Some years ago, when I was first getting into kumi, I ran into the creators of Imagine, who at that time were a husband and wife team. The husband traded me a bunch of their beautiful black and white (with red accents) cane beads made of polymer clay (fimo is one common brand name) for a long skinny braid of keiruko^[1] no himo, also in black and white, done in D weight Gudebrod silk.

I don't know if they ever did anything with the braid, but after waiting a couple of years for the smell to go away, I finally was able to string my beads, to which I added some black and white and red and white striped seed beads, into this necklace, which still remains one of my favorites. (I love polymer clay and think it's probably the most exciting visual art medium out there. But I absolutely cannot tolerate the odor.)

The braid is based on one of Owen's, with the “stained” glass technique; that is, the puffy sections are multiple strands of silk that make up thicker ‘ends’—so they pouf amongst the thinner strands set against them.

Because the bulk of the necklace is effect plastic, it's extremely lightweight and comfortable to wear. Polymer clay, silk, glass, stone pi or donut. Early 90s? Collection of the artist.

UPDATE: [re] input larger version of image, added caption, updated & added tags, added link to keiruko kumi, 13nov2019

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn