Made! Miyuki Tila beads "Monochrome Bracelet" kit

Even though we've been back in Zurich for nearly a month now, I still haven't sorted out and put away all the things I treated myself to in Japan - and one of them was this "Tila Beads Recipe" kit from Miyuki. I bought it in the stunning Yuzawaya craft shop in Kamata, just south of Tokyo on the JR and Tokyu lines. I hadn't seen any Tila beads in person before, and couldn't find any on sale in any of the craft shops I went to, so I snapped this kit up when I saw it (it was the only one in the shop!).

The kit comes with instructions for both the Monotone Bracelet and another kit which uses beaded beads made from Tila beads plus larger beads spaced out on a long necklace.

The contents of the kit, including 20m of black Miyuki monocord, a (very!) flexible beading needle, five colours of Tila beads, some matt black Delica beads, three fire-polished black drops, three headpins, and a small length of chain.

The instructions call for 2m of thread, doubled, with a 20cm tail to attach the clasp at the end - but this is how far I got with that. I ended up using as much thread as I can comfortably work with (about 4m doubled to 2m) and then followed their very nice instructions for tying off in the middle of the bracelet before joining the same amount of thread again. I had enough left over to work the clasp, but not much excess.


The instructions are simple - brick stitch - but following the pattern given for the colours gives a pleasing not-quite-random result. The needle is very thin (one of the few times I've really wanted one of those needle threaders) and bends easily.


The finished product! There were nine Tila beads left over, so I made a little pendant.

The mix of matt black, gloss black, frosted, silver and clear makes for a very nice variation around a very small colour base.

Unusually for a Miyuki product, there were two misshapen Delicas, and one of the fire-polished drop beads was cracked at the top.

Liked:

• Flat square beads with holes on each side? Tila beads practically cry out to be square-stitched and it's a really simple and relaxing kit to make.
• Using the black thread to give a 'stripe' to the clear beads is a nice touch.
• Plenty of thread and extra beads.
• Very clear instructions, including tying off, where and how to tie knots along the thread path, opening/closing jump rings and making a loop for headpins.

Disliked:

• The thread length in the instructions was far too short - unless you weren't meant to use doubled thread, but it shows two strands taped down. (I never use tape, instead I passed the thread through one of the fire-polished beads as a stopper bead.)
• The monocord thread was quite rough and fibrous. It feels very strong, especially doubled, but it isn't as flexible as some other threads and tends to stick in the eye of the needle and not pull the thread tight.

Overall, it's a great kit, with excellent instructions and it gives you a simple and effective way of showing off Tila beads!

Love it? Reuse it!

I'm always looking for storage boxes for my jewellery supplies, and although I acquired quite a few DIY storage boxes - the kind with the internal partitions to create lots of little sections - the sections are quite deep and narrow, and the hard plastic sometimes scraped things as I was fishing them out.

One unavoidable part of any trip to Japan is omiyage - literally, something from the local area, but in practice a small gift that you bring when you visit someone or bring back if you've been away on holidays.

Japan is still big on packaging, and food items to be given as gifts are often individually wrapped in paper or foil and then placed in formed trays inside boxes. The overall effect is beautiful, but you're left with almost as much wrapping as food in the end.

But there's always reuse! This colourful little box, which originally contained hiyoko cakes, which are sold at Tokyo Station, is great for holding smaller items like phone straps and earrings when I don't have room to put everything out on display. (If you look closely at the photo in the article linked above, you can just see the little yellow sign on the far right which says ひよこ - hiyoko!)

Inside, there are nine moulded compartments, which are reasonably deep but with smooth sides so it's easy to slide things out and they don't get damaged.

I have a few others like this, but this one is one of my favourites. ^_^

What about you? If you have any great, unusual or crafty storage ideas, please let me know!