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Welcome to Tatiana Popova`s BLOG, dedicated to silk ribbon embroidery and lots of other things about it.
Here you will find new items by Little Owl SmartCrafts, information about forthcoming products and designs, see some ribbon embroidery in process, learn more about ribbon stitces and techniques. The photos of pieces of art which were represented on this or that Craft Show all around the world will be also awailable in my Blog. I am going to place here some fresh ideas and items for inspiration as well. Our new ribbon embroidery kits and books on silk ribbon embroidery will be also announced here, as well as some information about Little Owl ribbon embroidery contest and workshops. Well, in fact, there will be a lot more...
Whishing everybody a pleasant time while browsing articles of my Blog.
History of Little Owl SmartCrafts TM ribbon embroidery
...I wonder: who on earth was the first person to envent embroidery? How at all could it happen?!
Whoever that person was, he / she must have been a very smart and joyful one!
And how many of options for stitching we are having nowadays! One can do seed bead embroidery, dozens of kinds of thread embroidery, embroidery using mirrows, hair... and even soutache embroidery.
And I am very fond of doing silk ribbon embroidery. I love flowers very much, but they fade too quickly! Meanwhile, silk ribbon looks very much like a flower petal. That is why I prefer using 100% natural silk ribbon for my projects.
The jewellery box on the left-hand photograph has travelled to Japan to be exhibited in Tokio Beads create Japan craft show. It happened in 2011, when I started developing series of kits for ribbon embroidery. Browse for more ribbon embroidery kits featured on our web site. All our kits are specially arranged to work for correspondence education. Welcome to master silk ribbon embroidery stitching your own masterpiece based on a kit design!
Another perfect "self-teaching instrument" is The Seasons in Ribbon Embroidery book. It contains The Ribbon Tree system for easy mastering of ribbon embroidery stitches, specially arranged for beginners. Besides you will enjoy 20 newest stitching techniques providing gorgeous look of totally new designs! The book shows that not only flowers are good for ribbon stitching, but New Year trees, birds and even... fishes.
I also do bespoke embroidery for custom-made designs. One of the samples to show was done for the Wedding Fashion Show in London, 2015.
Besides, you can buy ready-made ribbon embroidery items for luxurious and memoriable holiday gifts specially arranged for your loved ones. Will be happy to give some advice on that matter! :)
I take part in home and foreign craft show and fair (Ukraine, Japan, USA and UK).
...But let us return to our muttons.
Ribbon embroidery is a relatively young stitching technique. Its modern version counts just about 350 years old. Too small time period comparing with needlepoint or crewel!
It appeared in France, therefore its full name sounds The French Silk Ribbon Embroidery. It is interesting, that firstly ribbon as if got into people`s homes as an interior decoration. Ribbon bows were used to decorate curtains, furniture and lots of other things. Several centuries had to pass until they started to use it for embroidery.
The story of inventing the ribbon is also rather unusual. It sounds like a philosopical problem: what was the first to appear - a hen or an egg? In our case it is: a fabric or a ribbon? For some reason one usually wants to say: certainly it was ribbon. For ribbon is like a nerrow fabric, thus perhaps being easier in manufacturing. But in fact it was quite vice verca! The first ribbons were created from fabrics when fabric was cut into narrow stripes! Thus we can think of e. g. Hanah silk ribbon as a grandchild of ancient ribbon, not a forefather. They say, the heads of Greek beauties were decorated just with this very kind of ribbon, what is shown by ancient statues.
But it certainly was not the right time to use it for embroidery. Not before its industrial manufacturing started (firstly it was in Italy, and then in France as well).
The art of ribbon embroidery indeed has a royal origin, as it was born in ther palace of Ludovic the XV. At the very beginning there were plain rococo roses. Being embroiderd in silk ribbon, they charmed the spectators with their nature-like beauty. Ribbon embroidery masterpieces exhibited in museums of Europe are just amazing!
This art could not stay within borders of France. Soon people started to do ribbon embroidery in the UK, from where this art spreaded all over the world, up to the farthers places of the British Empire. Together with pilgrims ribbon embroidery reached America, where it soon became very popular as well.
For modern crafters the art of ribbon embroidery is good not only due to its decorative effect. As a selebrated Ann Cox has once mentioned in her book: (I am sorry to site her by memory): "A ribbon stitch covers more fabric, than a thread stitch, so the design develops more rapidly". Just this unbelievable speed of creating projects in ribbon embroidery is very helpful for modern crafters.
In modern guide books or instructions on ribbon embroidery one can often see a phrase like "a bouquet in an hour" or "a one-evening project". It is not an exaggeration! To do ribbon embroidery, especially if using a natural material (that is 100% silk ribbon) is a real pleasure, an exciting hobby, available for modern business ladies even if they are too busy! I would rather call the design, that appears on the fabric A Flower Festival. Thus it means a Festival of your creativity and good mood.
Besides, you can embroider on whatever fabric you wish. In fact, any fabric will do, but I usually use silk or linen for preference, as they are easy to dye and to work with.
Some shy ladies may object: "I will never be able to create anything like that!" To prevent the objection I only will give a site, which is very popular in my country. It goes: "An amator created The Ark and specialists made the Titanic." The main thing is not to hesitate, and everything will go well. Enjoy your stitching, as well as browsing this web-site!
Meanwhile, our "Little Owl" online project (that is SOVUSHKA in Russian) invites you to
visit ribbon embroidery workshops,
purchase some ribbon embroidery kits,
and natural silk ribbon for embroidery, which is always available.
+38 067 450 26 50 (Tatiana), Until then - Happy stitching and...
...see you soon in My Blog again!
Tatiana.