What a Difference a Color Makes

What a difference a color makes! This is the same focal bead as in the June 1,2007 entry but with a new braid. I had intended to mirror the focal's colors: turquoise, dark amber, and black, in a braid. Unfortunately the result was busy, busy, busy. So, let's put things away and play another day.

I love this bead. It was hand made by Tim from The Beaded Lily in Italy. It's gorgeous: all blue, warm orangey honey, cream, and black; even a couple spots of goldstone inclusions. I happened to take it with me to a bead show. It was a good excuse to go to the show (if we really need an excuse) hoping to find some other beads and finish that necklace. A very nice saleslady from http://www.kazuribeadseast.com/ helped me pick out some nice warm caramel colored beads to bring out the amber in the focal.

Next: how to bring everything together? Better braid colors!!! What goes better with caramel than chocolate? And: just a little flash of a brighter orange (paprika, actually).

And of course, every time I look at it I get a really bad craving for chocolate. Isn't it a good thing this is for sale? (Yup, you guessed it! I am selling something, my secret is out. And if I can figure out how to get the address of my Etsy shop in the conversation, you'll be the first to know!)

Maru Wha'??

This is my beautiful maru dai, a Japanese braiding stool, made by my husband. The little things sitting on the base are my tama, or braiding weights. I made my own, using prescription bottles and polymer clay. The weights need to be adjustable because each braid structure needs a certain weight. Did you know that a penny weighs 2.5grams? I didn't think so. An 8 strand braid can require anywhere from 35 to 70 gram weights, depending on the number of individual silk threads, or "ends".

This maru dai was what I used to create the braid you saw in "The Better Living With Chemicals" entry. This braid requires eight strands; I used four black, three blue, and one green. Picture a compass, with north, south, east, and west. I positioned two strands at each compass point for a total of 8 strands.

The movements of braiding are described as hypnotic and relaxing. Two cross (one strand goes up and one goes down), change places, another two cross and change places, repeat. After crossing and placing the colors in their new places you need to reposition the four strands back to the compass points. Same motions, over and over again until the end of the silk threads.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? It can be if you aren't one who gets easily distracted, often described as "having the attention span of a flea". Yup, that's me. But I have developed the all-important skill of being able to un-braid, to go back to where I was somewhere else (in mind only, and even that's not all there), reposition the strands and hope that all goes well. While the structure of this braid is very simple, I have better chances of being hit by lightning than getting the placement right any time in the next hour. Oh how relaxing this is!!

And yet I look forward to making another braid just as soon as I start this one.(Did I mention that attention thing?)

Better Living With Chemicals---LOS

Remember doing the "egg thing": putting copper wire in a plastic with a hot hard boiled egg and smashing your frustrations away? We were trying to oxidize, or create a lovely brown patina, on copper pieces with the sulfur from an egg's yolk.

For those of you with less violent tendencies there is another alternative, LOS (liver of sulfur). I flunked high school chemistry so I can't tell you much about it but I found this great tutorial by Stacie Florer (sorry, but this tutorial has been removed by the designer). You will see all the good stuff as well as how she creates a beautiful pair of earrings.

One note: this clasp was inspired by Connie Fox's tutorial on wire clasps.

And, of course, notice the spiral design of the kumihimo braid.

Jewelry: Tonight's Burning Question

Tonight's burning question is: why is your favorite piece of jewelry your favorite?

As I was poking around my Kirengeshoma (Hah! Got something personal about me in before the end of the first paragraph. Don't you just hate hearing about personal stuff that has nothing to do with you? Now you have to go and look up "kirengeshoma". Hah again!) I was thinking about an important question all jewelry designers ask: what makes a piece of jewelry your favorite? You get 30 seconds to think before I tell you about my personal favorite, and more importantly, WHY?

This is my favorite necklace: kumihimo, of course, done with traditional Japanese silk, and some large holed turquoise-look beads.

But the hardest thing is to figure out why it's my favorite. Well, first, it has some of my favorite colors: blue, black, green, and gold. Blue and gold is a killer combination. Next: it's perfect to wear with a black turtleneck. Black is the perfect color to show off any piece of jewelry (remember all those black velvet boxes with diamonds in the at the jeweler's store?).

