Kumihimo Journeys - Part I

A bit of background. Back in late March, early April, I took a class on how to make kumihimo braids and incorporate beads with Annie Dilker of Moss Hollow Pottery. (I was interested in Kumihimo because I thought it would be a good craft to travel with - not that I really knew anything about it, but I'd seem some pieces made for a class at Beads n Stitches, and I was intrigued.) The class was given during an Innovative Bead Expo show, which I had only gone to because my PMC class was cancelled. I had been thinking about learning the technique for a while - and when I heard a woman behind me on the line to get into the show ask about the class, I chimed in that I'd like to take it too. It turned out that there were no students signed up for it, but the teacher would be willing to give the class anyway.

I made this necklace - very typical "me":

Unlike other some teachers I'd taking beading classes from, Annie didn't bark at her students, she didn't act like she was the Queen of the May deigning to teach something. She didn't play favorites. Better yet, her instructions weren't full of errors, missing pages, steps or written backwards.* Simply put, Annie was a great teacher - patient and dynamic. She didn't info dump, rather she would have us pause our work and she'd relay some information. I walked away from the class excited and eager to learn more. When I got home that evening (the show was in Tarrytown), I spent hours on line trying to learn more about my new skill, and (equally important) where to find braiding materials. In class, we used satin rattail for the non-bead warps, and SuperLon for the bead warps, and while I bought a range of colors in the SuperLon from Annie, I figured I'd have no trouble getting the rattail. Turns out that finding rattail in quantity, cheap, isn't easy. The rayon cord is better than the polyester, but it more expensive and is much harder to find.

I also discovered Jacqui Carey's site, and learned about the traditional method and materials for kumihimo - the marudai (the loom and stand), tama (weighted bobbins), and the loose multistrand "ropes" made from silk or rayon (in my eyes, the braids made with these materials are much more interesting that the rattail braids). I ended up purchasing a whole range of colors of the polyester rattail from a seller on eBay (Dollites) , a bunch of larger ez-bobs from Primative Originals, the self-covering bobbins favored by the modern kumihimo braider, and a few books.

During the class, I realized that I have a lot of potential braiding materials - loads of gimp (wrapped satin cord used in upholstery), as well as skein upon skein of DMC embroidery floss. I also had a few huge spools of Japanese knitting ribbon in various shades of pink and purple. I tried braiding with the gimp, but the foam kumihimo loom was too rough on it, and the wrapping began to decay. The embroidery floss was just too fine, and didn't work will with the extremely heavy SuperLon. The ribbon faired better - in combination with the SuperLon, it created a lovely, strong and narrow braid.

I got in my order of rattail, and began braiding like crazy. I swiftly became bored with the simply one-over-one basic 8-warp braid, and tried out a few others. After a while, my interest waned. I was not successful in translating the marudai based instructions to the slotted loom, and the rattail was really beginning to bore me. I wasn't incorporating beads, and while I did enjoy the results of the braid, I soon realised that had no idea what to do with the product of my labors.

It was time to start thinking about the beads again.

GO TO PART II, PART III, PART IV

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*Can you tell that I'm talking about someone in particular?

The Jumeirah Silver Queen - Pearls & Kumihimo

So much for keeping this blog up to date...I really need to remember to cross post works that I publish on Beading Daily.

Just because I'm travelling doesn't mean I can't bead! My original intention when learning kumihimo in April was to have something do keep my hands busy during a trip out west. I didn't enjoy the process enough at the time to make good on my intention, but after my recent works with kumihimo and beads, I thought I'd give it another shot.

I must say that there is probably no better beading project to travel with than kumihimo. No scissors and needles, no need to worry about losing beads during turbulence. So long as you've got everything set up before departure, you'll have no problems.

I started this piece during the flight from New York to Paris

The first portion is eight strands x 20 rows of antiqued pewter beads. The main section is four strands of "cornflake" beads and side drilled potato pearls x 40 rows. I set up the strands so that the beads would stack 4 of the cornflakes and 4 of the potatoes. It finishes with another 20 rows of the antiqued pewter.

