Kumihimo: The art of Japanese Braiding

Fourth graders have made their maru dai braiding looms and started their first braid. If you haven't heard of this artform before, check out a previous post of mine for background and details.

Students watched a Keynote presentation giving the history of Japanese braiding - Samurai warriors were proficient at creating kumihimo braiding which secured their armor for battle. When not at war, they made and sold their braids to support themselves and their families.

My students made a loom from cardboard and warped it using 8 pieces of yarn - 4 pieces of a light color and 4 pieces of a dark color. To simplify things for me, each 4th grade class uses a different 2-color scheme - easy for me to identify which class the work belongs to if the name tag gets lost.

Most caught on to the rhythm of the pattern quickly,

others will take longer...

Fortunately, those who finish quickly can move on to a second braiding using any color combination so I'm free to give one-on-one help to those who need it most.

Confessions of a Tray-aholic

"Hello, my name is Nancie Kay and I'm a tray-aholic"...

I'm unloading/loading the kiln yesterday afterschool (..when will it ever end?!?) and as I look around for trays to sort the work, I realize that I must have a severe addiction to trays...

Some of my scavenged/donated freebies are:

Ventilated bread trays

and plastic soda trays that help speed the drying of my claywork.

My cardboard trays are donated by the guys who fill our soda machine every few weeks

and doesn't everybody use the lids to the hundreds of copy paper cases we go through every year?

These flat trays were rescued from science kits that were headed to the dumpster.

My everyday, hands-down favorites are the MARVELOUS clear plastic trays donated by a retired teacher's wife who does home health care.

Some trays were actually purchased with money

These were from Michael's Arts and Crafts - on sale for a buck of course!

Heavy duty trays were purchased by the school when we first opened our doors 8 years ago...

I've addressed my box fetish in a previous post & it appears that trays run a close second...

So - do you think it's genetics or environmental?