Wheat weaving is an ancient folk art made to celebrate a successful harvest. Today straw designs are admired for their beauty and intricacy. This title provides advice on the tools and materials needed to get started; tips on preparing the straw; and step-by-step projects for mastering the techniques of plaiting.

Make amazing natural projects ranging from simple but lovely plaits to creations fit for museums. The 20 different weaving techniques will prepare you to make house blessings including fans and harps; love knots, used to preserve and promote love; ancient and traditional designs such as Celtic knots, Earth Mother, Glory Braid, and much more.

Wheat weaving is an ancient folk art made to celebrate a successful harvest. Today straw designs are admired for their beauty and intricacy. In this volume, professional straw artist Linda D. Beiler provides expert advice on the tools and materials needed to get started, tips on preparing the straw, and 22 step-by-step projects for mastering the techniques of plaiting, folding, and spiraling, and for combining techniques and adding decorative touches. Helpful series photographs demonstrate the process for creating hearts, bows, Arabic cages, Welsh fans, and a variety of abstract pieces.

Complete illustrated introduction to the age-old craft of plaiting harvest, or good luck figures from straw. 150 illustrations.

Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book,” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.” Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Whether you’re a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something here—you may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.