Assisi Embroidery

Hello All,

Today i will be talking about a unique form of embroidery which is done in the town of Assisi, Province Umbria, Italy. In Assisi Embroidery, the outline and contours of the design are stitched in back stitch, double back stitch, or Holbein Stitch, then the background is filled in with cross stitch or long-armed cross stitch in a single color,  so that the design becomes negative space. The composition is then finished with border designs again in Holbein or back stitch. The piece as a whole is finished off with hemstitching. Here is an example of a piece which i bought in Assisi in the 1980's.

This form of embroidery was formed in Assisi at the beginning of the 20th cent. These embroideries are still being produced by a woman's cooperative in Assisi, and sold in the gift shops there. They formalized the form based on some embroideries from the middle ages which were preserved in the local churches. The current form of the embroidery is completely a counted thread technique.

Like many specific local embroideries, this style of embroidery was once more widespread. The original embroideries did not have the border designs, and the outlines were done in free form stem stitch. Here is an example of the old style embroidery with the non counted outline. This example is from the Cyclades Islands of Greece.

I have found examples of this type of embroidery from Cyprus, other Greek Islands, Sicily and Morocco. Here is another example from the Cyclades, done in counted thread stitching and more complex than the work currently done in Assisi.

As you can see, these examples do not include the outline stitch borders. Another version of this type of embroidery is found in Hungary, The Silesian highlands of Poland and other areas, but without the outline stitch. Simply being negative space cross stitch embroideries. Here is an example from Hungary.

In modern Assisi work, the outline is done in brown or black thread, and the filling is done in one color, which varies. Sometimes the cross stitch is confined to spot designs, such as this one.

These spot designs may be connected with outline stitch to form an overall composition, as in this example.

Of course, it is very common to do these designs in bands across the ends of a runner or something similar, as is the case with my seahorses above. Here are a couple more examples of this.

It is relatively easy to turn a corner with a design like this. In which case you would have a border around around all four sides of a cloth.

Of course, there is no rule which says that the embroidered areas must be rectangular. You could design them in any shape, and connect them as you would the smaller spot designs.

The design possibilities are endless, and the designs can be very ambitious, or quite simple.

Here are some images of a tablecloth which i recently found in a local antique store. There are 6 luncheon napkins.

The four central motifs are mostly left in outline stitch

The four corners have roses and lions

The mid side designs consist of just roses

Here is an overall view. You can see that this design is somewhat more free-form, but still recognizably within the Assisi Tradition.

 

Thank you for reading. I hope you have found this interesting and perhaps inspiring.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals

Roman K.
:Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Casa Editrice Mani di Fata 'Ricami d'Assisi', Milan, 1973
Editions Th. de Dillmont Mulhouse, 'Assisi Embroideries' revised, DMC Library, France, 1974
Pamela Miller Ness, 'Assisi Embroidery', Dover Publications, New York, 1979
Gyorgyi Lengyel, 'Keresztszemes Kezimunkak', Budapest, 1981
Pauline Johnstone, 'A guide to Greek Island Embroidery', London, 1972
Sheila Payne, 'Embroidered Textiles', New York, 1990
Mary Gostelow, 'The Complete International Book of Embroidery', New York, 1977

Hutsul Cross Stitch Embroidery, Ukraine

I have written about the Hutsul Nyzynka embroidery, which is considered to be the most typical. But Cross stitch embroidery has been made in the Hutsul lands for quite a long time now. The color palette tends to be much the same, based on black, maroon, red, orange, yellow ochre, yellow and some admixture of green. This has become very popular in the foothills and lowlands north of the Hutsul lands proper. You find embroiderers doing this style of embroidery all over Halychyna and further.

One version is doing a cross stitch imitation of Nyzynka designs, which tends not to be very effective, like this.

This results in a loss of the clean diagonal lines of the Nyzynka technique, obtaining instead a clumsy stairstep effect. This particular design could easily be done in Nyzynka. However, cross stitch enabled these designs to be elaborated in ways that Nyzynka was not capable of. Here are a couple examples of Nyzynka inspired designs that take advantage of the versatilitly of cross stitch. This first one is from a collection of graphed designs gathered and published by Ksenia Kolotylo.

And this one was embroidered by Ol'ha Voznytsia.

Cross Stitch is characterized by strong vertical and horizontal lines, and so lends itself to different sorts of designs. Here is a very old Hutsul design that has been copied and adapted over quite a wide area, even outside of Ukraine.

Many people have copied and elaborated designs in this style, and there are literally hundreds of them out there. Here are a couple of pieces executed by Yevhenia Henyk.

You will find these designs in many Ukrainian homes on various pieces of linen. Pillowcases, table scarves, rushnyks, curtains, table cloths, clothing, etc, The art of embroidery is very much alive among the Ukrainian people, and these are some of the most popular designs. Just a few more examples.

