From New View Autumn 2002

'"Michael Taylor's string figures are pure fantasy, woven at your fingertips that lasso the imagination. They take the everyday over to the extraordinary…" so writes Sam Yada Cannarozzi, storyteller and string artist.

Open the book at the last page and take out the rainbow string. Play with it a little, then open the book form the beginning. Michael asks us to use the book as a story book, colouring book, instruction manual; as a springboard for the imagination and for telling stories while making string games.

After an introduction to warm your fingers up and explain the terminology, we are introduced to the stories. Each story is a journey in itself the left had page giving practical instructions, the right had page showing you where to pause the story line to relate to the string figure.

The drawings are simple and clear although you'll need several practices before you are fluent. My personal test is to see if I can do the string figures with my eyes closed, then I know that my fingers know the journey without prompting.

The outcome of the figures may be familiar to you but Michael's creative journey to reach them is his own. Each stage of the string figure becomes an important part of the whole. We journey through stories of little bats and pigs, to bows and arrows, racing cars and men climbing trees.

The final chapters arer string figures invented by children aged between four and ten: some tricks followed by instrucitons to adapt earlier string games to create frogs and trutles". There are hints for aspiring performers and teachers, origins and acknowledgements of the string figures; and how to make your own loop.

Michael is planning a third book; for information on this and courses contact him at the address at the back of the book. He asks you to send him copies of string figures that you invent yourself, perhaps to be included in book three.'