Friday, August 16, 2013

Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets from Prima Bead



Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets

So for the August project as a member of the Prima Bead Blogger Team, I was sent a box full of Kumihimo supplies. Here's what Prima Bead sent me:

Kumihimo
The first thing I saw when I opened the package, was the spools and the loom. I didn't have a clue what they were and what I was supposed to do with it. For a full day and through the night I panicked. How am I supposed to blog about this strange stuff? How am I going to make anything worth blogging about? I was starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.

The next day I dug into it. And guess what? It's really not hard at all. In fact, my 11 year old daughter even made a braided bracelet for her friend. Once I got going, it was kind of addicting. Every Friday for the next three weeks, I'll be showing you how I made the different bracelets. So be sure to check back for the tutorials.

The first bracelet I tried was a solid beaded bracelet.  One thing I learned: Don't braid too long at the beginning before you add the beads or at the end. In fact, I'm still working on that, but I'm getting better.



Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets

The next bracelet I tried was this blue bracelet speckled with gold beads. I did end up buying some bronze findings. I'm one of those people who don't like to mix my metals. I couldn't bring myself to use a silver clasp with the gold beads. This was really easy to create this look. It's all in how you string the beads on. I'll be sharing exactly how I created this look soon.

Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets

The next bracelet I made started out as an accident and ended up being my favorite of the bunch. I wanted to make a tutorial of how to do Kumihimo and so I grabbed different colored embroidery thread so it would be easier to demonstrate through pictures. I ended up loving how it looked and started playing around with adding beads only some of the time. I'm so excited about how it turned out. I entered a beaded bracelet using this method into my county fair and got a blue ribbon! A tutorial is in the works for this bracelet as well.

I also made a braided anklet with the same colors of thread.

Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets

 The last bracelet I made was this spiral bracelet, with the blue and gold beads. Another easy method that I'll be sharing soon.


Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets

Here's the schedule for my Kumihimo tutorials:
Sept 6 - Embroidery Thread and Seed Bead Bracelets. 


I am a Prima Bead Blog Team Member. I am also an affiliate of Prima Bead. I receive product from Prima Bead. In return, I create jewelry pieces from that product, and share about them through my blog and other social media outlets. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.


17 comments :

  1. You did a magnificent job! All are gorgeous!

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  2. WOW, they are all simply beautiful!!! I really love the spiral bracelet!! ~KM

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  3. Wow - you were busy!!! I'm going to pull my loom out again and try to get another bracelet or necklace done before the end of the month. Beautiful job Rachel! :)

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  4. I can't believe how beautiful they are! You are great! Pat.

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  5. LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE!! They are all so pretty but the anklet has to me my favorite. I love those colors! I would LOVE for you to share this at "That's My Style" Link Party going on TODAY on my blog. Not comfortable sharing? Stop by anyway for beauty related post and fun DIY projects. I hope to see you there! :)

    Karla @ www.MySerendipitousLife.com

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  6. Beautiful job! I love those shimmery beads with the turquoise in the spiral. Can you tell me what the color name is for them?

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  7. OMG what a pretty Bracelets. This is my first time to this site but my friend has told me about your work and you are very very good!
    Bead bracelets

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  8. ohhh i love the spiral one with the blue and gold beads. i've been a little intimadated to dig into my supplies!!!

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  9. Love these! Great job!

    Ann @ The Rustic RedHead

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  10. Thanks so much for linking up to Your Whims Wednesday, I featured this on my blog tonight! Come stop by and grab a featured button: http://www.mygirlishwhims.com/2013/08/your-whims-wednesday-126-and-features.html

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  11. These are all so beautiful! I would love to be able to make them. Thank you for sharing on Thursday's Treasures. I am featuring these gorgeous bracelets on Week 101. Please stop by and grab my "I was featured on" button.

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  12. I love the beaded ones! I guess I need to go get myself one of those wheels and try my hand at it. :)

    If you're interested, I'd love if you shared this with my Show & Tell party going on this week. http://www.gingerlymade.com/2013/08/show-tell-41-giveaway-winners.html

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  13. How many beads did you end up using?

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    1. For the sparkly and blue and gold bracelets, I started out with 20 on each strand, but then added a some more. My guess would be somewhere between 180 and 200 total.

      For the white bracelet with the seed beads, I used 26 beads on 4 of the strands so a total of 104.

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