Customer Reviews

Beginner's Guide to Braiding: The craft of Kumihimo

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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This is Japanese braiding. As with so many other crafts, the Japanese start with the same materials used by workers anywhere else in the world. Then, they apply their own techniques to create something completely new.

This book gives clear, simple directions for making or improvising the tools needed. It takes a bit of effort to hold the incomplete work in place and feed in each strand as needed, so the tools really are necessary. You can't just grab a few strings and try the techniques. The tools are easy to put together from common household materials - film canisters, coins, and a few other things - so don't let that put you off.

The braids themselves are presented in beautiful photos, along with clear, complete directions for making each one. The photos also show how one braid can look very different according to the colors and kinds of strands woven together.

It's not something to pick up casually on a rainy day and try with your kid. It takes some preparation, and some practice to get an even result. That is well within reach of the home crafter, though, and well worth the effort.

This book was VERY easy to learn from (and I had to learn all the vocabulary from the book, too! The vocabulary is all English. She doesn't use many Japanese words. I didn't really even know what it was when I bought the book.) It took less than a minute to figure out how to do each of the different braids because the charts were so easy to understand. (I didn't even have to read the accompanying text). There are many pictures and they are in full color. This lady REALLY knows how to teach and explain!

I did not have a marudai, but because her many pictures were quite well thought out, it was easy to see what was necessary, I was able to construct one out of the box my books came from (it needn't be round). Rolls of 25 pennies can be used as bobbins. Emroidery floss doesn't work well, as it is not long enough...one should use embroidery thread on spools for this. <-She does speak of this in the book, but a lot of people buy the tools with the book without being able to read through it first.

The braids one can learn are all made with 8 bobbins. She explains how the colors and patterns can be changed with a change of thread color or thread texture.

If you are thinking of this book to make obijime: These are all basic braids (nothing too fancy), so it is an excellent beginners book...but it will not make the fancier braids you see in most flat obi jime. It will make the braids for round obijime, though.

This is a good book for beginners because it has different variationf for the 4 basic braids for 8 bobbins all spelled out. Also, there are photographs of Jacqui's hands and the movements, which is good if you are teaching yourself. She also makes some suggestions for improvised equipment, very useful until you decide you are well and truly hooked and can't live without real equipment.

I found this book to be an excellent guide for the rank amateur....which I AM! It is very easy to understand with good photos and drawings. Perhaps the best part is that it tells you how to make your very own tools and spools (just in case you don't want to go buy everything before you even know if you have an affinity for it).

I had ordered this book with the hopes that it would teach me how to make jewelry. It does teach you how to make nice brades, the pictures and instructions are very clear. But it does not cover ending the braids, other than just in a tassel. I could have figured that bit out on my own, and I really wish it had covered how to end the braids in other ways. There were samples of hings you could do with the braids, but it did not discuss how to get those samples made.

I'd gotten a little plastic kumihimo disk at a bead show, and the instructions that came with it were in Japanese - after a while, I was ready to move on from the most basic braids and needed a text in English! This book is full of lavish photos that are very inspiring, and includes instructions for combining different types of fibers in the same braid. I haven't gotten the chance to try any of them yet, but the patterns look like they will translate just fine to my kumihimo disk rather than requiring the more elaborate setups detailed in the book. I'm very excited to get started!

This is an excellant beginners guide to Kumihimo. Pictures and diagrams are easy to follow!

I don't have the loom to start the braiding yet but from what I have read and seen just by looking at the book it will be very useful in instructing me in how to do kumihimo braiding. It is very detailed and easy to understand espcially since it is in color and shows you in pictures each step. I consider it a great book for beginners.

I'm very pleased with this book. It has all the braiding patterns I'll need for a good while, and the instructions are easy to follow and the illustrations are clear. This is not a book about the history and all that; it's just patterns, which is what I was after.

This is a great book for people with an interest in Kumihimo. Full of step by step pictures and lots of patterns to follow.