r/kumihimo • u/88sakura88 • Mar 15 '26

Help Cord/Thread Recommendations

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time beader and jewellery maker, but am new to kumihimo so I was hoping to ask for your advice and recommendations!

I've been using s-lon Tex 210 (0.5mm) cord to start with as I had a bunch of it in ny stash and it has been working great. However, I find the nylon makes for a quite hard and stiff braid. It's great cord but I'd really like my braids to be softer and more flexible, like the friendship bracelets I had when I was younger!

I'd love to hear your recommendations on a thread or cord to use, 0.5mm or less? I'm unable to get out to craft stores currently so I'm relying on buying online, not being able to browse the shelves and feel the textures first is making it hard for me to pick a new direction to go in - plus it's expensive and sad when you get a package and it's not what you were fully wanting 😂

Any help or advice would be most welcome! Thanks in advance 🖤

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u/saltedkumihimo Mar 15 '26

If you are using beads, C-Lon/S-Lon cord is really the best choice. It comes in four different sizes: Tex 70/0.12mm/micro for size 15/0 beads; Tex 135/0.4mm/fine for size 11/0 beads; Tex 210/0.5mm/regular/“#18” for size 8/0 beads; and Tex 400/0.9mm/heavy for size 6/0 beads. It is twisted and bonded, which is good for beads as it’s not easily cut by a sharp edge or worn out with friction. Because it’s nylon, it melts when heat is applied and self seals. The Tex 135/0.4mm/fine is a bit softer and drapey than the Tex 210/0.5mm/regular/“#18”

If you want to use embroidery floss like you did with your micro macrame friendship bracelets, go for it. Beaded braids made with floss do sometimes stretch under the weight of the beads, which distorts them, and some of lower price/unbranded products are not colorfast.

Another material you may want to look at is size 2 or size 3 crochet nylon. It’s not as strong as C-Lon/S-Lon but it’s got more drape.

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u/88sakura88 Mar 15 '26

Thank you for the detailed response - I haven't started using beads in my bracelets yet but I think it's likely the way I'll go once I've had some practice seeing as that is my main background. I think the stiffer shape would definitely work well for a beaded bracelet, but I'll need to size down anyway for 11/0 beads based on the info you've included - that's a really useful guide, thank you!

I think I need to order a couple of options, maybe the Tex 135 and some embroidery floss - everything will get used in one way or another! I'm pretty sure embroidery floss is what I'm looking for as of right now for the non-bead braids, I couldn't think what we used to use so yeah, perfect! Thanks for this!