Kumihimo Necklace with Japanese triangles

Furthering my adventures in kumihimo, I wanted to try another interesting bead shape - the Japanese triangle, size 11. (Remember the lentils? - that gorgeous necklace is still available on Etsy!)

kumihimo rope with 11/0 Japanese triangles

This necklace started out to be a simple kumihimo rope, with that gorgeous teardrop lampwork pendant as the focal. But that plan got derailed rather quickly.

Stringing the 11/0 triangles was no easy feat, but nothing compared to the braiding. When I do kumihimo, I like a lot of tension on the braid, so in addition to the weight I suspend from the bottom of the braid, I also grip the braid tightly between the 4th and 5th fingers of my left hand (the thumb and other 2 fingers are holding the disc) - and squeezing the sharp triangle braid as it lengthened was pretty painful on my tender little fingers!

So after about 4 inches of it was braided, I realized I needed a plan B. I attached the focal pendant, braided an equal length of kumihimo on the other side, and capped the braid on both ends. And put on my thinking cap.

The blues in the focal and kumihimo braid go so well with green, and of course, with white pearls, that I fell back on that color combo, and strung a multistrand necklace with green and white freshwater pearls, kyanite, dumortierite, and Swarovski pearls. I had a beautiful sterling silver branch and leaf box clasp that deserved to be showcased in the front of a necklace, so I put the closure in front, and added some dangles. I love how this piece turned out - it is much more interesting than if I had gone with plan A!

multistand pearl, gemstone, and Kumihimo necklace

And, it's available on Etsy!