Over the last few years, Gabi found great enjoyment working with the amazing diversity and beauty of Kumihimo. Kumihimo is a traditional Japanese artform of making braids and cords used when wearing kimono, or lacing samurai’s body armour and horses’ armour. Yarns, or cords, or in Japan it is commonly silk are braided with the use of traditional, specialised looms – either a marudai or a takadai. In modern days, more and more artisans are adopting the braiding techniques of Kumihimo to create unique jewellery and accessories. For simple braids, we use now foam disks, usually round ones for round braids and square ones for flat braids. We create different patterns by arranging the cords in certain ways. The more cords you have, the more possibilities with colours and patterns you get, it’s almost endless. Many of Gabi’s Kumihimo braided pieces incorporate glass beads, gemstones or antique silver centre beads. A variety of colours, cords, beads and little ornaments can be incorporated in this fine ancient art of Japanese Braiding. Gabi developed her own techniques and styles by creating individual bracelets and necklaces. All her jewellery is lovingly made, certainly unique and can be created to suit a great variety of tastes, colours and clothing.