Martha Schaefer

Here’s my setup – I went for blues, greens, and metallic.

I found this to be a very challenging braid for what I had thought were my intermediate skills, but very rewarding.  I found the metallic fiber handled very differently than silk, and I wish I knew of some good tips for keeping it in line.

Now waiting for endcaps to finish into a necklace. 🙂

I’m just getting started on my necklace today.  I have a question about the placement of the bead cords.  My notes said to put the cords with larger beads in the clockwise direction, so that they get locked down by the lighter cords, but the figure on p. 4 seems to show the opposite.  Is there a mistake in the figure or am I not understanding some…[Read more]

Thank you Giovanna, I wasn’t sure that Fray Check would work on this material.  Glad to hear it does.

This will just be a sample for my records.  After going through the patterns in the class, I tried three patterns from the Rodrick Owen book, pattern 15 (very narrow and tight), pattern 30 (very wide with a stripe down the middle), and finally p…[Read more]

I’m nearly done with my sample braid using Mondrian, the PU coated cotton.  I was wondering how to go about finishing the braid and stabilizing the ends?  I saw that we should just tie the ends from the two sides in a knot at first, but I’m not sure how to handle it from there.

I wasn’t fond of the PU.  It seemed to have a lot of friction and wa…[Read more]

I’m really pleased with these braids.  It was such a learning experience!  I know my sample has mistakes, but I was definitely finding it much easier to braid by the time I reached the end.  One thing in particular: I am very happy I decided to try just the Edo Yatsu switching at the very beginning, because it made Hira-Nejiri 3 so much easier to…[Read more]

Thank you! That is working.  I must have been overthinking it. 🙂

I think I’m starting to get the hang of the covered Edo Yatsu, but I am looking forward to watching Makiko’s hand movements again now that I have some idea of what she was doing.  My real question is how to transition from a section of color 1 being on the inside and color 2 on the outside, to a section of the opposite, with color 2 on the inside…[Read more]