I was asked about braids that work with uneven numbers of strands on the bobbins to create the textured effect seen in many of the braids used for Lithicbeads’ pendants. I don’t think this effect is appropriate for all braids. It works well with my “go to” braid – Rodrick Owen # 7.1 in his book “Braids, 250 patterns from Japan, Peru & beyond (see my earlier post with a review of this book)
The first picture shows the braid using woven silk yard (petite natural) using 1 strand per bobbin.
The second picture shows what happens if you use 1 strand on bobbins 1,4,5, and 8, and 2 strands on bobbins 2, 3, 6, and 7.
When using uneven numbers of strands per bobbin, a sharper bumpy pattern is created by lifting the bobbins upwards slightly while braiding, rather than trying to pass the bobbins across low and smoothly.
The last picture shows the same braid made larger, using DMC cotton embroidery thread in brown, with 4 strands and 6 strands per bobbin. This brown version isn’t quite as bumpy because the thicker bobbins do not hold 2x the strands, but only 1.5 times the thickness of the others.
When using a Maru Dai, the counterweight will also play into the texture. These were made using the standard proportion of 70 gram bobbins (x8 bobbins=560 grams) and 360 gram counterweight. So counterweight is about 50% of the total bobbin weight.
At the end of the post I have provided the pattern for this braid. For copyright reasons, I reproduced it by drawing my own pictures in Powerpoint, but I think you can get the idea. Just follow the arrows.