I was able to work on it sitting out on my hotel room balcony for about 3 hours, sipping ice water (that's the glass the strand is draped on) and watching the tourists take camel rides along the beach. It finally got too hot and I had to head back inside. I may finish it this evening, or leave some of it for the flight home.


At the Jumeirah Hilton, with a balcony view of the Atlantis hotel (at the apex of the outer palm island).

Cut to the post trip review:

I've finished the silver pearls kumihimo, finally. I had actually completed the braiding before leaving Dubai, but I had a lot of trouble with the second half - the last twenty rows of antiqued pewter beads. Because the strand was already so heavy, it kept dragging down the active braiding area, distorting the braided beads. I undid and rebraided it so many times (about 5) that the silk wore out and nearly broke. I packed it up and didn't work on it any further until I began recovering from my jet lag (Sunday afternoon).


Besides the problem with the last section of metal beads, it was simply too long and too heavy, and I took drastic action. I cut the ends off on each side, pulled out the metal beads, knotted the end strands together and contemplated how to finish the project. I found a pair of longer bead cones in Hill Tribe silver, a Saki silver clasp, and some jump rings. With an hour's fierce concentration, I finished it.

It sat on my form, waiting to be photographed, when I got a brain storm. I was writing a reply to this thread, when I remembered a WiP - a beaded bezel for a pair of Art Deco crystal cabachons that I created as a proof of concept, but could never figure out what to do with. All the colors were right for a marriage between the two pieces, and with a little figuring out, I attached it to the braided pearls.

I present to you, without further delay - the Jumeirah Silver Queen!

Pendant Detail

The clasp

Challenge Swaps, Foredom and Serendipity

Whew! Lots of cobwebs in here - it's certainly been a while since I've last posted an entry. There are a bunch of posts in draft, but I've not had the time or the inspiration to finish. I've been busy making things - not finishing much, but making - yes, definitely.

The occassion for this post is serendipity - something I adore writing about, particularly when I am the sole locus of the event. As always, there's quite a bit of background that I need to express, so bear with me.

In mid-July, the ever-talented Jeni Smathers decided to host another color based Challenge Swap. Beading Daily (BD) members would send her some beads in the designated colors (blue, yellow and green), and $2 to defray the cost of postage, and she would divvy out the beads to all the participants, who had a month or so to create things with those beads. Participants would then send Jeni pictures and descriptions and ultimately all of the BD forum members would get to see everyone's work.

I sent Jeni a big box of beads, and got my package about 2 weeks ago. I have to say, I was a bit dismayed - lots of seed beads, some plastic beads, and worse yet - lots and lots of the very beads I sent to Jeni, but in very small quantities (mostly vintage glass that I've been holding onto for years). I sorted everything out then put everything away. There just didn't seem enough of anything that I could use to make the type of jewelry I like to make. Every night or so, I'd take out the package, fiddle around a bit and then put them away. Nothing seemed to kindle any spark of creativity,* and my participation in this challenge seemed quite doomed.  Last Friday; however, I called MDF Lois to ask if she wanted anything from BeadFest, and we got around to discussing the challenge.  She was kind enough to send me an email with pictures that gave her some inspiration, and although the jewelry in those pictures were not the kind I would normally create - I did find something to get the creative juices flowing.

I'm not going to describe the piece in detail (that may come in another post), but it was basically built around copper and copper colored findings.  One of the elements is a chain of copper rings, which gave me the impetus to finally try out my new PepeTools jumpring maker.  In addition to the mandrals and mounted chuck and handle for coiling the wire, there is a cutting rig that uses a blade and collar mounted on a Foredom size 30 handpiece, and a jig that holds the wire coil.

Now, I've got to backtrack quite a bit...this is where serendipity lands.

Back in the dawn of the eBay era - late 1996 or early 1997, thereabouts, I bought a real Foredom Flexible Shaft Machine.  It arrived and I couldn't get it to work - the motor just wouldn't turn on.  The seller basically disowned all responsibility, and I felt I pretty much wasted $90.  The box went into the back of the basement, and although I never quite forgot it was there, I really didn't want to even think about it. 

