There is a simple way to change, to permute, the osage two diamonds in order to make one, three or four diamonds. It consists of twisting the loops boefore starting the hand’s dance necessary to make two diamonds.

one diamond

Loom Phase: same as Osage Two Diamonds

Weaving Phase: · Bring the hands together, and with the left thumb and index finger
grasp both strings of the right index finger loop (near the base of the finger). Twist the right index finger toward you, down, away, and back up to where it started, then let go of the strings held by the left thumb and index. In a similar fashion, twist the right little finger loop a full 360º toward you.

With your thumbs, reach away from you, over three strings, and pick up
the fourth string (the far little finger string) from underneath. Return the
thumbs to their starting position.

After making all the same moves as you did to make the original osage two diamonds, now you should have made one large diamond.

three diamonds

Now you are ready to rotate the index and little finger loops of the second hand you used when opening the three loop beginning. For most people this will be the left hand. Now do the weaving phase above except you will be holding the loop near the left hand and twisting toward you and back up to complete the rotation for both index and little fingers. Then proceed to make all the usual moves to make two diamonds and you will have succeeded in making three diamonds.

four diamonds

Loom Phase: same as Osage Two Diamonds

Weaving Phase: Same as One Diamond, but in addition to twisting the right index and right little finger loops, also twist the left index and left little finger

Extension Phase: Same as Osage Two Diamonds. The result is Four Diamonds.

The appropriate videos are below.

One diamond from the maker’s viewpoint

extended discussion of the one diamond figure

Three diamonds from the maker’s viewpoint.

extended discussion of the three diamond figure

Four diamonds from the maker’s viewpoint

extended discussion of the four diamond figure

extended discussion of one, three and four diamonds

five and six diamonds

seven diamonds

things to consider

So far you have learned a simple system of making different numbers of diamond figures. The next phase of your learning will entail a similar figure to the osage two diamonds you have now mastered. It is called jacob’s ladder by many and sometimes referred to as osage four diamonds. Then you will be ready to learn how to form any number of diamonds.

Variations with Opening B

i also encourage my students to make all of the above starting with Opening B (pick up the right palm string with the left index first, then the other hand).

The results are rather surprising — One Diamond gives Three Diamonds and Three Diamonds give One Diamond (with minor differences in string crossings).