The swaps are a great way to get ideas of what others are tying. I am in my second swap now. Regardless of you experience or ability, I encourage you to enter these. There are some fantastic tiers that get in these swaps. Then there are guys like me just starting in the hobby. As for materials and their uses, get with skip, snake, Redman, Pepop, and others. Bobo has some good deals as do other merchants on here.

Pappa