Professional Reviews: (Peggy T.)

Ludlow, Margaret  "Temari, a Traditional Japanese Embroidery Technique".
[England] : Guild of Master Craftsman Publications. 132 p. Illustrated in color.
Book begins with description of various tools used for measuring, techniques for making rattles, materials for making the balls including threads. Photographs showing use of paper markers, laying guide threads, starting and ending threads, winding and stitching  are helpful for indicating hand and finger positions.  Ludlow also shows the use of paper angle templates for help in making various kinds of divisions. Special features of the book include the making of tassels and the Temari knot. There is also a page describing "free embroidery". Color illustrations show the use of various embroidery stitches and beads. In the design section of the book, Ludlow uses difficulty ratings. For each design, top and side color photographs are provided. Instructions for making the design may require a need to consult the section on how to make the various stitches. This switching back and forth to various pages is a negative aspect of the format of the book. Probably not a first choice for a beginner.

Vandervoort, Diana. "Temari, How to Make Japanese Thread Balls".
[Japan] : Japanese  Publications Trading Co., c1992. 123 pages. color and black & white illustrations.
This book begins with a lengthy history of temari balls. This is followed with sections on materials for wrapping balls, the actual wrapping of the ball, dividing the ball, marking the ball, and selecting the colors. In the design section of the book, each ball is named and detailed instructions are given. Materials needed are listed as well as thread color numbers. Line drawings are provided for each step. In addition to round balls, designs and instructions are provided for egg shaped temari. Color illustrations for each ball appear in the front of the book. There is a table of contents but no index. There is also a bibliography devoted to background books on Japanese culture and folk arts. Some thread colors listed for various designs may be hard to find, especially DMC perle 5 # 954. #'s 913 or 955 can be substituted. Because of the detailed instructions, beginners may find this book a good starting place.

Wood, Mary. "The Craft of Temari".
[England] :Search Press, c1991. 64 pages. Illustrated in color.
Introduction provides a short history of temari balls, followed by a list of equipment and materials  Various methods are described for making the basic mari. Color is mentioned briefly as well as use of various threads, beads, and sequins. Brief instructions are given for dividing the basic mari. In the design section, details for wrapping, stitching and additional dividing are given in line drawings. Many color illustrations are provided for each design, such as spindles, three wing and hexagon, pentagon, interlocking diamonds, chrysanthemum and wrapped designs. A final section covers complex temari designs. Wood's book has a table of contents and an index. Beginners as well as experienced temari ball makers will find this book useful. The many color illustrations are a great source for ideas, both for the design possibilities and color combinations.

Reader Comments:
My students and I vote for the Mary Woods book.  Most of the students have tried doing patterns from DV books but say that her directions are too confusing.  After you have done a few temari than DV books are a little easier to follow. (Pam)

Opinions about temari books:  All I have to go on is my own experience.  I started with the Lark kit which, by way of extra money,
came with Diana Vandervoort's How to Make Japanese Thread Balls book. Thank goodness! For me the kit instructions needed some support from another source.  I wrote to DV and had some friendly, warm responses.  Later I received the Mary Wood book.  The variations helped me expand.  Then I purchased the rest of DV's books.  Certain designs have been winners.  Many of them have been done but they remain in the box. Picked up Ludlow's book, used a design on a rice hull ball.  (Harriet)

Insofar as the books, the favorite is Anna Diamond, both for clarity of instruction to beginner, beauty of presentation and still some use to more advanced crafters. Mary Wood is also very good, very good design interpretation and diagrams. The VanderVoort books are ok, but sometimes difficult to follow as she will repeat learning sequences presumably to review detail, but this is not specified and it can be very confusing. Major drawback is that the balls are shown in photos in the beginning of the book but not with the instructions so you are constantly flipping back and around to check your progress. (Anne)

I just got The Temari Book by Anna Diamond, published 1999. Here are my thoughts. Positive Points-  an excellent depiction of how to take the same basic pattern and turn it into several completely different balls.  This is one I have trouble with sometimes.  I can easily do something totally new but have a hard time reworking an already-familiar pattern.  Some stuff I've never seen before, such as asymmetrical designs, and a terrific eye for color and pattern placement. Negative Points-  The book is labeled with "70 original patterns", which is why I bought it.  Several of them are exactly identical to stuff published ten years ago, and that seems like false advertising to me.  Also, she calls things funny.  She does a standard Kiku/Chrysanthemum ball, but calls it Polystar Pattern 3, making no mention of the fact that
it's probably the most common design in the universe.  There is no discussion of making your own ball, only using a polystyrene one with a single thread wrap.  The main negative is that in discussing the C10 division (or in her terms, the 12-center Pentagon pattern) she says nothing about using that 1/100 extra in the marking pins.  I can't even begin to tell you as a beginner how many balls I ruined by ignoring that.  Not even mentioning it is setting up people for awful lopsided things that you put too much work into to throw away, which is what happened with me. I can't comment on how effective her directions are as I usually just make the thing without reading them and so can't compare.  Her diagrams seem good, although most of them are on the page following the instructions, which is an annoyance. Overall, I really liked the way she puts patterns together, but the flaws outweigh the virtues, especially for a beginner. (Lauren G.)

I learned from A Lark Books kit, as well as the Diana Vandervoort books, and did quite well, but I did not comprehend using the stitches and designs as main elements to create my own interpretations; Diana refers to this but it is not easily understood from her writings. And as it is, the patterns in the VanderVoort books are indeed taken from Japanese books once you being to delve into the Japanese books some, but in some instances renamed and reinterpreted by her, and only sometimes does she refer to the Japanese heritage of a pattern. The Wood book set me free on running my own interpretations, and I also found the method Wood demonstrates in dividing a C10 ball to be much more instructive... it is the same method as DV but presented in a way that you can understand and apply rather than just following steps, which is actually the best way to compare the two authors overall... Wood presents in a way to lead you on where as Vandervoort goes step by step to a definitive end. Diamond has presented a lovely book that almost approaches coffee-table status; it is quite good in instruction and also of interest to the more experienced crafter. There are a few points that can be questioned - as a British author she does not employ a yarn wrap, which may be difficult for beginners since the yarn helps create the stitching base, and she declares never to use stranded embroidery floss or threads... for beginners I agree since they can be more difficult to manage but as aa definitive statement I don't - many beautiful creations have been done using other threads beside single stranded. There have been reports of errors in the book, as they become known they are being posted on the help pages of this site. (Ginny)