Kumihimo

I've spent the past week or so learning the basics of a new skill: kumihimo, or Japanese braiding. I've admired these braids for quite a while and discovered a tutorial on YouTube that made it seem easy. Several types of wooden equipment are available for kumihimo braiding, but you can get started with just a slotted disc (made from high density foam and available commercially at reasonable cost). While waiting for mine to arrive, I cut slits into the plastic top of a large coffee can and made my first 2 braids.

My first braid – this uses 8 strands of cord.

And this one has 16 strands of embroidery floss.














Finally the kumi disc arrived! I love it – it's so much easier to keep even tension on the strings!

I used 6-ply embroidery floss to make this (supposedly) ridged 12-strand braid. Well, it is ridged, but so slightly that you almost don't notice it.
I expected a much "steeper" ridge.



And finally, a beaded braid.

This piece was really a combination of practice and experiment, since I had no idea how many beads or how much string this would use. Eventually, I want to do something like this but with mixed bead sizes.


Now I'm waiting for a book with lots of patterns to arrive. I'll keep you posted!

Time Flew

Quite a lot of time has flown. I tried the local farmer's market. It was cold … and windy … and sales were slow. I did some small local craft shows. I had lots of compliments and a few sales. Well, I guess there'll be no issue with the tax man: LTD Beads is clearly a hobby! I've used this period to try out different craft shows and learn my market.

I also found a position with (and this I almost can't believe) a local typesetting company. Now, back when desktop publishing put most typesetters out of business, this company switched to prepress for major book publishers. This worked well until recently. Alas, I've been laid off for lack of work. Is it ereaders and ebooks? Is it outsourcing to India and the Philippines? Is it the economy? At any rate, it was a grim repeat of the end of my own type shop: the work just stopped. Abruptly, dramatically … something like falling off a cliff.

I simply cannot believe I'm in my sixties and back on unemployment. I'm truly getting too old for this.

LTD Beads is on the Web!

I never would have dreamed this process could take so long – or be so hard. First I needed a business name, one I could use as a dot.com on the web. Well, guess what. Just about every name you can think of is already taken in the .com world. Even "Joan's Stones" (not that I wanted to use THAT as my business name) is already taken. When I found that LTD Beads was available, I grabbed it immediately. You can check it out at http//www.ltdbeads.com. People ask what LTD stands for, and I tell them that it's a bit like LTD in business – not that LTD Beads is a limited corporation – but that production of my designs is limited in number – sometimes one-of-a-kind.

Then I learned HTML and created my site, validated the coding, the works. Of course, HTML is no longer sufficient, so I also learned some CSS. Then I researched hosting services. Then I researched shopping carts. I finally decided ZenCart had all the features I wanted and signed up with a web host that supported it. At this point I thought I would have LTD Beads up, on the web, open for business, within a week or two. Boy was I ever wrong.

Now I've got to admit right about here that I took a good long break from fighting with the website and went to work for some friends of mine who had just purchased a local business. And this used enough time and energy that I set the whole website problem aside and just did a few craftshows and lots more jewelry designs. Oh, and I also taught some jewelry-making classes at a local craftstore.

Time, of course, marched right along until finally I knew I HAD to get moving on the website. So I changed to the PayPal shopping cart, which has none of the special features I wanted, but does let you simply insert the coding for the "add to cart" button into your HTML page wherever you want to put it. And http://www.ltdbeads.com is up and running and my first order on the web is complete.

I'd really love any and all feedback you might have on my website – and jewelry – design. I'll be adding new jewelry designs regularly.

The First Day

The big day is here, the first day of my new business. Plans were to register my business name, apply for a sales tax number, purchase insurance and bring the necessary paperwork to the Farmer's Market to get a table this coming weekend. Checking the weather first thing, here's what I saw. That's nearly two feet of very wet, heavy snow. And this is mid-April; my crocuses have finished blooming.

The front view showed a foot of snow in the road, which must have been plowed hours earlier. I'm at a T-intersection; the plow comes up the crossroad, turns and leaves an amazing mountain at the foot of my driveway. No way could I get out without three hours of shoveling.

One of the nice things about self-employment is that you can make instant decisions, which I immediately did by deciding to work on the website and blog today instead of driving around town. Here's hoping tomorrow brings the return of spring.

Prologue

Does it start with my childhood rock collection? Or with LetterCrafters, my first business? (LetterCrafters was a typesetting shop in the old days before desktop publishing.) Or with the advice I give my daughter in college: take whatever courses interest you, your goal is to find out what you will enjoy doing for the rest of your life. Perhaps it starts when I suddenly lost a job that I loved. Or on the day the unemployment people took a few of us aside to share that the powers-that-be in head office felt we were the group least likely to find work before unemployment ran out.

At any rate, it was with a touch of unreality that I sat down, nearing age 60, to decide what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. Retirement was not an option - for who can retire with a child in college. I'd tell myself that change is opportunity, pull out my beads and make a necklace to relieve the stress.

And that's what I kept coming back to: I really want to make beaded jewelry. I love rocks. I love jewelry. I've got a good eye for design, educated by 20 years in the graphic arts industry. My eyesight and fine motor skills are excellent.

So I've decided to give it a try. I'll start with a table at the local (Syracuse, NY, USA) farmer's market and see how it goes. And get a website going as soon as possible. And tell myself, again and again, "change is opportunity."