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it suits my face shape (rather broad and...fat). The length draws your attention away from my face and directs it toward this gorgeous necklace, thereby creating a more beautiful me. What more could you ask for?

In a nutshell, jewelry designers ask this question every time they create jewelry for potential customers. Find the answer and they have a guaranteed sale.

Oh, something you will never hear: "Be honest, do these diamonds make me look fat?"

Braids, braids, braids!

These are a wide assortment of kumihimo braids made with my handy dandy Kumihimo Disk, from Hamanaka (the rest is in Japanese). The disk came from www.satincord.com.

What isn't obvious: they are all the same design structure, "Kongo", which means "hard as a diamond". So far, I haven't been able to see the diamond thing but I'll keep trying.

The Kongo braid is made by the same two moves, up and down, around and around, turning the disk between each move. But vary the colors, color placement, thickness of the fibers or cords, and you have an almost endless variety of different patterns. There is even a flower braid, (look at the two middle braids).

What you see are braids made with satin and rayon cord, embroidery floss, and silk. The silk comes from www.braidershand.com and is the traditional fiber of Japanese braiding.

Hopefully, next time, I'll get a good photo of my maru dai (Japanese braiding stool) which is the traditional braiding equipment. I'm still working on that photo editing thing.

Which Came First...the Bead or the Egg?

Odd question, isn't it? The answer involves the nature of kumihimo, Japanese braiding.

Remember, the beads must either have large holes or the braid must be slim enough to go through regular beads (possible, but then you lose the beauty of the braid's structure which is the purpose of braiding in the first place). Pendants are easy, you can hang them from a bail. (Future post.)

Make your own beads. Of course! For this I must thank Penny Cox for good info, (her site www.pcoxstudio.blogspot.com). We met while I was teaching at my first bead show, Bead Fiesta. Penny works with metals. She was teaching how she works with copper. She flattens it, oxidizes it, and winds up with a beautiful piece of jewelry.

I already had beautiful beads, courtesy of The Beaded Lily, but wanted something special to complement them. I have a lot of wire and some is copper. And now I have copper wire spacers and a clasp.

Using 20gauge copper I took a long piece, doubled it, put one end in husband's vise and the other in his drill (I have been dying to try this), and turned on the drill. It twisted the entire length of doubled wire. Using this twisted wire, I wound it around the shank of a crochet hook to get a tube shape. I twisted some more wire and tried fashioning a couple of clasps (from Connie Fox's web site, she is a wonder with wire).

Now for the ickky part: darkening the copper. You need sulfur to oxydize the copper metal. Some artisans use liver of sulfur (LOS) and some use an egg. An egg's yolk has enough sulfur to do the job. Boil the egg. Take a Ziploc bag and place a paper towel inside and put the copper pieces on the towel. After the egg is done, and while it is still hot, place it (don't bother peeling the shell off) in the bag. Then mush the egg, break it up and make sure the yolk is exposed. I left mine on the counter overnight. Some folks put it in the fridge. Just make sure you give it time to work. (And make sure no one throws it out!)

Next day: take the pieces out, rinse. If you have a rock tumbler, put them in that along with stainless steel shot, water to cover the pieces, and a drop of Dawn liquid detergent. Tumble for a while and check. The high spots should be cleaned and the recessed areas should be darkened. I found that I still needed to use a polishing cloth. And: copper is a soft metal, tumbling work-hardens it (think of the top of a tin can and how you bend it until it snaps; it snaps because it is too hard to bend).

If you don't have a tumbler: rinse, use 0000 steel wool, a brass brush, a toothbrush, a polishing cloth ( a jeweler's polishing cloth, such as the Moonshine cloth), and go at it. Work until you get the finish you want. Penny finds that the piece stays this color and has never had any problem with the copper oxydizing further.

Did you notice how dark the tubes and hooks were? Okay, go back and check the photo. Click on it and you will see the pieces up close. (While you're looking, I will take time to thank those artisans who posted this technique on Bead and Button magazine's Beader's forum. Everything you wanted to know but didn't know enough to ask about.)

Now, because I can't figure out how to put two photos in one post, the "after" photo will be in the next post. And i will include copper wire right off the spool.

So, now you have an idea of what a braider must do to decorate a braid.