Making a Round Braid and a Flat Braid on the Marudai

Hand movements and color placements is what create the structure of a braid. In this short video I will demonstrate what causes a braid to be round and a bit later what causes a braid to be flat. I'll briefly discuss the color placement in these two braids. This video is geared for beginner students of braiding on the marudai.

[@lavenderrainbow5041]

Whoa! I have never heard of a Marudai! I neeeeeed to find me one asap! I sense how this could be so relaxing. Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us :)

[@chadwicmears]

Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm currently an international student in Japan and I want to learn this before I go back to my home country.

[@jolie0921]

Could you do a explain on how to begin the kumihimo? Like the very start do you tie a type of starting knot or something?

[@Orelinde25]

Thank you for sharing! Not easy at all to find demonstration of Kumihimo making!

[@paperthyme]

Do you have a video on preping the thread bundles? Not dying to measuring and how many per bundle?

[@marieazrak1951]

That's hard

[@katherinekaanga7745]

thank you for sharing. what type of thread do you use

[@ozweaver1]

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.

[@aliciacastaneda8101]

Parte 2