Embroidery of the Hutsul region, Part 2, Rakhiw

 

Hello all, 

Starting with this article, I will separate the costume and embroidery portions of each Hutsul region into two, because of the large amount of material available. This article is about the embroidery of region 2, the Rakhiw region. 

The embroidery techniques used were quite varied, more so than one commonly assumes, There was, of course, nyzynka. 

Here are examples from the village of Kosivska Poljana.

The village of Kvasy

The village of Bohdan.

The village of Rosishka

The village of Yasinya

Vorokhta

Yablunytsia

Kobyletska Poljana

Note that the nyzynka usually has rows of braid stitch between the main motif and the edges. Here we see the addition of a row of colored eyelets stitched near the edge. This is not usually associated with Hutsul embroidery.

Cross Stitch.

 The other example in the image above is of the second common stitch used in this region, cross stitch. Both the nyzynka and cross stitch designs are mostly very typically Hutsul. One distinction is that here blue is often a more dominant color than usual. 

More examples from Kvasy. The caption says that these are from women's shirts, but I think that they are more likely from the shoulders of men's shirts. . 

These are insets on women's shirts, also from Kvasy.

The village of Yasinya

Bohdan

Vorokhta

Yablunytsia

There is an isolated group of three villages located to the west outside the Tisa valley. They are the only ones in which the sleeve is sometimes also embroidered. 

Kobyletska Poljana. 

Kosiwska Poljana

Some of these clearly show influences from outside of Hutsul tradition.

The last two examples in the image above are from the village of Rosishka. Note again the rows of colored eyelets. The last example uses eyelets, braid stitch, counted satin stitch and verkhoplut, or topwinder.

Counted satin stitch is also used, often somewhat imitating nyzynka designs.

Here are some examples from the village of Lazeshchyna, which have a distinctive style. 

These are from the village of Rosishka

Here is an example from Yasinya, using unusually pale colors.

Counted satin stitch is also sometimes placed in blocks or rows, resembling the technique called kachalochka in Podillia. 

Examples from Bohdan.

and Kosiwska Poljana

These are sometimes combined with yet more stitches, as in these examples 

from Kobyletska Poljana

and Kvasy

I will close with some more images of embroidery from this region.

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Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. I hope that some of these designs have inspired you to bring this embroidery into your own life. 

Roman K. 

email: rkozakand@aol.com