If
you are an embroiderer looking for a challenge and want to
create some stunningly beautiful works of art using silk ribbon,
this is definitely the book for you. Many of these flowers
look real, created from ribbons that have been hand colored
and stitched on in a number of innovative ways, including
new stitches created by the author. This is one book that
really has the “wow” factor in spades.
Like
me, Ms Popova tends to recommend first choosing a project
you like a lot and going for it. The projects have difficultly
ratings, but like garment patterns these are often based on
arbitrary things and what one person finds too hard another
person will find simple enough. If you truly are a beginner
who has never done embroidery and barely knows one end of
a needle from the other, I would recommend starting with an
easier ribbon book (Search Press has more than one). I would
also suggest practising a few basic embroidery stitches as
well as some other techniques like dyeing, working with computer
transfer paper and painting ribbons and backgrounds; there
are some excellent instructions for all that in here. Before
tackling anything in here, do try out some of the more unusual
stitches first; I thought I knew all the ribbon embroidery
stitches but there are many more in here, plus some invented
by the author. The stitches are helpfully organized into family
groups and there are plenty of good sized photographs to follow,
many with examples of what you can do with them. This is a
large format book which helps, as do the captions and arrows,
for a foolproof finish. There are some thread embroidery stitches
too; most of the usual suspects plus a couple of less usual
ones, and a wonderful way of using a table fork to make a
bow.
The
rest of the book contains twenty projects organized into seasons.
Many of these come with anecdotes and the author has a chatty
style which is entertaining, as well as making the more advanced
techniques seem less daunting. Each project has a list of
what you need plus another list of stitches used and full
instructions with some staged photographs. The order of work
feature is also helpful, showing a picture of the finished
item with numbered arrows. Projects include four cute owls
representing the seasons, lots of floral studies for various
occasions from Mother’s Day to Christmas and my own
favorite, a beautiful study of serene koi carp. Turn to the
back and you will find the background pictures for transferring
to cloth, complete with instructions for doing this. Each
project requires quite a list of ribbons and other items,
so if you prefer, the author sells kits on her website. Another
lovely book for the keeper shelf, and my favorite book of
2019 so far.
If
you cannot find a good range of ribbon and embroidery materials
locally try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.
-
Visit the author’s site at https://owl-crafts.com
for books, kits, silk ribbons and more
- Silk
ribbon can be bought in the UK from https://www.craftyribbons.com
- Chameleon
Silk ribbons available from http://www.thecommonthread.co.uk/
- River
Silk 4mm and 7mm ribbon can be bought in the UK from https://www.lornabatemanembroidery.com/
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