The making of a fillgap braid, Saleris style

The picture below is of me holding a working fillgap braid.

All my own handiwork, from setting up the paper templates for a polygon on Corel
Draw, pasting them onto cardboard and cutting out the shape (in the picture
below, an octagon), then cutting out the centre hole and the slots with an
exacto knife.

I cut out rectangles for cardboard bobbins and wind them with the yarn, cotton
floss, silk or rayon thread I'm going to make the braid with.

I get an empty film canister and put in some coppers (pennies and 2p pieces) and
use thread scraps off old braids to make loops to attach them to the growing
braids. When I need to, I go to film developing shops and ask for empty film
canisters - I get a bag of them for free.

Finally, I choose some of those wound bobbins, I bind together the threads at
one end to begin my braiding and push the loop through the middle hole and
attach the weighted film canister. I then put the threads in the slots and start
braiding.

If I'm lucky and get the right cardboard for the bobbins, the noise of them
bouncing off each other as I move threads from slot to gap is akin to bamboo
chimes.

I like doing fillgap braiding.

Bye for now.