Kumihimo Beaded Bracelets from Prima Bead

So for the August project as a member of the Prima Bead Blogger Team, I was sent a box full of Kumihimo supplies. Here's what Prima Bead sent me:

The first thing I saw when I opened the package, was the spools and the loom. I didn't have a clue what they were and what I was supposed to do with it. For a full day and through the night I panicked. How am I supposed to blog about this strange stuff? How am I going to make anything worth blogging about? I was starting to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.

The next day I dug into it. And guess what? It's really not hard at all. In fact, my 11 year old daughter even made a braided bracelet for her friend. Once I got going, it was kind of addicting. Every Friday for the next three weeks, I'll be showing you how I made the different bracelets. So be sure to check back for the tutorials.

The first bracelet I tried was a solid beaded bracelet.  One thing I learned: Don't braid too long at the beginning before you add the beads or at the end. In fact, I'm still working on that, but I'm getting better.

The next bracelet I tried was this blue bracelet speckled with gold beads. I did end up buying some bronze findings. I'm one of those people who don't like to mix my metals. I couldn't bring myself to use a silver clasp with the gold beads. This was really easy to create this look. It's all in how you string the beads on. I'll be sharing exactly how I created this look soon.

The next bracelet I made started out as an accident and ended up being my favorite of the bunch. I wanted to make a tutorial of how to do Kumihimo and so I grabbed different colored embroidery thread so it would be easier to demonstrate through pictures. I ended up loving how it looked and started playing around with adding beads only some of the time. I'm so excited about how it turned out. I entered a beaded bracelet using this method into my county fair and got a blue ribbon! A tutorial is in the works for this bracelet as well.

I also made a braided anklet with the same colors of thread.

 The last bracelet I made was this spiral bracelet, with the blue and gold beads. Another easy method that I'll be sharing soon.

Here's the schedule for my Kumihimo tutorials:

August 23 - Braided Bracelets

August 30 - Beaded Bracelets

Sept 6 - Embroidery Thread and Seed Bead Bracelets. 

I am a Prima Bead Blog Team Member. I am also an affiliate of Prima Bead. I receive product from Prima Bead. In return, I create jewelry pieces from that product, and share about them through my blog and other social media outlets. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.