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I highly recommend Braider's Hand for all braid making materials and equipment. braidershand.com/

Hi, Diane, I think you'd have to be a pretty good woodworker to make the mold and the base. My husband would fill those shoes, but he's got plenty of other projects on his list. I buy my supplies at DELS Nantuckets in Freetown, MA. The will make custom molds and bases if you have a project in mind that they don't stock in the store. It's a wonderful place!

Many thanks for commenting. I made this video for a guild presentation as back up in case I could not figure out how to do a live stream presentation via zoom. I managed the live stream so haven't yet had to use this video. My maru dai and some of my tama were made in England and are no longer available. I highly recommend Braider's Hand, both their marudai and their bobbins are excellent. I prefer a marudai with short legs so that I can position it in a way that works for me. I often braid standing up, and placing the marudai on a counter height stool is perfect. When I want to sit in a chair, the right height for the maru dai happens to be on a milk crate. I like having options which I would not have with the taller legs. I hope this helps. However you choose to braid you need to make sure that your arms are not too high or too low. You should be able to braid with your elbows at your side and arms straight out from there--about waist height.

I'm sorry I'm so late in responding! I never expected anyone to actually see this video. I made this for a presentation in case my live stream demo on zoom didn't work. Luckily it did work, so I did not use this video. For practice I often use #8 perle cotton for embroidery, or rayon embroidery floss. I've used all kinds of readily available, reasonably priced materials, including some passementerie items that are already braided. It's quite wonderful to braid with braids. But now I mostly use silk that is packaged for use in kumihimo. You can find it at Braider's Hand. And since I'm a fabric weaver I also have a good stash of fine silk which I occasionally use in braids. The kumihimo silk is about equivalent to 140/2 silk.

Thank you for commenting. I never expected any comments so I just now found it!

Thank for responding, Janet. I should make more videos and offer links and other ideas. All it takes is time! I write about kumihimo on my blog, and there is a bit more information there. www.argoknot.com

Thanks for your comment! I never imagined anyone seeing this other than the friend who asked for it. My staves are not stained. I guess I just used a batch of darker cherry. I will also tell you that I've had these staves for a couple of years--maybe longer--and cherry does darken with age. How is your basket progressing?

Hi Mr. Edison, I hope you've made progress on your basket and are enjoyng the process. I do not stain any of my basket parts. My staves may look dark because of the lighting I used in making the video, or because I buy large bags of cherry staves and they do darken as they age.