A question that gets repeated on the TalkTemari floor very frequently comes from those wanting to get into the crafts and are looking for suggestions of patterns to work as beginners.  More expereinced members of the group have offered the following suggestions, based on both ease of patterns as well as and more importantly, learning from these as you go. Temari, as any craft has a learning curve and you have to learn how to walk before you can run. Spending the time learning and becoming comfortable with the basics before charging into more difficult techniques will prove very beneficial as you will develop your skills and not be turned away by frustration. 

        There are a good half dozen English books on Temari available; the ongoing series by Diana Vandervoort still offers one of the best progressive presentations for learning. As a composite reference either alone or in conjunction with the Vandervoort books, the Mary Wood book (Craft of Temari) is also excellent. (See the English book reveiws).

Diane B  offers these suggestions: "Here's my opinion, for what it's worth.  1.  Learning ball - teaches simple marking and "stretching" your points. (webmaster's note - Learning Ball is the first pattern in DV's first book "Temari - How to Make Japanese Thread Balls"....  stretching your points is a term introduced to us from gals who were fortuntate enough to have learned Temari in Japan with Sensei Ozaki, and it refers to learning how to keep points in a pattern even without them bunching up... it is a spindle design)  2.  Interlocking squares - the "interlocking" technique. 3.  Mitsubishi or 3 diamonds - really just squares (like #2) but now they are layered or interwoven. 4.  More squares - like a "God's Eye" or "Rose Garden."  5.  A "wrapped" design - maybe on a simple 4 with a couple of colors with wraps going around at the poles and the obi. 6.  "Merry-go-round" - teaches the "keeper" pin technique (webmaster's note - "Merry Go Round" is a name of a pattern used by DV again in her first book)  7.  For marking that can't be done by folding your marking strip - the interlocking spindles at the poles on a simple 6 (Mary Wood's book shows these - they look like atoms to me)  8.  Also for marking that can't be done by folding - a 5-pointed star on each pole done on a simple 5.  9.  A "polystar" - that's what my teacher called it.  It looks like a kiku but instead of stitching you back the needle under the first stitch at the top and keep backing the needle under here - you stitch only the first round.  I didn't know you could stitch the other rounds until I did more research into temari and found out about the kikus.  I think the "polystar" method is easier for beginners and is easier to keep even than stitching.  I did many of these before I attempted an actual kiku stitch.  I think it helps to know what the kiku is supposed to look like.  You can layer these, interlock them, interweave them - there are many possibilities. 10.  Go back and repeat!!  You can't do enough of the simple designs.  I still enjoy doing them.  Mary Wood's book has great pictures and is in a logical progression of simple to complex designs.  Her explanations may not be as detailed as some but you can get the idea.  Once you get the basic pattern, her book has pictures of many variations that you can use for practice. 

From Pat W -  some advice from one who had to learn it all the hard way... go back to the beginning and do some simple 4 and simple 8 patterns... you will find your skills and "eye" improving immensely. (webmaster's note - simple 4 and simple 8 patterns are ones worked on verticle 4 and 8 divisions with a north and south pole and obi) And in my VERY humble and very personal opinion, the VERY best book in English for learning from is Mary Woods' pink one (Craft of Temari). It takes you through step by step and before long you are doing amazing things. I am always concerned when I see a relative beginner trying to do multi-pole patterns (webmaster's note - multipole divisions are one like complex 8 or complex 10 that divide the mari into six or 12 sections), usually there is little understanding of what is really going on... DV's books are lovely, but they are deceptive in that one really doesn't build a strong foundation... but then I am old fashioned and there WERE no multi-pole designs in my first book (Cosmo #1)... as Sue H said, in Japan one does simple designs for quite some time before going on to more complex ones... and I find there are DOZENS of lovely simple (2-pole) patterns available... some people just have a natural understanding of the way things fit together, but most of us don't. In order to keep on loving this, go back to basics and do some simple designs and you will find that you know EXACTLY what you are doing. And then the other things will fall into place effortlessly. Well, almost <G>.Stitch on!!