Ribbon Renaissance

The lady from California is right: beautiful and stunning. A superb coffee table book BUT not a how-to let me show you how one. If you want to make these projects you'll have to buy them from her OR get the Ann Cox Beginner's Guide and learn how. Ms. Eriksson's directions are rather sketchy and terse. An unfortunate after-effect of thiis terseness is that the book feels more like a catalogue, hence the coffee book category, than a craft manual.Most of the projects are superb but towards the end they fall into the Helen Gibb (another Oz ribbon worker) category and become overly-done garish Victoriana. That aside there is some seriously good embroidery here and if get the Ann Cox book you can figure out how to make that all happen. Ann is a superb teacher-artist and her thin volume truly prepares you for the inspiration of Eriksson.

I spied this at a craft show about 6 months ago and just had to take it home with me, even though I have never done any ribbon embroidery. This book is gorgeous. Large, high gloss, full color page after, full color page clearly showing the most amazing life-like ribbon embroidery floral arrangements. The instructions are clear and detailed patterns are presented for the projects. The artist works mainly with variegated silk ribbons and she explains how to choose and take advantage of their qualities to achieve her results, along with detailed how-to-stitch diagrams. The works is of the highest caliber similar to the types of projects seen in Australian embroidery magazines. Even if you never make a project, you can learn a great deal from her stunning compositions and color usage. Buy it as a pattern book or to enjoy as a luscious coffee table book.

Wow! Here is a book with a refreshing view, showcasing the artistry of someone who is not mired in the terminal beginner's, cutesy, tacky and "me too" mode that crowd every "craft" magazine, supply shop, book, and all too many television shows today. Helena Eriksson displays a true artisan's grasp of what can be done with a little imagination and very importantly, quality of fabric (even though many of her color choices center around mauves!) Somehow, no matter how labor intensive and complicated her silk flower projects appear, this book can inspire anyone to give it a try - make something beautiful - and go beyond the mediocrity of all the basic, boring, sameness! A beautiful book - a beautiful presentation - highly recommended for all of us fanatics of silk ribbons and flowers!