Kumihimo & bead flower necklace

Kumihimo is one of those repetitive-action crafts that can be very calming. I find it great for pain-management. It distracts me from worrying about myself, without demanding so much concentration that it wears me out. I can do it for hours.

As a result, however, I can end up with yards and yards and yards of pretty cord. This has been the case recently. I've been playing with designs on the kumihimo board (and using up a bit more of granny's stash of embroidery threads). I made this length from four skeins in two different shades of pink. I had completed it before it occurred to me that pink really isn't one of my top colours, and I now had well over of a metre of attractive cord to find a use for!

 Once again, I was saved by the wonderful Sarah Millsop (now of  www.beadsdirect.co.uk ). I saw her on TV demonstrating this pretty beaded flower design. I had the seed-beads in pink and blue in a set that someone had given me. The larger blue "cat's eye" beads (I believe that is the correct term for those beads with the shimmer across them?!) I scavenged from a re-cycled bracelet. Another moment to revel in up-cycling!


I made three of the flowers - mastering the technique! Using these in combination with three lengths of the kumihimo cord created this asymmetric necklace. The flowers are attached with jump-rings, and had to be connected to all the cords they crossed - otherwise they pulled the piece out of shape. I'm quite pleased with the finished necklace, and very satisfied that it used the entire length of that particular piece of kumihimo cord!


I'm off to start knotting again :-)
Hx