200 Braids To Twist, Knot, Loop Or Weave by Jacqui Carey
Ok, I'm not holding back on this book. It is utterly delicious! 200 Braids, at over 250 pages, is a small (maybe 5" x 6"), hard back with spiral interior pages and every page is full color. While intended for braiding with yarns and threads, its use for wire braiding holds firm.
Honestly, there's nothing I don't just love about this marvelous little book. It starts out with the usual introduction on how to use the book with information about yarns and beads and how to make multiple strands. Section One: Techniques, includes: twisting, knotting, interlooping, weaving, braiding, ply-split darning, working with beads, beginnings and ends and concludes with a blurb on using narrow wares. What's so impressive about this section is that every step of every different technique is both fully illustrated (with illustrations as well as photos) to make doing the techniques fool proof.
Section Two: The Braid And Trim Collection includes: braid and trim selector, twisting, knotting, loopwork, weaving, braiding and ply-split darning. ALL of these techniques show multiple, color samples!! I swear that I must have died and gone to heaven. To be able to SEE what each of these techniques creates saves so much time in trying out these techniques. Naturally, since they're all done in gorgeous fibers, one has to translate that information into wire which will look substantially different given that wire doesn't have the heft of fiber. Nevertheless, you can clearly see the many different patterns that can be created very clearly.
With a rather Spartan assortment of woven wire technique books on the market, I often have found myself turning to other crafts/mediums to extend my wire working abilities. 200 Braids is one of those books and it doesn't disappoint. While a number of wire working how-to books often include smaller wire weaving sections, 200 Braids is a comprehensive book that you'll find yourself referring to again and again. Just click either of the two links below to buy from Amazon.
