While doing more traditional silk ribbon stitches is not one of my best things, I do love to use them. I find that when I use them for Tent Stitch, they get little gathers that give them a unique look. Unhappily for me the narrowest common size is 4mm, which is just a bit too wide for 18-mesh.
That’s put me in search of 2mm silk ribbon for years. It is hard to find. A few months ago I learned about CAM Creations, a company that specializes in silk ribbons.
Based north of San Francisco, the company hand-dyes silk ribbon in a variety of widths from 2mm to 32mm. You can buy the ribbon in packages of 2 or 3 yards, depending on width. This basic ribbon uses China Silk and comes in over 60 colors. You can also have 2mm, 4mm, 7mm, 13mm, or 32mm ribbon custom dyed in quantities of 100 yards.
Besides these solid colors, the company makes multi-colored ribbons in 24 shades available in all widths. These colors are really interesting. They include true multi-colors (pictured above), semi-solids, as well as a variety of two-color ribbons. The two colors include ribbons that are half-and-half, such as Rosebud which is half pink and half green, Iced Fuchsia, a bright hot pink with white running through the middle, and Sunburst, bright yellow with red edging. With shades like these you can create interesting ribbon effects.
The ribbon comes in a loose circle in a small zipper bag. The card in the bag indicates color, size, and length. The ribbon was easy to unwind and cut. I have used this 2mm in two different projects. On 18 mesh it fits beautifully. On 13 mesh the coverage was a bit thin. If the canvas painting matched the thread the coverage was adequate.
Unlike many other ribbons I have used, this ribbon stayed in the needle, I did not have to lock it in place by running my needle through the tail to knot the thread. That made it easy to use.
A problem with many ribbons, especially inexpensive ones, is that the edges fray. Although CAM Creations ribbon had no selvage, it did not fray, in spite of using 18″ stitching lengths and making Tent Stitches.
This ribbon is a lovely choice for needlepoint.
Other CAM Creations Products
They resell YLI Japanese Filament Silk Ribbon in the same widths. The ribbons have selvage on their edges and come in 5 yard packages. There are 185 colors available.
In addition to their regular colors, the company also has an assortment pack. This pack contains 12 one-yard lengths of solid and variegated ribbons in various widths that are picked to coordinate.
If you are looking for more traditional ribbons, they have satin and silk ribbons in wider widths. They also make tiny silk ribbon flowers in several different styles (all in multiple colors) that come singly or in groups. These could be a great choice for embellishment. Some of the flowers are made from other ribbons including velvet and wire-edged ribbon.
The company sells direct to consumers through their website (http://www.silkribbon.com). I am so excited to share this great resource with you.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Janet,
Thanks for the great information. I love using silk ribbons in needlepoint. But, I think your link is incorrect. I think it should be http://www.silkribbon.com
Corrected.
Keep stitching,
Janet
AVOID CAM Creations at all costs. They have serious order fulfillment problems and addresses their mistakes by ignoring customers to have the customer pay the price for their incompetence.
I ordered a whole bunch of silk satin ribbon from them. First package I receive, they sent me someone else’s order. Okay, no problem, they told me they sent my correct order out again. I receive the package and they sent me an incorrect colour. I asked them to please send me the correct colour or if it’s not convenient to, just to refund that incorrect colour they sent me. I emailed them photo proof multiple times and guess what… radio silence.
I’m not sure how this makes sense… Where they make mistake after mistake and then decide that since they’ve made so many mistakes, they’re just going to let the customer deal with their mistakes.
My biggest mistake… ordering from them! Never again! AVOID CAM Creations at all costs!
Update to my review above. Once I finally opened the ribbon after not hearing back from Annette at Cam Creations, I found two of the ribbons were defective – one had tears (holes) throughout the ribbon (mishandled by the company) and the other had odd marbling on it (due to misstorage of the ribbon by the company). I emailed Annette again and she responded with an strong email to me saying that was normal of silk ribbon (not true, I had ordered elsewhere and they looked nothing like what she had sent me, let alone having holes in it and the ones from Cam Creations were dull and coarse rather than soft and beautifully coloured from other stores). She also felt that all the steps she had done to get the correct order that I ordered to me was something above and beyond to accommodate me. (This confused me as it is the first time I have heard that a company getting a correct order to a customer is going above and beyond since she was only simply correcting all her own mistakes to get what I ordered to me). Regardless, I am taking the loss for the entire order I placed at their store and just wanted to make others aware what they may face before they decide to place an order from them.