Fast forward to 2006 - I was definitely getting back into the jewelry arts, or at least beading.  I was surfing eBay for fine silver wire, when I came across the listing pages for Finding King, a jeweler supply company based in Arizona.  They were offering an off-brand (read, Chinese-made) flex-shaft, with the hanger, and several dozen bits and burs, for $75, and I bought it, along with a spool of 28 gauge fine silver wire.  The transaction with Finding King was the worst in a decade of buying on eBay - they didn't actually have the flex shaft in stock; over the course of a month, random parts of the order would arrive - a bunch of burs, the hanger, and finally the flex shaft itself.**

I used the flex shaft on and off since it arrived, and much more once I started working with PMC.  When the peddle  got a bit dicey, I remembered the Foredom and dug it out from underneath a mound of computer boxes.  The Foredom peddle worked fine with the off-brand.  When the handpiece got too hot, I tried out the one from the Foredom, and that worked like a dream - this is the difference between American made quality products and Chinese off-brands.  When I bought the PepeTools jumpring maker, I wanted to dedicate the off-brand handpiece to the cutting rig, but it wasn't a true #30, so I set it up with the Foredom handpiece.

Swapping the handpieces on the off-brand was okay - it always took a few tries to ensure that the flange on shaft connection was engaged.  But something happened on Monday night when I put on the handpiece with the jumpring cutting rig - no matter what I tried, the motor would run, but the shaft wasn't spinning properly.*** 

At this point, I was actually feeling quite sick§.  I really did not want to purchase another flex shaft - and I was intensely disappointed that I couldn't get the jumpring cutter to work.  I thought that I could try to swap out the shaft from the Foredom, but I couldn't seem to make any headway with getting the shaft disengaged from the motor on the off-brand.  In a fit of desperation, I hung up the Foredom, plugged it into the peddle, flipped the switch and with no expectation of anything happening, depressed the peddle.  And guess what!

IT WORKED!  IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! §§

I was able to finish my Challenge Swap necklace, and I've got a very fine working Foredom Flexible Shaft Machine.  It's so much more powerful than the off-brand - it's the difference between a Geo Metro and an Audi A3.
 


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*I think my head's been too wrapped around PMC to be an effective beader
**The spool of wire wasn't shipped until after I left Finding King negative feedback and threatened to file a complaint against them with the Arizona BBB.  Oh, and sent them an email calling them a bunch of morons.
***It may be that just the bushings need to be replaced
§ It wasn't just the circumstances.  It was also the heat and the stink from the previous night's dye job.
§§ I suspect that it was fully operational all along, but I didn't have the On/Off switch set to On.

Playing with PMC

The results of the PMC I bought myself back in April

My Happy 3rd of July

My company's offices were closed for July 3rd, since the Fourth fell on a Saturday. My plans for that day were set pretty well in advance - I wanted to go to Metalliferous and shop for tools (which I seem to love to buy even more than I love to use). This year, for some reason, the store was not having Saturday hours - I think it's because they couldn't get staff to work, not because there wasn't enough business. The Tuesday evening hours are not really convenient, since I needed to drive in and a weeknight schelp into NYC from work would take about an hour and a half.

Taking the train was also not in the cards - my shopping list consisted of a number of fairly heavy and bulky items - a brass deadblow hammer, an annealing pan filled with pumice, a small crockpot for pickle, and other assorted tools. The thought of schelpping back from 46th and 5th Avenue with those items, through Penn Station and a possibly crowded train filled with semi-drunk holiday-minded workers was enough to make me consider mail order.*

As much as I was looking forward to shopping there, I was also a bit leery. My friend Valerie of http://www.barneybeads.com/ had a truly awful experience there a few weeks before, involving the extremely uptight and quite nasty store owner and a box of dropped metal beads. Marie from http://www.eastofoz.com/ also reported a less than satisfactory experience with the store's climate control system. Armed with the knowledge that they staff at the store is not known for their friendly and helpful attitude (check out the yelp.com reviews), I had made up a shopping list the night before, took out my backback (they want you to leave your purse unguarded at the front of the store) and set my alarm for 8 am.

