Redesign/ vintage kumihimo

Yesterday I was lucky to get a parcel with some nice, vintage silk thread I got on Etsy.
The thread is about 100 years old, or even more, the quills say "Patented Dec 18 1870. Brainerd & Armstrong Co". Each thread is quite thin, so I´ve used 3 threads x 16 to make this delicate braid.
I´m not done yet, it takes ages with such thin braiding, but I though I´d show you some pictures of the process. When done, I´ll finish it with sterling silver details.

The threads curl because the´ve been on the quills. 

What do you think? 

This will be one-of a kind, and if I can bare to part with it, it´ll come in a beautiful handmade box with documentation of the process and the quills used.

New patterns and some upcoming news.

I´ve been busy lately, learning new patterns for my kumihimo disc.
I thought I´d show you what´s being made on the boat and in front of the tv!
I´ll post tutorials for some later, when the light is good for pictures.

16 strand round braid diamond pattern

16 strand round braid hearts pattern

8 strand flat pattern with edge color

I´m also working on creating both start-up packs and courses in kumihimo.
I´ll be arranging my first course in a few weeks, and for now, they´re on request only,
for minimum 4 people attending. I´ll need about 2 weeks to prepare start-up packs,
and can hold the course in the evening or on the weekend. 4 hours duration.

Vil du lære kumihimo? 4 timers kurs med startpakke kan bestilles hos meg.
Kurset holdes i Oslo-området og evt. i Lillehammer-området. Kontakt meg på mail for mer info.
E-post: thomasine@gmail.com
Jeg trenger ca. 2 uker til å forberede kurset (bestillingstid på utstyr) og dere må være minimum 4 stykker.

More Japanese items sneaking their way into my house.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Copenhagen. I used to live there, so to me it´s a little bit like a second hometown. I always drop by "Sticks n´sushi", to eat and to stock up on Japanese items. This time I got away with a nice selection of soy, miso dip and sauces, plus a brand new matcha sifter! Oh, and me and Mr. Linuz had a great evening with food and sake off course....

Check out my new matcha sifter! (Matcha-what? you say...) I´ll show you how it works soon. Or wait; it sifts matcha! ;)

You can check out Sticks n´sushi´s menu here, if you happen to be in Danmark/ Copenhagen area (lucky you!): Sticks n´sushi website
Pst: We would love to have one in Oslo you guys....

New adventures in silk!

So lately I´ve been thinking of new things to make jewelry with, and as I searched Etsy, I found some nice silk threads.
I bought some and a few days ago they arrived from England. The rose and lilac color one was a bit thin so I had to double them up twice to get an ok braid. But the pastels worked fine. I´ve made one bracelet with flower pattern in soft pastels.

Now I´m waiting for some vintage silk floss to see if I can make an exclusive line of krysantemum design bracelets and earrings in vintage (1890-1920) silk floss and sterling silvers findings. Oh, let the parcels come quick!
Let me know if you´d like a very special silk bracelet, they´re going to be "one of a kind", in limited quantities...

I also have some more ideas regarding my braiding, both "start-up packs" and courses. Stay tuned!