So, over the last week, I've been making some videos for my YouTube channel. And I've been working on some braiding experiments. 'Mmmmm, experiments!'
Yes, when I began this blog I was working on one experiment to test the idea of the structural differences between kute-uchi and kumihimo. But last week I also realized I needed a second experiment and had an opportunity to implement that.
For structural difference experiment, I tested out some braids made with 550 cords because of their larger size in comparison to yarns. The idea was to take these larger braids and encase them in resin and create cutaways, an end cut and a fillet cut. However, as I started making the braids the polyester in 550 cord prevented the braids from having the proper tension and therefore the proper structure. With that result, I turned to my first book of braids for the samples of kute-uchi I need for resin encasement. I’ll need to reset my takadai to make some samples, but I have some time for that for a report due in April.
The idea that there is a fundamental structural difference between kute-uchi and kumihimo is not new, Masako has been working on this since the early 1980’s. My second experiment to test a theory I have on the economic reasons to keep kute-uchi. When I first began doing kute-uchi, I noticed that it was much faster or least it seemed that way. I’ve written about this and theorized it before in earlier papers, but I’ve never tested it. Over the weekend I realized that I had an opportunity to test this theory. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I belong to a medieval reenactment group the SCA. And over the next two and a half months there are several weekend events and one week-long event with lots of people. See for this type of experiment you want to have a large sample size and preferably across a variety of skill levels in braiding. I could time myself, but there’s room for lots of variables and leaves it open if someone wanted to claim I manipulated my skill in kumihimo to make it seem slower.
So my set up will have three major portions, a timed event from start to finish each having identical length elements, pre-started braids where the subject braids for a set amount of time and recording the resulting length, and finally a timed event for just preparing the braids. For the first portion, the reason I say element length is that the loops in kute-uchi each contain two elements and to make the kumihimo single element threads identical in length to the loops means the braid will be almost twice as long. So by making the element lengths identical the braids should come out relatively equal in length thus making a direct time comparison possible. Ideally, all of my results would come from this portion, but because of the nature of the events I attend and people’s attention span, I’ve broken it into two sections. A nice short timed braiding where the equal braiding time means a direct length measurement becomes possible. The second section is the timed preparation. This is important because time spent preparing braids adds to the overall work-hours in a braid. If the actual braiding takes relatively equal time, but the preparation shows a large disparity, then it still influences the economic impact.
I hope that I can get enough sample sizes by mid-April to include in my paper along with good samples of the resin encasements to help further or adjust those theories.