or maybe Gold?

We have had a runaway best seller with the Suzani Flower design.  Not only have I done it in ribbon, but I have also had 2 doormats produced by Crate & Barrel spring & fall last year with those big, happy flowers.  Now I am glad to announce that we have brought Suzani Flower out with a modified, lighter palette for spring.  My partner Edith Minne at Renaissance Ribbons, who is charmingly French, suggested this palette as more South of France in inspiration an a softer, yellow gold ground. 

This ribbon is available in 2 widths, as are the others: 7/8" (22mm) and 1.5" (38mm).  Think spring.

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

I am writing this from Santa Fe, where I have come to see the International Folk Art Market.  I was invited by Docey Lewis, on behalf of Hand/Eye Magazine (now THAT'S a fab read!) and Hand/Eye Fund, to design the logo for their fund-raising booth, A Million Hearts for Haiti, at the market.  Docey has worked with Haitian artisans for years, helping them develop product for American markets under the auspices of Aid to Artisans.  Most of these people lost their workshops in the earthquake, so the goal right now is to raise a million dollars from the sale of Haitian hearts to replace their ateliers.  (see Hand/Eye Fund to make a contribution).  Hearts sold briskly during opening night and yesterday; I was gratified that all the souvenir button pins (see above, sponsored by Tesoros Trading company) I designed already sold out , as well as all of the t-shirts with the logo.  They should be available through Tesoros shortly.

I had the opportunity to walk around the market, agog at the depth of skilled artisanry on every available surface by people of many lands.  The entire market place was decorated with fabulously festive flowers, garlands, color everywhere.  I was too busy looking at the beautiful crafts to take many pictures, but here are a few.

There was a large proportion of artisans from Uzbekistan in particular, suzanis abounding.  Persuaded by a charming Uzbek man to try on a peacock green ikat chapan robe -- which, alas, has no place in my simple wardrobe -- I gave him a length of my Suzani ribbon, which pleased him very much.

I also stopped in at Patina Gallery -- my representatives in Santa Fe -- to drop off a tapestry and say hello to Ivan & Alison Barnett.  The gallery looked gorgeous as always and my most recent work, the Beehives and Goldenrod, as well as Shed with Bales, were hanging. 

new ribbons in stock!

Wheee-- some of the new ribbons have arrived! As soon as I got them online orders began pouring in -- I guess that means that a) it has been a real long time since I posted something new and b) maybe this recession is over ???
Here are the ones which arrived today. click on the image and it will take you to the website.

new and coming soon!

The new ribbons are beginning to roll in. This one is a glory: Suzani Flower, a 1.5" voluptuous beauty. It is on order, and we'll add a 7/8" coordinate. Watch the website for its arrival soon!
(Photo credit: Renaissance Ribbons)

creative mending with ribbon

I have been advocating mending for while now as the truly eco thing to do, yet I find myself happier making something from scratch than mending something old & familiar. The creative in me I guess. But I adore my Uzbek embroidered bag, so yesterday I mended the frayed handles by enclosing them in ribbon. I was particularly happy about this because it gave me a chance to decorate an original piece of Uzbek stitchery with one of my suzani ribbons -- Samarkand Scroll -- which is an homage to Uzbek stitching ("Suzani" comes from the word meaning "stitch").

There is a detailed account of this project on Rayela's Fiber Focus blog, where this is posted as my first guest blog.

Knitting Letters : A to Z: S is for Suzani

Knitting Letters : A to Z: S is for Suzani


A great discussion of Suzanis, good pix, and a link to my suzani ribbons.

Holiday offerings

I have recently decided to begin carrying a far wider selection of LFN Artist's Ribbons on my website once again; I have missed the everyday commerce since I joined LFN Textiles Ribbons with Renaissance Ribbons, so I will once again handle retail orders from my studio. I am adding ribbons gradually, by spring hoping to be up & running fully. There are currently 46 designs available.

You can check there now for the full range of LFN holiday designs (and be sure to find related giftwrap and tea towels at Crate & Barrel!). I also have available the wonderful Auricula, and some of the fabulous Suzani ribbons I have written about here.

exotic samarkand

I have received 2 spools of my new Samarkand ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons this week: one is online already and possibly in the stores. It is glorious, if I say so myself. We are also producing it in jewel tones of emerald, amethyst, and sapphire, which will be coming soon. Today's offering is the ruby red on pale pink, and it looks smashing with hot pink silk.

