Kumihimo on a Disk: From First Braid to Beaded

Bench guide · reviewed November 2026 · 8-strand round (Kongō gumi)

What kumihimo actually is

Kumihimo means "gathered threads": a family of Japanese braids, some of them centuries old, worked by moving strands around a stand — traditionally a wooden marudai with weighted bobbins. The foam disk is the modern, couch-sized version of that stand, and the 8-strand round braid (Kongō gumi, the "diamond" braid) is the one everyone should start with. It is genuinely the friendliest braid in stringcraft: three hours to learn, a lifetime of colors to vary.

The kit

Setup: eight bobbins, four points

1. Cut eight cords about 30 in (75 cm) each for a practice braid. For a beaded bracelet braid, cut longer — see lengths below.
2. Gather them at the middle, tie a temporary overhand knot, and drop the knot through the center hole of the disk. The eight cords hang downward like a jellyfish.
3. Load the bobbins so the slack on each strand stays wound and tidy.
4. Slot the strands at N, E, S, W — one strand to the left and one to the right of each of the four black dots. That "two per point" is 8 strands at 4 points.
5. Hang your weight from the knot under the disk. Tension on the braid starts here.

The one move, repeated

All of Kongō gumi is one move said twice, then the disk turns a quarter turn:

1. Take the upper-right strand at the top point, move it down, and slot it to the right of the bottom point.
2. Take the lower-left strand at the bottom point, move it up, and slot it to the left of the top point.
3. Turn the disk a quarter turn (90°, either direction — just keep it consistent).
4. Repeat forever. For a pattern, keep the same hand order and let the disk's dots carry the rhythm.

Cord lengths that don't humiliate you

The eaten length is real: roughly a third of your cord goes into the twist and the tails. When you braid with beads strung ahead of time, add whatever the beads cost in slack too. The Bead Bench app does this arithmetic per project — cord lengths, end-cap sizes, and the grams of beads — so the supplies list reads like a real order form rather than a guess.

Adding beads without wrecking the braid

Two things get people: prestringing and seating. Prestringing belongs on the strands before braiding starts, in the order the pattern wants, threaded with a big-eye needle. Choose beads that ride the cord comfortably — size 6/0 rounds on 1 mm S-Lon, 3–4 mm beads on 1.5 mm satin. Then the rhythm changes slightly: braid your move, and as each strand comes into position, slide one bead down snug against the braid, then take the next move. One bead per pass, always snug before the next crossing. Slide two at once and you'll find out why the classic advice is "slow down, you're not late for anything."

Finishing ends

1. Braid ½–1 in past your finished length, then tie a temporary overhand knot to lock everything.
2. Trim the weight-side tails to even stubs, wet a crumb of glue, and wick it into the knot. Let it dry hard.
3. Cut just past the knot, slide an end cap over the braid, and adhere the braid inside with a pin-curd of glue. Match the cap to the braid's finished diameter — measure, don't hope.
4. For adjustable pieces, a sliding knot over each end is quieter than hardware and friendlier to gift-lists.

Kumihimo rewards the "twenty minutes while watching something" kind of crafter better than almost any other string craft — and the app carries the disk diagram and bobbin loading for every single move, on 8 or 16 bobbins, beaded or plain, so the chart-in-hand problem never reappears.