Yet another design from the collection of Ksenia Kolotylo, not derived from Nyzynka.

And just a couple more examples.

This is only a small sampling. This does not exhaust Hutsul embroidery by any means. One final note, the colors in many of these images are not exact. Either they were graphed schematically, without access to the exact shades necessary, or the printing technology available was not very good. So some of the images show darker or lighter or variations in hue that are not true to life. Brown is not used, what may appear to be brown will actually be some shade of maroon. If you decide to do some of these designs, i recommend that you go to the store, pick a skein of each color, hold them in your hand to see how well they complement each other, and substitute various possible shades until you find them pleasing, that is what i do myself. My recommendations for a Hutsul palette in DMC numbers: Black 312,

Maroon 777 or 815 or both, the darker could substitute for black, Red 666 or 321, Green 905,  Ochre 741. Orange 947, and Yellow 444? [i think].

I hope you find this inspiring. I think Diane will find this useful.

Please contact me with requests for research or commissions for something you may want designs, sewn or embroidered.

One positive thing that the Soviets did was to put the applied arts into the realm of art, and its practitioners on a level to be admired and respected. As they say, no-one can be wrong ALL the time.

Go forth and be creative. Our ancestors made much of what they used day to day, and they felt it necessary for such items to be things of beauty. We should not settle for the ordinary or the ugly in utilitarian items.

Thank you for reading.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

Ksenia Kolotylo, 'Ksenia Kolotylo Al'bom', Kyjiw [Kiev], 1992

Hasiuk & Stepan, 'Khydozhne Vyshyvannia' [Artistic Embroidery], Kyjiw [Kiev] 1986

Yevheniya Henyk, 'Embroidery and Weaving', Kyjiw [Kiev], 2007

Ol'ha Voznytsia, 'Vyshywka Moje Zhyttia' [Embroidery of my Life], Drohobych, Ukraine, 2006

V. Bilozub et al. 'Ukrainian Folk Art - Weaving and Embroidery', Kiev 1960

History of Lowicz linen embroidery

Hello all, today i am going to do a quick and dirty posting,  By which i mean that little research was required. I will cover the history of the rubacza, [shirt] embroidery in the Lowicz region. Pronounced Woah- veach to rhyme with beach. Most people pronounce it this way, but some purists insist it should not be a W, but a dark L. This is one of the Big Three when it comes to Polish costumes, along with Krakow and Zakopane, and is extremely well known, besides being a living tradition to this day. You can go to the region on Corpus Christ, or some other holiday, and see the people all dressed up. The costume is very well known, so i will not talk about it today. I am not original in talking about this development, it is well known. I will cover the embroidery on the shoulder, cuff and collar of the women's rubacza.

In the 19th century, the typical embroidery was mainly chain stitch, stem stitch, back stitch and other related stitches that were arranged in semi geometric designs that were very beautiful and graceful, but somewhat modest. Here are three examples.

This tradition is being revived today, for table linens and such, it is quite a lovely style.

The entire costume was developing though, and was becoming more colorful and flamboyant, while the linen used for the shirts was becoming finer. So they switched to a standard colorful cross-stitch style, which while attractive, was not very unique, as in these examples.

Still later, the move was to naturalistic floral cross stitch, reminiscent of Berlin Work or Danish Flower Embroidery. The results are quite lovely, but even less distinctive. Here are a few examples. I have seen some of this work in museums, and the stitching can be incredibly tiny and very impressive.

Still later, the move was to satin stitch, in part because they no longer weave their own linen, but buy it commercially made, with a weave so fine that counted thread work is simply not practical any more. It remains floral, with pansies, forget me nots, violets, and of course, roses.

The most recent development has been the loss of the cuff completely, the sleeves shortened slightly and cut in a bell shape, and the addition of Richelieu embroidery on the collar and lower sleeve.

And there they are! Blue Roses! Very pretty, quite flamboyant, but not as unique or distinctive as the original embroidery style. One would be hard put to distinguish this embroidery from that of Volendam in Holland, or the modern Huipil embroidery from central Mexico. But then, folk embroidery has often followed the common fashion. Many of what we think of as distinct local traditions started out as widespread fashions that were only remembered in a few places, e.g. Hardanger and Poltava cutwork, which were originally from the same Renaissance tradition.

I hope this proved interesting, I will occasionally put up this sort of easy posting. In fact, i could post one Ukrainian embroidery design a day, and not run out for years. While i enjoy covering details and history, one of my major objectives is to display folk costumes and embroideries for admiration and inspiration.

I hope that i have inspired some embroiderer to make something today.

Thank you all.

Please feel free to contact me for requests for research, or commissions to research/design a costume for a performing or other group, or to make or embroidery something for an individual.

Roman K.

