Fiddling with weaving pearls

[ckrickett]

absolutely love it! Its gorgeous!

 

[battah]

More fiddling last night, this time with some rosebud pearls. I love these guys. Still on the marudai, but this version (braided around a core) twists a bit.

 

[BWeaves]

Love it!!!!

 

[battah]

I feel like gold beads might look good woven in there, right?

 

[Marianne]

Gold beads would give it a nice pop. And with the bumpiness of the pearls should not stand out too much. Please give it a try

 

[battah]

Thanks, Marianne! I think I'm going to undo it tonight and string on those gold beads. I think they'll look good with the creaminess of the pearls, too. I took the pic in bad lighting but they're kind of a nice, warm, cream color.

 

[Katbran]

I'm lovin all this experimenting ! And that is a lovely photo of the original necklace on you. I think it definitely looks even better on ..very dramatic ! I've never tried any of the weaving but it looks like fun . Looking forward to more pics !

 

[battah]

Last night's update - adding the little gold beads seems to help it rotate a bit.

 

[SunSeeker]

very nice idea! It's looks lovely on you!

 

[MSC]

Lovely, the gold beads are a nice touch. What is the wood loom you're using?

 

[lary007]

I reeeeeally like the gold beads with it!

 

[battah]

Thanks, ladies! MSC it's a marudai for doing kumihimo braids. You an also use a foam disk, which are cheap and easy to use as a first step to see if you like kumihimo. I found I couldn't use the disk for anything with big beads, though, because they didn't fit around the bobbins. I like my marudai a lot but the height isn't quite right so I don't use it as often as I'd planned. I need to see if DH can cut it down for me.

 

[MSC]

Thank you for the description, battah! How do you know what height to get? You talk about weaving around a core, what do you usually use as a core? So curious about it all ��

 

[battah]

Thanks, lary! I'm digging how they aren't lying quite evenly and are kind of bunched irregularly.

MSC, so apparently the ideal height is right at the bottom of your ribcage when you're in position (the traditional marudai is shorter so you use it when kneeling on the floor, but now you can get taller ones that work when you're sitting in a chair). I tend to use mine in front of the TV, and when I sit on the couch there the top of the marudai is a little high. I can use it but it's not an ideal height and my shoulders start to hurt after a while.

For this braid, the core I used is just some 2mm white rattail cord that's kind of silky. A kumihimo braid is kind of a tube, and usually you're supposed to use thicker thread (most of the patterns I've seen use glass seed beads so they have pretty big holes) or even cord, so it's stiff and holds its shape. But since pearls have small holes I use Beader's Secret, which has that nice drape so it isn't stiff enough to hold the tube shape, especially not with larger pearls/beads. So I need to use a core to keep the beaded tube from collapsing into itself (I tried skipping the core with some other beaded braids initially to see if they'd give a cool flat braid effect, but they don't lie completely flat, they sort of twist and just don't look good that way). Does that make sense? I might try getting pearls with larger drill holes to see if I can braid them on cord or even leather, that could be fun.

 

[CathyKeshi]

Fabulous, Battah ... Especially the rosebuds with gold beads!

 

[MSC]

That makes a lot of sense, battah, thank you for taking the time to describe it! I found a loom on etsy and am thinking about getting one for down time relaxation fun. I live in a very rural area so I've got to make my own entertainment and I think this could be great for that!

 

[enbcfsobe]

ooh, i love the idea of using large hole pearls to braid on cord!!

 

[BWeaves]

OOOOOO, I love the addition of the gold beads. Really perks it up a punch.

 

[battah]

Thanks Cathy, enbcfsobe, and BWeaves! MSC, it really is a relaxing hobby! Just make sure you do a better job measuring your height requirements than I did There are a couple of really helpful kumihimo groups on Facebook, by the way, that gave me some great info on getting started (also BWeaves is a fabulous resource). Braiding with beads can be slightly tedious sometimes because of having to thread the beads onto your warps first, but the braiding process is really relaxing. And depending on what type of beads you're braiding (seed beads vs pearls etc), you can use a bead spinner to save time and energy.

 

[JerseyPearl]

I love the little beads next to these wonderful pearls! Just lovely!