My suzani ribbons are an homage to central asian embroideries called Suzani. Samarkands are some of the most recognizable suzanis to those of us here in the west. The current craze for all things Suzani is inspiring; I follow them daily on ebay and have watched prices skyrocket over the last year as the trend grows here. Suzanis, you probably already know, are made by women, primarily as dowry items, from countries such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The pattern is drawn on handwoven cloth seamed together from narrow strips; then after the drawing is made the strips are separated and taken home by the various family members to embroider, then re-joined in a small miracle of matching. Some suzanis are vintage and even antique but it is good to note that there is a terrific trade in brand new needle work. These cloths often feature natural dyed silk threads embroidered densely over hand-woven silk/cotton fabrics. The quality is remarkable.

A Few More Items

Still sewing... it is really just fun with color & pattern for me.

Sewing the Suzanis

I had some time last week to begin sewing again. I went to a store in Evansville specializing in fabrics for interiors (Grateful Threads) and thrifty me found the table of sample swatches they were selling off for a pittance. I came home with a fistful of new fabrics, all carefully selected to go with my Suzani range of ribbons, and each big enough to make 2 small zippered bags with or a couple of sachets. Just the kind of simple, pretty thing I like to make. The fun for me is in matching patterns with other patterns -- nothing so easy as pattern to solid which is conventional design wisdom! Here are some pix of the fabrics, and a few of the things I have made. Some of those bags are for sale at my Etsy store.

two new cushions

Yesterday I dug into my fabric again and made two small buckwheat-filled cushions with new ribbons. The first is a great piece of embossed felt which I decorated with the large, turquoise & brown Suzani ribbon, and trimmed with mini ball fringe; the second is a nice bird print cotton which I framed in my Butterfly and Dot ribbons (available from retailers in my Friends column). Each is about 9" x 12" (the size of a piece of felt!) and is filled 3/4 full with buckwheat hulls to which I added a scoop of dried lavender.

long black gloves

I've had these gloves for some time, just waiting for the right ribbon. Here they are now, trimmed with my Suzani in the 2.5" width. The gloves are polyester Ultrasuede, and I turned them inside out to apply the ribbon to the top of the cuff.

working with suzanis

Yesterday I got into my bins of fabric and objects and began making and trimming things with the Suzani ribbons. I trimmed a pair or burnt orange stretch gloves (these are great gloves, and I have decorated many pairs with ribbon!) with the 1.5" design. I backed the ribbon first with a beautiful vintage brown grosgrain ribbon, 2" wide, which sets it off and hides the floats on the back. Then I heat cut it into 10" lengths (with my woodburner tool, wonderful for cutting a sealed edge on ribbons) and seamed each length into a cuff. I turn the gloves inside out, and pinning at both seam edges, I carefully attach the cuff to the glove all the while stretching the glove to fit. This ruffles the cuff nicely.

I am working on a pair of elbow length ultrasuede gloves, trimmed with the red & black medallion suzani. I will post these next.

Suzanis at Last!!

Today my box full of Suzani ribbons arrived from Renaissance Ribbons. How exciting it is! I submitted the designs on Easter Sunday, fighting a cold while I made all the thread color choices, and here they are in my hands at last. They are flying out the door, I am told, and we are considering a fifth color way in more muted tones if all goes well with these.

In the next few days I will be making things with these and will upload pictures as I go: meanwhile you can see them at Renaissance Ribbons.

I am also showing you here the first Suzani which inspired the collection, a beautiful Bukhara I saw at my favorite bazaar, eBay.

Suzani, Suzani

I am getting quite impatient for stock to arrive of the new Suzani Ribbons. They are already online at Renaissance Ribbons, but I only have little 8" samples of each so far to keep me happy!

Meanwhile I have bought a new Suzani from my man in Tashkent, and am eagerly awaiting it as well. It is quite different from the others I have bought so far (which inspired the Suzani ribbons). It is a Surkhandarya, and brilliant orange with less sophisticated embroidery than those that I have previously bought. I was inspired to buy this by a series of upholsterd furniture I saw at ABC Home in New York when I was there last month. That was all covered in cheap, bright Suzanis and wild commercial fabric for a deliriously happy effect.




top to bottom:
Our new announcement postcard for the Suzani line of Artist's Ribbons from Renaissance Ribbons. See the website (www.renaissanceribbons.com) for all of them.

My new Surkhandarya, arriving maybe today from Tashkent.

ABC Home's Broadway store, with one of the many fabulous chaises upholstered with Suzani.