I wanted to do something both knotty and beady, generally decorative and it would be best if it were wearable... I've had a project in mind for a few years now that is mostly just a name, plus a vague idea of fringe to go with the knotty and beadedness. Time to execute! Or is it? Best to sample first. I had the idea that I wanted the fibre base to fill the beads fully as possible but still thread through without too much angst and bought some yarn accordingly (it's about the same size as 6 strand embroidery thread). Black because everything goes with black. Then with whatever beads were in my crafty backpack at the time, I went with the kids to watch them do their extracurriculars and sample. Strung in multiples of 8 because I was doing a 4 strand crown and wanted to see if any interesting patterns were going to emerge. After all, why should kumists have all the beady fun? 8)

So, I had this scrap of wire in my wire working box (cutters, pliers, cup burs, etc) and it was... 20cm long or so. What had I originally cut it for? What had I cut it off of? Dunno, but is it long enough to do anything with? Often when I've got some cord scrap in my hands they will do what they so frequently do: flower knots, button knots, double connection, double coin, etc. So, this little bit of wire, could I tie a flower knot in it with some beads? How would it look with such a small gauge of wire?

As a general rule, to a certain extent to duplicate the fibre knots I tie, I try to tie wire knots in higher gauges. Almost cord sized wire (I've got some wire that is close to 3mm in diameter. Expensive though and I'm expecting it to be brutally difficult to work. Someday...) is kind of self-explanatory. Smaller gauges though (I think it's 24ga)... let's see!

Articles
A. G. Lindsay writes an article about how to finish your braids (15 pages).
http://www.weavershand.com/kumiendings1.pdf (via)

Events
A see and share style event in Montreal on April and I couldn't go. 8( But at least we can see the pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/michellebeauvais/April252009?authkey=Gv1sRgCL...

Blogs
The math behind maypole braids
http://divisbyzero.com/2009/05/04/the-maypole-braid-group/

Dogs and kumihimo don't mix. The sensitive may want to avert their eyes.
http://tapestrybeads.blogspot.com/2009/05/winston-tried-kumihimo-today.html

About the Korean (dahoe) origins of kumihimo.
http://pearl.livejournal.com/348806.html

A bit more detail on the same.
http://themaedupshop.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/traditional-korean-cords/

A lengthy introduction/summary on kumihimo from an SCAer studying the topic.
http://beadybunch.org/?p=175

Glass bead artist, Dora Schubert takes up kumihimo and tells us all about it.
http://doraschubert.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-already-may.html

I started by binding the tassel neck with a thin black cord. Then after I finished the black version with a beaded tassel neck I decided that the grey version needed more "bling". To contrast with the randomly beaded neck, plus because I had already put an orderly black whipping on the grey tassel neck, I decided an orderly, lightly beaded design was the way to go. Starting with a round of beads (3 black, 1 silver) around the top and bottom of the existing whipping, I also added a smattering of silver beads to the whipping itself.

The black beads were too small, the clear beads were too big, but I think the iridescent blue beads were just right. Having finished the grey with black, I thought there's no reason I can't use different beads on each side. The visual crossover is quite minimal. That said, when it was time to bead the neck of the tassel, I wanted to use both bead colours.

Having finished the grey knot off with little black beads I knew I wanted bigger beads (if the package had sizes I would tell you what they are, but there's no label and I can't really guess). I started with the clear and they're actually a smidge on the large side. They work nicely with the knot itself giving a kind of dew drop effect, but they crowd the middle, overly obscuring the middle stone.

The "back" side (see right) is the first side I worked on. I think the bead placement is sometimes sub-optimal. On the "front" side (see left), I made sure to sew the beads higher up on the cords so that they couldn't roll under and hide. I also pulled the cords very tight which ended up covering more of the centre bead with cord, after all that time I spent looking for a knot with a nice big centre hole to showcase the beads.

Even so, I'm pleased with the results (it's certainly a successful proof of concept work). Now it just needs a tassel and it's done.

Here's a progress shot of black version with the centre bead in place. Pretty, no? 8)

It's my one month blogiversary! With only a little bit of cheating, I've posted everyday. So, to celebrate I'm giving away a tassel with a hawk's eye bead in the centre and seed bead details. I was also thinking to give away the materials I used to make the tassel (a spool of cord, a selection of beads, and tassel fringe). Should it be all one prize or two? What do you think? I'll be documenting the creation of the tassel on the blog, of course. To enter to win the tassel, just leave a comment with a valid email (or register and post) on this post. Entries will be accepted until Feb 28, 2009 and a winner selected at random declared shortly thereafter.

Edit: see what happens when you post while half asleep? Left out about half of what I was going to say... *sigh*

This one has 18 facets (18JBD). The base bead is less football shaped (kinda pointy towards the poles, vaguely oval/eye shaped in cross section) and more oblate. The best I could do on short notice, but overall I like the resulting globe knot better. The question is do I like it better because of the core bead shape or because of the more facets to the globe? I'm going with the facet idea.

Administrivia: reflecting back on the fortnight or so that I've been blogging, this is the length of post I had envisaged, rather than the multi-page magazine articles I've been writing. I'm thinking this is much more sustainable, not that that's going to stop me from going on and on at some later point. 8)