How to Make a Simple 8-Warp Kumihimo Braid Bracelet

	Kumihimo Thread Bobbin, Flexible Plastic 2 1/2 Inch (8 Pieces) SKU: XTL-6108 $5.45
	Antiqued Brass Large Capsule Bead Caps 8x8mm (10 pcs) SKU: BMB-6000 $3.39
	The Beadsmith Satin Rattail Braiding Cord 2mm Honey Butter Mix 4 Colors - 3 Yds Each SKU: XCR-3041 $7.99
	TierraCast Brass Oxide Finish Pewter Daisy Spacer Beads 3mm (50 Pieces) SKU: BMB-5702 $3.79
	E6000 Industrial Strength Glue Adhesive (1 Oz) SKU: XTL-1051 $6.99
	Fiskars 5 Precision Tip Scissors - Super Sharp SKU: XTL-5700 $7.45
	Vintaj Natural Brass Jump Rings 5.25mm Open 18 Gauge (20 Pieces) SKU: FJR-5352 $2.59
	The Beadsmith Kumihimo Braiding Kit For Beginners - Easy To Learn! SKU: XTL-6107 $37.99

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
hi this is andrea for beadaholique.com i hemo disk now kumihimo is a japanese braiding system that usually uses a wooden disk that is suspended on a very beautiful wooden stand the beadsmith has adapted this for ease of use into these foam discs and here I just have a plain round kumihimo foam disc also comes in square and you can make flat braids with that but what I'm going to show you today is just the most basic braid the most common braid that you see done using kumihimo so what you're gonna need is you're going to need a kumihimo disk you're gonna need two packages of the color mix rat tail you can buy any kind of rat tail you'd like these packages come with pre-measured four pieces of rat tail per package color-coordinated they're very handy to do the eight warp braid obviously you're going to need two packages if they each come with four each package produces an 18 inch braid we're probably not going to use all that because I think we're gonna make a bracelet today I chose two different sizes in two different colors that's just a taste preference and the reason I chose two different sizes is because the finished braid has a cool little twist to it it's kind of a spiral effect but if you want your braid to be all the same dimension all the way around you would just use the same size so I have a package of the Evergreen mix in the 2 millimeter it also comes in three millimeter and one millimeter I have a package of the lilac in three millimeter once again also comes in the other two sizes also today I have a package of bobbins these are really really handy when you're doing kumihimo or else you're gonna have really long strands that are likely to get tangled so I highly recommend using these bobbins these are the two and a half inch ones and they come in a package of eight perfect for our purposes and last but not least I like to use a weight to have a nice even braid so I rigged one up myself this is from a steel dapping kit so it's quite heavy and then I just tied it on to a bulldog clip using some waxed cotton thread so what you do to begin is you find one end of your threads here and there's four different colors in each color mix package so that's one end I'm just going to unravel it here and I will do the same with the Green Line all of your ends up thread them through one end of your weight and tie an overhand knot I'm gonna give myself a little more slack I'm going to take the long portion of my cord I'm going to thread it up and through the center hole in my kumihimo disk I'm gonna pull them all the way through I'm gonna pull it up until the weight my homemade weight is visible through the center now to get a spiral effect braid I'm gonna put and these are my starting points where the dots are I'm going to put two of my wide threads the three millimeter ones on either side of that start and dot another two of the wide threads on either side of that starting dot and then the narrows around those two so I'm going to put the purple here pink here and these notches are just cut in the foam so that they hold on to your thread really nice and tight like I said I need two more of my thick pieces around there so I will do this lilac one right there and then a royal purple in there and I'm going to put my green thinner ones here and here and here and here I'm going to adjust my knot a little bit so that it is sitting in the center of the kumihimo disk the weight today that I'm using serves not really a very practical reason since its resting on my desk here but normally I would do the braiding up above an empty spot like between my legs so it can the weight will pull down the braid right now I'm just going to use my hand to kind of guide the braid through the disk now that I have my rat tail in position I'm going to wind my excess thread up in each of these bobbins once you have wound your rat tail up inside the inside of the bobbin you simply roll down the edge to snap it into place now that I have all of my rat tail wound up in their individual bobbins I am ready to start braiding now if you notice this is the start position so the words are facing me and the dots are at north-south-east-west positions to begin I'm going to take the thread that is on the lower left hand going to remove it from its slot and move it up to the slot between 30 and 31 so it's to the left of the two uppermost threads I'm simply going to take the thread that is now to the right on the up upper side move it down to the right this is the movement that you're going to do is the entire time you're just going to move the disk instead of figuring out where the next thread is going to go it's really easy you simply give it a quarter turn counterclockwise and do the same motion bottom left to top left top right to bottom right turn again bottom left to top left top right to bottom right turn bottom left top left top right bottom right and turn that's all there is to this now when you buy your kumihimo disk it will come with projects on the inside and instructions but also in very clear instructions on the back of how to do this simple 8 warp braid so I'm going to show you now a braid that I've been working on for a little while and as you can see because I use two different size rat tails it's coming out with a neat little swirl to it and once again if you want it to be all the same width all the way down you would just use one size so I'm going to continue with this one for a while and then I'll show you how to finish it off so my braid now is over six and a half inches long and I want a little excess because I'm going to trim some of that off and so I can remove it from the desk now and I can finish off my bracelet what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the non braided part I'm going to squeeze it tightly and I've got some clear tape I'm going to tightly tape the end tight as I can get it it looks good to me now I have these cool bead caps that are dome shaped and I think they're gonna fit quite nicely on the ends but first I kind of have to measure so it's probably about 3/8 of an inch deep I'm going to cut off my end to about a quarter so part of the wider braided part will sit right in there before you cut the end off to insert it in side your bead cap I'm going to make a loop on my bead cap now the hole in the bead and this particular bead cap is too big for most head pins so it'll slide right through so you just want to find a small little spacer like a daisy spacer it doesn't matter what color it is just a tiny little one and that'll prevent your head pin from going through the hole and insert it in going outward like so I'm going to take a pair of round nose pliers and I'm gonna make a wrapped loop I'm gonna go ahead and cut this off to about a quarter-inch I'm just gonna see if that fits and looks like it's snug and that will work so now what I want to do is I want to take my handy e6000 industrial-strength glue I'm just going to go ahead and put some on the end I'm going to put a generous amount but not too much because I want it to be able to stay in this bead cap I'm gonna try not to get it all over the place press my bead cap on get rid of any excess that might be losing out and you are going to want to let this sit for a few hours I'm going to go ahead and do the same treatment to the other end of my bracelet okay now that both of your ends are on and hopefully dry we're gonna add the clasp and all I have here is a jump ring that is approximately eight or nine millimeters and I've got a hook you can use any kind of class but you want for this I'm simply going to open my jump ring and add it to one half of my bracelet then as far as this class goes the way I add this is I'm going to just twist that open like I would a jump ring I'm going to thread it right through and twist it closed there you have your finished kumihimo bracelet you