Customer Reviews

Wheat Weaving and Straw Art: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Learning the Craft (Heritage Crafts)

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This spiral-bound book is exquisite and is perfect for the novice as well as experienced-weavers of wheat straw. The photos and instructions are clear, detailed and lovely to just look at. The author also includes a list of suppliers and resources such that there is no reason not to get started on weaving wheat asap and making ornaments not only for your Christmas tree but for other holidays, as well.

If you usually save your December issues of the Martha Stewart Living mag., you will find that in the Dec. 2001 issue--I think that's the date--Martha demonstrates how to make wheat straw ornaments which are very attractive. Apparently such ornaments are an ancient tradition celebrating the harvest of grain. It's a folk art that is easily learned, and Amazon has priced this book much lower than other suppliers.

I found the list of straw art terms to be very useful for me, a novice in this art. I had seen the term scandi on a supplier's Web site but no explanation of its meaning: According to this book, scandi is mass-produced, prepared plait, aka braid.

There are a number of projects in this book, and if you look at the cover, enlarged on Amazon, you will see a photo of a lovely wreath on the left side of the cover; that is project 14 in the book and one that I am anxious to try. The author also includes instructions for making straw stars and mounting them on notecards and demonstrates how to prepare straw marquetry to place on notecards by using paper punches to punch out various designs on flattened straw. There are even instructions for making drop earrings using straw! This is a great book, and I recommend it highly.