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Over the past month or so, I have spent a bit of time exploring garlands made using cotton twill tape a la Hisao Oono.

Hisao_Oono_Garland_in_Action

Hisao Oono Garland in Action

As one can see from Mr. Oono's videos, one can create a quite tangle-resistant garland that does not require segmentation into individual looplets. This is very nice as it makes construction much less time-consuming than garlands that need a split ring and swivel for each individual looplet.

Not knowing what twill tape to use, I ordered three varieties back in January: 1/4", 3/8" and 3/8" heavyweight. I had been told that anything wider than 1/8" up to about 1/2" should work.

What I have found is that the 1/4" tape is very prone to foldovers. I have tried several methods to mitigate the issue and they do mitigate the issue, but one is much better off using tape that does not require mitigation.

The 3/8" tape is pretty foldover resistant -- at least with the dimensions that I was using: about 5-1/2" for the top part of the loop and 12" for the bottom. The bottom lengths are cut to 13" but 1/2" of either side is used for attachment to the top.

The capacity of the 1/4" tape is fine. It creates plenty of bubbles and I plan to try that material as a bottom string for a normal tri-string. But, it is foldover prone.

I did a shootout between the twill garalands and may many other garlands with the goal of comparing them. There wasn't enough window to do much in the way of capacity comparisons, but I was able to compare ease of use.

I compared:

  • 3/8" heavyweight twill with 5-1/2" tops and 12" bottoms (non-segemented)
  • 1/4" twill with 5" tops and 11" bottoms (non-segemented)
  • 1/4" twill with 5-1/2" tops and 17" bottoms (non-segemented)
  • 3/16" diamond braid (Lehigh/SecureLine) cotton cord 6" tops/12" bottoms (segmented with swivels between each looplet)
  • 3/16" diamond braid (Lehigh/SecureLine) cotton cord tops (6") with 12" t-shirt yarn bottoms (initial yarn width 1/2") (segmented with swivels between each looplet)
  • full-ply rayon mop yarn tops (6") with t-shirt yarn bottoms (12" bottoms) (segmented with swivels between each looplet)
  • full-ply rayon mop yarn tops (6") with two-ply rayon mop yarn bottoms (12") that had been woven in (segmented with swivels between each looplet)

The only garland that was prone to foldovers was the 1/4" twill (which does work well for smaller looplets). It had been so long since I had used the other garlands that I had forgotten how foldover resistant they are.

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