Internationally renowned ribbon artist, Di van Niekerk, has brought the textile and embroidery worlds together to create a unique book that combines the two mediums, with fabulous results. Working in close association with felt specialist Toody Cassidy, and featuring art by felt designer Razaan Jakoet, Di has produced a book that will delight and inspire beginners keen to work with the striking fusion of felt and silk.
Learn to make flat nuno felting and felt surfaces, using wool, wool and silk and paper silk, and adorn these with exquisite silk ribbon designs. Beginning with detailed instructions on the felted backgrounds, followed by a step-by-step section on how to make the flowers and creatures in silk, the book then introduces readers to 16 stunning projects, from pieces to hang in your home through to accessories you can wear and keep, to practise and apply your newfound embroidery skills.
The following flowers and creatures appear in the designs: nasturtiums, wild dagga, cosmos, pansies, English roses, miniature roses, marguerite and meadow daisies and grasses, wild flowers (buttercups, lavender, poppies, grasses) fuchsias, daffodils, wisteria, filler flowers (forget-me-nots and foliage), sunbird and sparrow.
The stitch gallery includes spider web roses, ribbon stitch, pistil stitch, ribbon stitch with curled-up tip, detached chain stitch, fly stitch rose, fly and ribbon stitch rose, French knots, grab stitch, loop stitch, stab stitch, stem stitch rose, twisted straight stitch, blanket/buttonhole stitch, crochet filling stitch, detached buttonhole, and many more.
About Di Van Niekerk
An artistically inclined mother and a keen interest in all things beautiful got Di van Niekerk off to an early start as an embroiderer. Her love for this discipline soon became her livelihood and starting an embroidery business was just another natural progression for this talented crafter. She opened her first shop in the Natal Midlands and when the family decided to uproot and move to Johannesburg, along went the business. After four years of running one of Johannesburg's most successful embroidery shops, the family's urge to settle in Cape Town became too strong to ignore. Di now lives in the Mother City of South Africa where she runs two successful embroidery shops. The end product of her latest interest, hand painting her own range of silk and organza ribbons for embroidery, is marketed to retail outlets worldwide. Visit her website www.dicraft.co.za/blog.
About Toody Cassidy
One of the founder members of the Cape Embroiderers’ Guild, Toody Cassidy is an avid felter and creative embroiderer who loves to share her passion for fabric, fibre and thread, patterns, colours and design with others. She has hand-dyed and sold different types of threads and fibres, including cotton, silk and wool, and mastered the art of silk paper making. Toody and Di have worked together over more than 15 years.
