Braids made on the Karakumidai use special silk threads wound on bobbins called hira-dama. These are very lightweight tama (roughly 5gr to 8gr) traditionally made by folding washi (paper) around a coin. The silk is attached to a leader thread and wound around the hira-dama. As the braid progresses, lengths of silk are wound off the hira-dama as needed.
