Kumihimo Wire Jewelry by Giovanna Imperia, subtitled Essential Techniques + 20 Jewelry Projects for the Japanese Art of Braiding. Excellent photos of interesting projects with good detailed description on how Japanese braids are made, how wire behaves, finishing a braid for jewelry, some metal working techniques and an excellent suppliers list. Full color, softcover, 144 pages, $21.99. Errata

Takadai Rep Braids by Richard Sutherland. Learn how to produce colorful belt-width braids by adapting a standard size takadai for use with 80 weighted threads. Richard combines the freedom of fingerbraiding with the orderliness of a takadai. Six original patterns suitable for cotton, wool, or silk belts are provided, with methods for buckle or sash starts. Included is a detailed section on creating one’s own unique designs.

Soft cover, the monograph contains 30 pages, 31 color illustrations, and reproducible graphs. $20.00

Errata for page 23, on both the color graph and the plain graph, a hatch mark needs to be added to Right Side Moves 9 and 10. On Move 9 the right side square touching the center line, and Move 10 the square next to it (one up from the center line).

Sixty Sensational Samples: A Kumihimo Collection by Shirley Berlin and Carol Goodwin. This book can be used as a workbook. All you need to know is how to use a marudai (or a disk). The book consists of color photos of the braids (back and front and close-up) and all the information needed to recreate them along with very helpful comments by the authors.
Spiral bound, soft cover, around 100 pages. $37.50

The Thirty-Seven Interlacements of Hira Kara Gumi by Rosalie Neilson is created with graphics from Braid Runner, the book describes how the binary code can be used to predict unique two-color designs out of a possible 254. It is a limited edition book of 500 copies, each signed and numbered, presenting research into unique design possibilities of kumihimo. The book, based on a model of a Japanese folded page book, has 60 folded pages, the artwork on the cover is representative of the stitched-and-silk binding of Japanese books. $24.00

The Twenty-Four Interlacements of Edo Yatsu Gumi by Rosalie Neilson is a companion book to the The Thirty-Seven Interlacements of Hira Kara Gumi. The book illustrates the 24 different 2-color placements of braiding elements on a Marudai (this braid can be made on the Hamanaka disk) to achieve the 24 definitive designs in Edo Yatsu Gumi, the 8-strand round braid which is the most familiar one to braiders (and used the most by jewelery makers). Only a few of these unique designs are ever shown in kumihimo books, and they’re usually the spiral design using 4 elements A and 4 elements B. (When using the book, braiders should also think about using two different weights of elements to achieve even more unique designs.) The book is 48 pages, limited to a printing of 500 copies, numbered and signed by the author. The pages are folded like Japanese books with a printed cover replicating a “stitched” binding. $24.00

Use Rosalie Neilson's Braid Runner to explore the infinite design possibilities of fourteen different 8 element braids. Change colors, test all the possibilities and print out your designs. Or print templates in black and white and hand color your own patterns. There is an on-line tutorial. CD, Windows 7 running 32 bits or Virtual PC, $35.00