About Strand New Zealand

When Neville and Ruth-MaryBeach returned to Wellington after several years overseas following large engineering projects, they bought 12 acres of land on the outskirts of the city. Alongside Neville's engineering work and Ruth-Mary's work as a secondary school teacher, they brought up their four children and to fill in their spare time(!) they became enthusiastic sheep farmers and one of the first people in New Zealand to breed angora goats. As the fibre of the goats improved they looked for ways to use it. Ruth-Mary was interested in needlework and learned to hand spin the wool and mohair grown on their property. She decided to develop a unique thread and so this business was born.

Since then it has developed into a supplier for a niche market interested in unusual threads and unique New Zealand products. STRAND operates a world wide mail order service, and Ristal Threads is the distributor for STRAND products in Australia. Recently Unique NZ Designs has approached STRAND for the right to distribute the thread in the US.

STRAND thread was used extensively in the magnificent Stage Hangings which New Zealand embroiderers stitched for the reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in L ondon. STRAND kitsets which were developed as mementos of this outstanding project, have been on sale for some time at the theatre. Recently STRAND ventured into a new field by organising the production in New Zealand of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle featuring one of the four Globe Hangings. Further details of these kitsets and the puzzle can be found in the Globe Theatre category of our online catalogue.

STRAND threads have been used by other needlework designers. In New Zealand Mary Self designs and Denise Knipping's Art Deco designs use STRAND thread extensively. In Australia they have been used by designers whose work is featured in Inspirations".

Most of STRANDs own designs are directed towards the tourist market. As kitsets, packaged in small clear plastic bags or boxes they make ideal gifts for visitors to take back home or give to a friend. Our most popular series is of NZ birds and we are regularly adding to this. Other topics we feature are of favorite beauty spots like Aoraki/Mt Cook, the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, and LakeWakatipu. There is a series covering historic NZ buildings and another of popular pastimes and pursuits like sailing and trout fishing.

STRAND thread is suitable for tapestry weaving, kilim weaving, tablet weaving, crochet and knitting.We are also working on the use of STRAND yarn in fashion accessories. We welcome enquiries from any one who is interested in using STRAND thread in any work of their own.

"I have enjoyed working on your kits and the wool was very nice to work with .....And again I cannot rave enough about your kits and wool."
Lorna Teske, Canada, January 2006