Trenzas Gauchas

[troy]

Hope This is'nt too cheeky, but am wondering if someone has the book - Trenzas Gauchas by Lopez Osorino, Mario A. - and would also be willing to post a few pictures of pages or do a review of it.

I have found it some place but it is really expensive and would like to know if it is worth getting or if in actual fact, grant has covered most of it in his encylopedia.

Cheers

Paul

[LBbyJ]

I've been looking for this book also and found it on Alibris book seller site for $36:

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?binding=...5&hs=Submit

Still waiting its arrival but will post once I have a chance to look through it. There was a smaller book also, Manual De Trenzado Ilustrado, that is about 60 pages, roughly a dozen projects. There is one terminal knot that looked interesting but the rest is braiding and knot tying that is already in other books. Of course these are all in Spanish so I could be missing something.

[troy]

cheers for that mate, I'll look forward to hearing your review of it.

[lhbpires]

I have the book. If theres something you want from it, I´ll be glade to help you.

[HorsehairBraider]

I have the book. If theres something you want from it, I´ll be glade to help you.

Can you tell us a little about the book? I have not been able to learn much about it, just that you can get it. What sort of things does it cover? Are the diagrams or pictures good enough so that someone not fluent in Spanish could understand it? (I speak some Spanish but would hardly call myself fluent!) Did you, yourself, learn a great deal from the book, or not so much?

It looks like the same author wrote another book about braiding. Have you ever seen that one?

If you can answer any of my many questions, thanks very much!

[LBbyJ]

Sorry I've been busy and haven't had a lot of time to study this book. It is in Spanish and I'm not at all fluent so that to has held me back. Many of the knots are the same as the Grant books with a few more of what I call terminal or button knots, how to end a 4, 6, 8 strand braids using the strands as a knot. Interesting for us bracelet makers who like small knots. There looks to be a interesting section on weaving small braids into larger pieces similar to this photo:

Picture of Applicado

I would say that language is a big drawback on this book unless you speak Spanish. Many of the knots are in the Grant books and the illustrations in the Grant books are more detailed. There are some interesting and unique knots but overall I'd say the book is for advanced folks who have a pretty good grasp of knots and can pick things up easily.

Also wanted to mention a site in South America that displays some absolutely stunning pieces from Argentina, (techniques not shown in the book we are discussing).

Eltrenzador

[HorsehairBraider]

Thanks LBbyJ. Your first picture did not show up... it said "file not found", but the link to the blog is wonderful. I love that type of rawhide work. (I also noticed some gorgeous silver work!) Very beautiful, I'll have to watch that blog in the future.

I'll have to think about the book... I'm always looking to learn new knots! My Spanish is OK for basic stuff but I bet the book uses terms that I would not know. Food for thought.

[lilpep]

i for one am fluent in spanish and to tell you the truth i have the book and it was one of those i will put on my "for reference only" stack . it really doesnt have great pictures and the argentine spanish is more castilian spanish so good luck if you dont speak fluent spanish. the terminology is very diferent that what english speaking braiders us also. dont look for a bit or part discription in any of the turks heads or even look for turks head in the book. this is what is called a botton or pasador and some of the pinneaple nots are called bombitas. whats really funny though is that i didnt notice any gaucho interweaves ha ha . but if you buy the book its actually three books in one. the author worte the first title as a reveiw or sort of documentary for an association that wanted to publish traditional things of the era and "sogueria" (Leather braiding) was the a big thing at the time. it still is in argentina i know because i personnaly know several argentine braiders and post on one forum that they have a section on braiding, but mostly they do raw hide in very thin strings. over all it is a good reference book and dont worry they cant get their hands on it any easier than we can i actually got it easeir than some of them. their are several vendors on amazon that carry it. hope this helps but i would buy it again becasue of the bit i did get from it especially on reatas, also its litterary value.