Friday morning dawned clear and bright - a mild breeze and low humidity would make for a perfect day to be in Manhattan. I was on the road by 10:30 am, and through the Midtown Tunnel by 11:00 - unheard of on a weekday morning! My preference was to park on 46th Street, but I was not expecting to find a spot on the street between 6th and 7th - but I had to try. I was surprised to find MANY open spaces on the street, and after contemplating the extremely confusing parking signs, I pulled into a spot near the corner of 6th Avenue, between two private vehicles with NJ plates that disregarded the admonition that the area was reserved for commercial vehicles only between 6 am and 7 pm .

I put $5.50 in quarters into the Muni-Meter, stuck the receipt on my dashboard, set an alarm on the iPhone for the time that the meter expired, and merrily and warily made my way to Metalliferous.

Where I was very pleasantly surprised.

The A/C was cranked up to full blast, and although there were a lot of customers in the store, it was comfortable to shop in. I had a slight moment of aggravation when I found I left my carefully prepared list at home, but since I had been thinking about this shopping trip for several months, I knew exactly what I needed to buy - the list was more for those catalog items that would have been nice to have.

I was disappointed to see that there were no deadblow mallets out, and when I asked for a brass hammer, the salesclerk showed me a tiny little watchmakers' mallet. I nearly burst out laughing, but we got that settled quickly when she pulled out the catalog and I showed her just what I wanted. I also picked up a 7" annealing pan, the mini Crock Pot for pickling, an assortment of sanding sticks, tinner shears, soldering pick, Solderite 6x6 board, a block of charcoal, and a metal scribe.

I also asked about the "Junior Polishing Set," and this is where certain members of the Metalliferous staff really shined. The female salesperson first thought I was asking about a set of polishing burs for the flex shaft, but I showed her what I wanted from the catelog. She didn't know if the kit - a 1/16th HP two spindle variable speed buffer was in stock, so she asked one of the guys - a Russian I'll call Yuri (probably NOT his name). Yuri told me that the kit in the catalog was "no good" but he had a better one, for less money. When he showed it to me, I saw that it was the same one that Linda had brought to class last week (the polymer clay session), which was fairly low powered, but I thought would be ok. I pointed out that I really needed tapered spindles for both sides (it came with a fixed-size chuck for the left hand spindle). Yuri said, rather good naturedly, that that could be a problem, but he'd see what he could do. He checked the Foredom catalog, found the correctly sized l/h spindle and said if I wanted the chuck, it would be $7.95 extra (he swapped it out for the tapered spindle). Now that the tool shopping was out of the way, I wanted to explore the metals.

I had gone through the stampings the last trip, so I concentrated on the oddities in the very back, and picked up some interested "faceted" brass flatback "buttons" in various sizes (they are more like very large sew-ons), a few strips of textured brass, some 6x6 copper sheet in 20 and 24 gauge, a package of bezel wire, 6 inches of patterned gallery wire, a small strip of 22 gauge fine silver, plus easy, medium and hard solder, a small bottle of flux, some flux brushes, a set of needle files (which HAVE to be better than the crap set I bought at Micro Center), a full size flat and a full size oval file, and a couple of leather finger cots. Gathering everything at the front counter, Mr. Full of Himself (the one who gave Val such a hard time) told me I was making a mistake buying the low powered buffer. We talked a bit back and forth, and I actually thought he was right - at the end of the day, I'd seriously regret the purchase. So, I ended up treating myself to a hammer handpiece for the flexible shaft machine**, a chasing hammer and a texturing hammer (this last item I don't know if I'll really ever use).

Checking out was a real pleasure - the salewoman who helped me was a doll - young, but really talented - and a Star Trek freak. She remembered that one of the Dabo Girls from ST:DS9 had the same first name as me. We talked a bit about holiday plans - she's heading home to San Francisco for the week that the store is closed. I left, feeling very satisfied - and about $500 poorer.

I walked back to my car, which reminds me - funny story about parking. When I was getting ready to check out, the alarm on my iPhone started to ring.*** I commented that I probably should run back to my car and put more money on the Muni-Meter, and four people promptly told me I didn't have to bother - it was a holiday and all meter requirements and parking rules were suspended.

Anyway - when back to my car and was going to go bead shopping at the two stores Val told me about on 47th Street.

