Roses in Silk & Organza Ribbon: Book Review

Di van Niekerk’s new book Roses in Silk and Organza Ribbon is a visual feast. No one does ribbon work quite like Di. Her work is sumptuous!

When Seneca said that art is an imitation of nature, I think he had Di’s roses in mind. They are certainly art, in perfect imitation of nature’s most glorious flower.

The book itself is beautiful. It’s published by Search Press, with a hard cover, a gorgeous dust jacket, on nice paper. It just feels like a good book. And the book is packed with color and abundance – it is a visual feast.

I like the fact that the book begins with the anatomy of a rose. This told me, right off the bat, that the roses within were going to be Serious Roses.

Did I mention Color? Visual Feasting? Examining the book, so many adjectives came to mind! Luxurious, rich, exquisite…

But the nice thing is, it’s not just eye-candy! Packed with step-by-step instructions for achieving Di’s results in ribbon work, the book is wonderfully instructive. In the book, the author covers over sixty techniques (many of which you’ll see for the first time in this book) and shows the reader how to create sixteen varieties of roses.

There’s plenty of information on supplies and tools and plenty of handy extra tips throughout the book, too.

And of course, there’s a stitch dictionary included, with diagrams of the various stitches commonly used in ribbon embroidery, as well as standard surface embroidery stitches that enhance ribbon work.

The instruction in the book is arranged around a sampler, which is how most of Di’s books work, and she breaks the sampler down into separate parts and instructs on each element. In fact, if you wanted, you could always break the sampler apart and work the various elements as separate projects.

If you’re not familiar with Di’s method of creating a project, the stitcher takes the print of the design (supplied in the book) and actually transfers an image of the colored print to the fabric, and then stitches over this transfer of the project. So in the photo above, the rose on the left is the color print of one of the elements of the sampler. The rose on the right is the stitched rose. The image on the left would be transferred to the fabric before stitching. How is this done? Well, that’s explained in the book! Di takes you through several different ways of achieving this type of colored transfer. And if colored transfers aren’t for you, no worries. She explains how to transfer a line pattern as well.

Within each element of the sampler, there are plenty of step-by-step and close up photos to demonstrate the techniques used. Some of the techniques are quite simple, so the beginner will find a place to start in this book, and some of the techniques are more complex, so those who have experience with ribbon work will find plenty of challenges and inspiration for furthering their abilities.

The book is stunning. But better than that, it’s thoroughly instructive, too! So if you’ve wanted to kick your ribbon embroidery up a notch, or if you’ve always wanted to create sumptuous roses in ribbon work, then you may very well want to add this book to your needlework library! It’s a winner!

Where to Find It

You can find Roses in Silk & Organza Ribbon through the following affiliates:

In the US, Roses in Silk & Organza Ribbon is available here through Amazon.

Worldwide with free shipping, you’ll find Roses in Silk & Organza Ribbon available here, through Book Depository.