The Braided Rug Book: Creating Your Own American Folk Art

First, I want to be clear. I have never made a braided rug, and in all likelihood, never will. I purchased this book because, while not interested in making a braided rug myself, I do collect (and at times, sell) this form of American Folk Art. To do this well requires a acertain amount of knowledge and I did receive just what I wanted from this particular book, i.e. knowledge that I most certainly needed. The book I am reviewing here is the revised edition, 2006. The authors have given us a great overview of this craft, starting with a nicely done history. They include techniques, materials, tools and patterns. For the crafter, the directions, while a bit intimidating, are never-the-less quite precise and include color schemes, measurements and again, variations of techniques. The photographs of the various patterns are wonderful (in my case I found this to be most useful), very clear, very precise. I appreciate the author's insistence on prefection as this is one of those things I am interested in and need to know it, i.e. high quality, when I see it. I also appreciated the section on care and cleaning of these wonderful items. One page (124) gives a very nice list of the qualities of a well made rug. Again, this was most useful for my situation. I cannot see how you could go wrong with this one. After reading the instructions I feel, If I were so inclined, that even I, with no craft talent for working in fabrics what so ever, could actually creat one of these things. Overall, highly recommend this one.

I am so glad I came across this book! I've looked through most of the books available on rug braiding. This one is the absolute best on the subject!

The new edition contains additional braiding techniques, nice photos, great illustrations. A must-have purchase.

I originally checked this book out of the local library (along with some others that were not so good). It has the best illustrated instructions and there are many other colorful photos and project examples. Now I'm putting it on my wish list. I'd like my own copy to be able to refer to!

I found this book to be very helpful in teaching me the art of braided rugs. Very well illustrated and clear explanations in the how-to of the art.