Unlike most of the braids I've shown in the last year or so, this one was made for a specific purpose: to showcase my work (in a wearable way) during my trip to Japan. It was something of a rush job:
- I made the beads on the 1st
- purchased 4 or 5 skeins of perl cotton on the 2nd
- started the braid on the 3rd
- completed it on the 4th
- and departed on the 5th
Braid, cotton. 44inches, 16 strands, from 60in unbraided cotton thread in #5 or #8 weight, originally 60 in long.[1] Usual 100g tama and standard counterweight (roughly 800g) Started 3may, completed (& photographed) 04 may.
In order to travel as light as possible, look somewhat stylish[2] and, again, showcase my artyness, I bought coral colored sandals, and dyed/selected clothes to match—thus my wardrobe was coral, greens, and blue-grays. So the peach and coral co-ordinated, and the the turquoise popped a bit. This is as dressed up as I've attempted in years, but it did mean I only had to take 4 shirts and 3 pair of pants.[3]
None of the perl cotton I purchased was really what I was looking for; I had to make do, and ultimately chose one skein of hand-painted cotton in oranges and bluish greens from long ago (say, 20 years...?) and one of the turquoise blues. I opted for something easy, my fave braid structure (keiruko no himo) and pattern (“broken diamonds”)
I managed to set up the repeats (in the orange) to give a symmetrical pattern of 3 sections orange diamonds, one at the center and the other two at ends of the braid (with blue no-pattern in between), provided I cut off 5.5" from one end. The pattern isn't as strong as I'd like because the dying in the hand-dyed part of the cotton was a tad on the sketchy side: the color didn't completely penetrate.
Nevertheless, the braid matched the beads well, and I was pretty happy with it, especially considering how fast I cranked it out. —And it did indeed serve as a handy sample of my braiding, though the portable kumi on disk was generally to prove of greater interest, despite the considerably lower quality (to my eyes, at least) of the braid.
[1]So I had nearly a 75% yield—quite a bit more than the 55% I've read about, anyway....
[2]They really do dress up more in Japan than in the US, though perhaps I'm unfairly comparing fashionable districts like Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to my little midwestern hometown, as opposed to say, New York and San Francisco.
[3]And let's face it, a little stamping and dyeing did not change the overall REI tourist vibe pretty much guaranteed by the dorky if effective hat, the water bottle carrier, the fanny pack/bum bag...
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
