pendant to go with the Kumihimo necklace I made on vacation. The Kumihimo fibers show beautifully (if I do say so) While it seems as if the fine beige fibers might be scratchy, they are not. In fact they are very soft and not a bit irritating.



We were out today doing some errands and were noticing the fall colors in the trees.They seem to be in the same pallet as my necklace. The only thing I do not like about fall is that it means winter is just around the corner. But I enjoy the cool fresh air and the lovely colors. The hot humid weather of summer is not a favorite of mine.



I still have some more fiber sets to work with and this makes me want to get started. So, off I go.



B