Here is a video showing the costume as worn today

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6stno_lowiczanka-jestem_music

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

K Burza et al, 'Rekodzielo Ludowe i Artystyczne Cepelii', Warsaw, 1989

Jadwiga Turska, 'Polish Folk Embroidery', Warsaw, 1997

Aleksander Blachowski, 'Hafty Polskie Szycie', Lublin, 2004

Elzbieta Piskorz, 'Wzory Polskich Haftow Ludowych', Warsaw, no year given

Kazimierz Pietkiewicz, 'Haft i Zdobienie Stroju Ludowego', Warsaw, 1955



Pillow embroidered with Podillia chemise design, Ukrainian

I decided in my first blog to talk about the piece that i chose as the background of my screen. This is the piece in full.

It is a case for a decorative sofa pillow, embroidered in cross stitch with herringbone stitch for the edges. It was embroidered by my mother in 1957, and she finished it about the same time as i was born. Embroidery is extremely important in Ukrainian culture, even today. You can see the detail of the stitching at the edges of this page. Here is a graph of the design.
There is a Ukrainian Women's Magazine called 'Our Life' out of Philadelphia to which many people subscribe partly because they feature an embroidery design on the back cover of each issue.
This design was originally used as part of a rectangular shaped piece of embroidery done on the top of  woman's sleeve, on the shoulder-upper arm area in Podillia. Traditionally, a design such as this one is repeated horizontally, seperated by embroidered lines, and also edged on the vertical sides with lines and often a small embroidered motif such as that at the top of this one. The main ground color is usually black, and the design is usually very densely worked, if not covering the entire ground of the cloth. here are a couple other examples of such designs. The ones i have chosen for today are done in cross stitch, but other stitches are also used.

Under this patch of embroidery, there is most typically a wide horizontal stripe of embroidery in a different design, most commonly in a completely contrasting color, and often in a completely different stitch or stitches. this hangs on the sleeve somewhat above the elbow. The rest of the lower sleeve is covered with embroidered stripes, either vertical or diagonal. Here are just a couple examples.

The sleeves for this chemise are cut in one piece, which is unusual for Ukrainian Women's Costume.
The shoulder pieces are usually cut out seperately, and are almost always the focus of the embroidery.
The cut for Podillia is this.
The seams shown on the body of the garment are
determined by the width of the looms in the peasant houses. If one is making such a garment today there is no reason to be restricted in the placement of the vertical seams on the body. The chemise, or Sorochka, is the base garment for all Ukrainian costumes. As you can see, the garment covers the body roughly to the ankles or somewhat above. Unusually for Ukrainian costumes the bottom hem is not embroidered. Starting around the 1950's or so, women would often make the chemises in two pieces, to make the equivalent of a blouse and a slip, so that it could be worn with modern skirts or even pants, but originally it was one long garment. The cuffs are often finished by gathering into a wristband, rather than gathered into a frill, as shown.
This is one of the 5 main types of Ukrainian costumes, [about which i will compose a blog later], the costume with the Obhortka. The Obhortka is one of the overskirt types used in Ukrainian costume. The word Obhortka means 'that which is wrapped around' It consists of a rectangular piece of cloth, woven from wool,
heavy and stiff with narrow stripes or designs at both ends, and a border, like so.
It is wrapped around the hips so that the ends overlap in front, and secured with a wide wool sash, wrapping twice or more around, the ends of which hang down in back. This costume is most unusual in that it is not normally worn with an apron.The garment is also called the Horbotka, as a result of dyslexia, i assume, or the Fota, which is the Rumanian word for the garment.

This basic costume is worn in Podillia, Pokuttia, and Bukovina, and the same basic costume is also worn in Moldova, the Romanian province of Moldova, and Wallachia. There are differences in the colors and designs of the embroidery, the designs woven into the obhortka, the overall length, and other details.
Most commonly, one of the front corners is lifted and tucked in at the waist, for ease of walking. Sometimes both corners are tucked up. The completed outfit is worn like this.

For the benefit of those who are wondering where Podillia is, here is a map of the western part of Ukraine.
Podillia comprises the two areas labelled as II-4.
 This map is from a new book called "Traditional Ukrainian Clothing" vol 1 by O. Kosmina, printed by Baltia Druk in 2008. A wonderful and useful book.

This completes my first blog. I am open to what people would like to find out, and i am always willing to do research on a specific topic. Thank you for reading and please give me feedback.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com


Source Material:
K. Mateyko, 'Ukrainian Folk Costume', Kiev, 1977
L. Dachenko, 'Ukrainian Folk Art' Leningrad 1982
O. Kubayevych, the chapter 'Embroidery' in 'The State Ethnographic Museum Applied Art of the Ukrainian SSR', Kiev 1976
T. Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrainian Embroidery' Kiev, 1993
V. Bilozub et al. 'Ukrainian Folk Art - Weaving and Embroidery', Kiev 1960
V. Bilozub et al. 'Ukrainian Folk Art - Clothing', Kiev 1961
Also images from my  personal collection.