Lazy midsummer Sunday afternoon

On a lazy midsummer Sunday afternoon I decided to learn a new technique: Kumihimo.

“Kumihimo (組み紐) is a Japanese form of braid-making. Cords and ribbons are made by interlacing strands. Kumi himo is Japanese for “gathered threads”.

Since I don’t have a professional Kumihimo disc I cut one out of cardboard and used 7 threads. You actually can use up to 24 bobbins.

The result is this colourful bracelet….

Pearls bracelet

I made this pearls bracelet to match with the necklace and earrings from my previous post.  Not much to say here except that the pearls were beautiful so it was an easy job. 🙂

A bit of Japan

Few years ago, when the (very expensive) chirimen bracelets suddenly appeared in Italy, me and my friend Paola decided to buy some chirimen cord on Etsy to make more affordable bracelets for us.

Unluckily I have never been satisfied with the result, so I never wore it.

Then, last Summer I came up with an idea on how to use the almost forgotten cord and I made these two bracelets as birthday gifts for two friends at my Taiko group…. A Japanese themed gift for Japanese drums’ lovers.

I have also experimented with cardboard, self-printed stickers and my own rubber stamp, to make cute boxes to present the gifts in a more professional way….

[Chirimen Cord, elastic band, wooden single-hole button, silver bell]