A very merry Christmas Eve Eve everybody, I’m sure many of you who celebrate the holiday like myself are by now covered in ribbon, glitter, sellotape and surrounded by a million offcuts of festive wrapping paper. I hope for at least a few minutes you can afford to take a few deep breaths and savour the absolutely exquisite work of today’s featured maker, Brenda, who’s shop ‘bstudio’ is utterly sublime.
Based in Canada Brenda studied various forms of art in both high school and college and by chance found herself with a career in commercial interior design. After moving to a more rural area, with little call for her line of work, yet unable to stop designing, her ideas soon became focused on her hobby which, at the time, was needlepoint. It was her mother who inadvertently introduced her to the wonders of silk ribbon embroidery when she asked her to find a book on the subject. Brenda became fascinated with the examples shown in the book and was seduced by all the beautiful colours of silk ribbon. However, sourcing such ribbon at the time was a bit of a problem as it wasn’t a particularly popular or well known craft and she found it impossible to find the supplies she needed at her local hobby store chain. Thankfully internet shopping eventually came to the rescue, making it a little bit easier to find supplies and suppliers that would ship to Canada. Her truly stunning Etsy shop was opened in late 2007 and she has since been invited to produce a book of 10 projects titled Ribbon Art, published by Sterling Publishing in 2010 and has had her butterfly pillows featured in Somerset Home magazine.
What is your earliest stitching memory?
Designing and sewing clothes for my Barbie doll and making a very feminine, very pink and girly bedroom for her complete with frilly curtains and a bedspread. I also remember being fascinated with a box full of tangled embroidery threads that we had gotten from a great aunt, unfortunately, I didn’t know what to do with it at the time.
What fires your imagination?
Nature, a TV show or movie, fashion, interior design, anything really. I think about design all the time and how I can interpret something using my silk ribbons. Silk ribbon lends itself well to floral designs and while I love stitching flowers, I also like the idea of using the ribbons in more non-traditional or abstract ways to see what I can get out of it.
I think we can all agree that Brenda’s work really is something special, and perfect to maybe spend some of your Christmas pennies on, her shop is brimming with even more beautiful work! Well that’s it from me in this my first year as part of the Mr X Stitch family and I can honestly say it’s been an absolute blast. Here’s to a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year, filled with even more inspirational needlecraft from across the globe.
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Jessica Taylor aka Loadofolbobbins is a Textile Artist and Illustrator based by the sea in Portsmouth. At her happiest with a needle and thread, with a passion for genealogy she often explores old photographs in her Textile art. With her fingers in many creative pies she loves to experiment with new techniques, creating illustrated and stitched goodies for her new Etsy shop.