So I walked around the block, only to find that 95% of the store fronts were empty, and some had signs "Closed for Jewelers' Holiday - 7/1 - 7/13". A guy comes out of one of the buildings, and sees me looking. He asks what am I looking for, and I say there's an arcade with a bead store - he tells me that they are closed until mid-July - like everyone else.

Oh, well, it's not like I really need to buy more beads. I walk down 47th Street, some of the windows still had jewelry on display - I admired one store with some pretty spectacularly large mine cut diamond earrings. There's a vendor on the corner selling "Pashmina" for $5 a piece - I bought four. So the walk shouldn't be a total loss.

I though I'd also stop in at Allcraft - which was located (according to my iPhone) at 45 W. 46th Street. No, it wasn't. I think it's on 29th Street now. So, I bought a bottle of cold water, went back to my car and headed home, a happy shopper.

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*I hate doing mail order for tools. It costs a fortune to ship, even though the store is probably using a flat rate Priority Mail parcel.

**I just love saying/writing "flexible shaft machine" - especially to people not in the jewelry trade.

***If you're keeping score, the alarm was "Coultergeist".

Silver on Silver - Oddly Victorian

Materials

Hill Tribe Silver Beads - Cast 15mm bicone - Thailand
Hill Tribe Silver Beads - Woven metal ribbon 8mm bicone - Thailand
Sterling Silver Donut 4mm Spacers - US
Sterling Silver 2mm seamless rounds - US
Dark Silver 10mm ovoid fresh water pearls - China
Light Silver 5mm keishi pearls - China
Bali Silver "S" Clasp


Stringing Material - Light Silver Gudebrode Silk - "E" weight


Tools
#10 wire beading needle (2)
Silver "french wire" fine (.5 inch)
Tri-cord knotting tool






A co-worker commissioned a necklace from me. She wanted chunky and silver and long. Since she wasn't prepared to spend several hundred dollars for 48 inches of Hill Tribe Silver, I suggested gray pearls and a little bit of silver as accents. From the selection I showed her, she homed in on the light gray/silver palette - particularly the small keishi pearls and some larger 12mm ovoids. From my silver box, she selected probably the heaviest silver beads I had, but I was able to steer her to some lighter, less expensive accents as well.

The result is oddly Victorian, which really wasn't my goal, nor is it particularly my style, but I am really pleased with the results. I don't normally work with a monochrome palette - contract is king in my book. But I really like it, and will make a variation of it for myself sometime soon.


Materials Cost: $50.00
Time to Complete: 2 hours
Difficulty: 2 out of 5

Bone and Amethyst - A Match Made in Hell

Sometimes the magic just isn't there. It's not a matter of lost mojo, but not every design really works. That being said, a little background on some of the beads...

Early on in my beady-beading career, my mother (and best client) asked for a necklace of ivory and amethyst. A lovely combination to be sure, but real ivory beads cannot be sold except as an antiquity. I convinced my mother that I could find substitutes that would be just as good - and I did. Way back, some time around 1992, I found 16mm round polished bone beads. They were from Germany and I paid a pretty penny for them (probably close to $100 for two strands). I paired them with 10mm round AAA quality amethyst and 14k spacers. The whole thing was struck on silk and was one of my mother's favorite necklaces.

When she passed away in 2002, neither of my sisters were interested in the collection of beaded jewelry I made her, and so they sat in a drawer, in little silk pouches for about 5 years. It took me that long to overcome my grief and appreciate the love and pride that each of those necklaces represented. A few weeks ago, I was about to put on the bone and amethyst necklace when it broke. One of the hazards of using silk - it does disintegrate over time.

Rather than remake the same necklace, I decided to use the beads to create something wilder. I added pearls, swapped out the 10mm amethyst for big faceted chunks, and went against conventional wisdom and used silver accents rather than gold. And you know what, I really, really, really hate it.

It was supposed to be a two strand choker, but it's too long. The stones clack and clunk against each other, it's so heavy that it just pulls my neck down. The amethyst are out of proportion, the clasp doesn't go with the rest of the design. It's just plain ugly.

I guess this endless rain has got me down - and I woke up thinking it was Friday. That's enough to put a saint into a bad mood.