For the moment I have only made an initiation to ribbon embroidery so that I need some books to improve this technique. It’s a beautiful technique because it’s in relief and it’s also rather easy to get good results fast.
Les fleurs en broderie ruban – Yukiko Ogura – Edition de Saxe (in French)
I chose this book first among those which interested me because It seemed perfect for a beginner, but also good for forewarned embroiderer who wants to discover new stitches, make new designs.
Here is the summary of this work: supplies needed, how to transfer a design, to start and finish a work, steps to make flowers and foliage with various sizes of ribbons (flat stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy stitch, French knots and composed stiches, stitches in relief, flower stitch), tips and designs of the book to embroider, their use to create objects, such as pictures in frames, boxes, cases, etc…
The writer proposes known stitches and some she invented.
The presentation is very clear. On each design is written which stitch to make, with which ribbon and the stitches are explained in the following pages. Each design is presented with a photo of it made with various sizes of ribbons on the top of the page then down the photos illustrate how it’s made step by step. It’s really a book to have in your library.
Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork: Over 30 flower designs – Search Press
This book proposes to discover the flowers of the garden with bright colors (flowers and animals) across 17 panels to assemble to make a sampler made of 60 elements to sew with clear explanations, step by step photos.
Each panel proposed is decomposed under in images, a table sums up the supplies, threads and ribbons to use for each flower / plant / animal. It’s good for a beginner too but with more efforts than with the book of Yukiko Ogura. In fact, the work asks for more delicacy, skill because the ribbon embroidery technique is mixed with the one of stumpwork and traditional embroidery. It would have deserved with the detailed written explanations more images to better see the work to do. It’s thus addressed to middle-expert level embroiderers who will want to discover new mixed techniques and original designs.
The book ends with the assembly of the panels, the embroidery stitches in images and the needles to use.
Case Lesage « Le langage des fleurs, les secrets de la broderie au ruban » – Ecole Lesage (in French)
This beautiful case, such as the one dedicated to the cross stitch and Lesage high fashion embroidery, has in it a booklet about the Lesage work associated to flowers and high fashion because its aim is to discover ribbon embroidery with 40 designs/cards of flowers + transfer especially created for this Lesage School case. This booklet ends with a lexicon in images of the main stitches to know before starting the work.
Each card shows the supplies to use (that you can change freely if you want, nothing is set as the booklet says), how to make leaves, stems, flowers, calyxes, buds according to the flowers associated to a feeling. So much poetry and creativity in only one case! Case which works are classified by difficulty which can be studied by a beginner after a small initiation and who wants to put a bit in her embroidery.
Roses in Silk and Organza – Di Van Niekerk – Search Press Ltd Editions
The book announces not less than 60 techniques of embroidery, 16 types of roses, butterflies, birds, other plants, the patterns and the explanations to make them.
Such as the previous book I talked about in this article, essential stitches are tackled : how to start, the techniques to do the petals, the buds of the roses and other patterns, such as calyxes, leaves, stems, buds, rosehips (fruits of the rosebush which contain the grains), all the anatomy of a ribbon rose, the rose in all its splendor, so to say that I am overjoyed as the rose is one of my favorite flowers.
Other details to have a good start: how to make a transfer and other methods, which canvas to embroider and lining to use, threads, frames and loom; followed by how to make special effects with other supplies such as jewelry pieces, framework, stems for artificial flowers, metallic threads.
All the designs can be assembled in one big picture.
Rather technical book which seems difficult for a beginner. I would advise it after practicing with the 1st book of my list to exercise and then to go with another one.
This book is a gold mine of creativity which mix techniques and give a full freedom to various techniques of embroidery and at the same time adding other elements. Could we say that this book can be associated to a manual of haute couture for ribbon embroidery?
