How to weave kumihimo, or a little about the Japanese tourniquet

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Kumihimo is a Japanese braid used to create the voluminous and flat cords used by samurai to secure armor and weapons. Women tied them with an obi - a kimono belt. Long cords were used for this purpose, and the equipment for making them was appropriate, quite large and strong. For the manufacture of flat ribbons, a rectangular wooden machine was used - takadai, and for voluminous bundles - a round marudai.

Today, this technique is used not only in Japan. Information on how to weave kumihimo has now spread to many other countries, including Russia. And this knowledge is used by many needlewomen, creating beautiful and original bracelets, laces and belts. When using Japanese technology, the scheme for weaving floss baubles is quite simple. But in order to successfully carry out such work, the appropriate conditions are necessary.

Of course, not every needlewoman can afford marudai or takadai. This is hindered by both their bulkiness and rather big cost. But a resourceful mind will always find a way out of a problem situation, and many creative people successfully createimprovised machines on their own. Most often, a piece of rubber, polystyrene or thick cardboard is used for it. In order to make a kind of marudai, you need to cut out a circle from the material about the size of a CD (it can be used as a template).

The center of the circle should be marked with a thick dot or a small circle. Subsequently, it will be necessary to make a hole there, large enough so that a bundle of threads intended for weaving can be threaded into it, but not passing a knot from the same amount of floss. On the diameter of the circle, you need to make 32 cuts at equal distances. Now the machine can be considered ready.

When creating a handicraft tacaday, the steps are similar to those described above, but there are some differences. So, the basic shape will not be a circle, but a square, cuts are made on all sides, and the central hole should have a rectangular shape.

In this article, we will show you how to weave kumihimo on a marudai loom, as it has a simpler principle and is more suitable for beginners. All volumetric bundles are woven according to the same pattern, and a variety of patterns is achieved by different initial arrangement of threads.

In order to learn how to weave kumihimo, you need to remember that the amount of floss for work is always a multiple of 4. It can be 8 threads or 32, but 16 is most often taken. This allows you to achieve a variety of ornaments without complicating at the same time work. The more thread you take, the thicker the product will be.

How to weave kumihimo so that the tourniquet is smooth and beautiful?There is one little secret. Weaving masters attach a small weight (scissors, a small padlock or a small weight) to the beginning of the cord, which stretches the product and gives it an even and neat look.

So how to weave kumihimo? The threads are located on the loom approximately as shown in the figure, after which the process of shifting paired floss begins. There are many different initial lace placement options that allow you to create a wide variety of kumihimo patterns that are sure to please you.