To answer the comment from Susan, the stools that I use for my marudais when I'm teaching kumihimo are small folding ones from Canadian Tire. You have to watch out for the quality though — some of them are not very good and have nicks and rough spots on the wooden top. It's kind of hard to tell that when they're shrink-wrapped in plastic. To make them, Thom took off the metal bases (they just screw on) and put the wooden tops one at a time on his lathe to cut the holes. He's done over a dozen of them for me and my students. I find them a little short to sit at in a normal chair, but you could prop them up on something sturdy to the right height for your back. My infamous Cat...er, Morris chair is actually a good height for me since it's lower than a regular dining chair. I need to get that darn braid finished and in the mail! I'm obviously putting it off.

Speaking of kumihimo, I borrowed this intriguing book from a friend. Actually I just about wrenched it out of her hands, poor dear! I will give it back as soon as I figure out how to do some of the braids in it. It was written by Makiko Tada to be used with the Hamanaka disk and plate. These are stiff foam versions of the cardboard circles and squares that I learned to braid on. I only have the circle and would rather use the real marudai anyway but some of the braids for the plate are very interesting and I'm not sure whether they can be easily done on a marudai. I'll find out or I'll be making a cardboard square! Of course the whole thing is in Japanese but there are many diagrams. Plus I have 2 friends who can read Japanese which might come in handy. And of course I will share what I find out with the friend I originally borrowed it from. She already knows how to do some of the braids in here though because she took a seminar with Makiko at the ANWG conference in Tacoma a few weeks ago. Lucky duck.
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