Fun with Flax

Book excerpt: These 50 interesting and entertaining projects are designed to teach beginners the basic skills of the Maori craft of plaiting.Fun with Flaxshows how to make items ranging from a simple windmill, a dart and a whistle to more complex puzzles, balls, birds, fish and even a caterpillar. Each project is described one step at a time with easy-to-follow line drawings and instructions. All are fun and will delight children and adults with their ingenuity, their beauty and the amusement they provide. This book is ideal for kohanga reo, playcentres, kindergartens, Maori crafts groups and New Zealand homes. It aims not only to teach the skills of plaiting to young New Zealanders but also to nurture a new generation of flaxworkers. Mick Pendergrast first became interested in plaiting and other Maori crafts while teaching in small communities in the East Cape area. He has spent time as a VSA teacher in the Solomon Islands and on the remote Polynesian outlier of Tikopia, and has worked in a number of New Zealand's major museums. He is the author of Te Mahi Kete- Maori Basketry for Beginners, Feathers and Fibre, a catalogue of the first major exhibition of Maori flaxcrafts, of which he was the curator, and Raranga Whakairo, a collection of plaiting patterns.