Finished kumihimo bracelets

I’ve been working hard the last few days trying to get some kumihimo bracelets ready for sale. I have to say I love making them and I’m getting better at figuring out how the design will turn out according to how I place the bead colours. So far, I’ve only used the eight warp design but I’m very curious about the 16 warp method. The warp is what each of the cords are called. In the picture below I have set up eight cords (warps) and have already started braiding. The kumihimo disc is made of a hard foam with 32 notches, which means you can make a braid with 32 warps. That’s one for the future, I think, lol. I’m holding the disc upside down (according to the writing) because you turn the disc everytime you’ve moved two of the warps. I have three at the top to remind me how far I’ve gotten. To start up again I will move the warp at the top right down to the right of the lower warp and then turn the disc 90 degrees. Now the warps are paired two and two and I will then move the warp from the lower left to the top left and then repeat by moving the top right warp down to the lower right and turn the disc. Does this make any sense?

At this point I’d like to introduce the bracelets I’ve made so far. I started with a white and red polkadot design that I really want for myself. In fact, every time I made a bracelet I thought “Hmm… Maybe I should make one of these for myself as well”, which really isn’t good for business at all. This is the finished product. You can enlarge the image by clicking it.

The red beads are a transparent almost sherbert red and the whites are opaque. I’ve attached a little hand charm that says “handmade” because I thought they were really pretty and adds a little extra touch to the bracelet. My next adventure into kumihimo braiding produced this striped blue and white bracelet.

Then I made my first frosted bracelet with a larger size beads. I was very intrigued by these frosted purple and gold beads in size 6, which are 4mm. They make the bracelet a little more chunky, which I like.

The last bracelet I’ve made is another striped (or twirly) pattern with beads in white and two rainbow colours, one in blue and the other in emerald. They match really well but still contrast nicely so giving life to the bracelet.

All these bracelets are for sale in my shop The Blue Oak Tree on Etsy. Unfortunately I can’t ship worldwide. At least not yet. The rules on import/export are very confusing and one misstep slams you with a fine. I have to do more research into the matter because I would really like to sell worldwide one day.

Thank you for spending time with me.

-Stine