I was given (free to a good home/owner who would use it) a complete kumihimo set up some time back and have been using it sporadically when I have time. After some quick tests I started focusing on making shoe laces.

So, some background, kumihimo is Japanese braiding and goes back centuries. Used on Samurai armor and high end kimonos and everything in between. Traditionally braiding is carried out on a marudai which is a small table type thing with a round top with a hole in it on a larger base. In Japan you would likely kneel on the ground to braid, but old age and arthritic knees mean I stand and raise the marudai!

Braids would most often be done in silk with the number of strands for each tama (bobbin) and the length all being part of the initial calculations. Good record keeping is essential if you need to repeat! I have been using a cheaper option than silk, with 20/2 pearl cotton at 6 to 8 strands per tama depending how thick the eventual lace needs to be. Several books came with the equipment and all but one being by Jacqui Carey are the best to be had. The one booklet that is not hers I have since found out came with the Majacraft marudai and tama sets and is by a well known, but sadly no longer with us NZ expert on kumihimo.

This picture shows the marudai, tama, booklet, and the box (with the Majacraft logo) for the tama of which there are two should you need to go beyond 8 strand braids. I haven’t yet! Majacraft no longer sell these items, but I did touch base with them and they confirmed that this was indeed manufactured in NZ and was most likely made of NZ rimu.

The first laces I made were for my ‘work’ shoes and served a dual purpose as well as being unique. Since I have demonstrated and talked about kumihimo braiding I can show my shoes with laces and tell them that they were ‘Christmas’ laces (red/green) but also from my Navy history they are ‘Port’ and ‘Starbord’ so that I know which shoe to put on which foot!!

We’ve made many pairs for gifts and experimented with putting the laces in a custom sewn cloth drawstring bag. The following were laces in the ‘Red, White, and Blue’ series done around the 4th of July then packaged up for birthday gifts for Jack and Sue.

When I started braiding it was taking a number of days to complete a set. Since then, and with some strategies in place I can make a set of laces in just one day. Nowhere near any sort of return for the amount of work, but I think I can happily sell them at a price that should be attractive to festival buyers. If there is any interest I’ll aim at making some laces for sale on line, as they’re small enough to be posted relatively cheaply, notwithstanding the every increasing cost of shipping here in the US.

As I continue with my laces, Anne is going to develop a more specialized product in beaded kumihimo (see an earlier blog). We have a large collection of yarn and there are an enormous amount of variations of braids (at the level I can braid – a newbie) that will work as laces. I’ll post more photo’s periodically as new laces appear.