Textile Artist

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.