Wonderful Zoom presentation yesterday from Oxford, on Aegean embroidery of the 17th and 18th centuries, and some earlier. It's based on a new book on the subject by the presenter, Dr Francesca Leoni, curator of the Ashmolean Museum.
I had alerted stitchers who read in here, and I hope they caught it.
Without going into the technicalities of stitching, it was probably skilled domestic production, in silk thread on a foundation of linen and cotton mix fabric.
Some of the work had linen warp, cotton weft, some the reverse. The two fibers were not spun together. The threads were usually single unspun lengths. Silk takes a great depth of dye color, as you will see. There was a variety of stitches, from early crossstitch counted thread work to freeform surface split stitch, herringbone, french knots and satin stitch.
There's a lot unknown about this artform in that region, because it was such a crossroads of trade from the whole shipping world. Hard to know if the materials were local or imported, and if the work was a team enterprise. Chances are it was home produced, most probably women's work. There were motif patterns available to use, as you'll see.
There are familiar motifs to anyone who has studied middle Eastern art, carnations, phoenixes, vines, star shapes , and geometric
The geometric stars are familiar too, to people who've seen Chinese blue and white embroidery, usually folk art. The same birds and stars show up in Pennsylvania Dutch artworks, and I don't know if there was borrowing or if there were trade connections, the Chinese being worldwide traders.
Anyway here's a gallery I put together, trying to capture labels close to the artworks. These works were valued, recycled and remade into other items, a dress hem into a pillow cover in this collection.
Wouldn't you feel like the queen of everything in that dress? I would.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to say that the man model for his collection looks so much like my dear friend Lon that it's almost scary. At least in that photo.
Interesting idea to show how garments looked in action.
Deletepretty amazing. hours and hours of work in those.
ReplyDeleteVery intensive labor, yes. They were treasured though and carefully kept. No fast fashion.
DeleteI never see intricate antique pieces like this without thinking of the needleworkers who didn't have the bright lights to work by that we do today. How hard it must have been on their eyes.
ReplyDeleteThey were in the Aegean, very high light levels, much more than our North American latitudes. I don't know about evening though.
DeleteAh, you had a fine lecture. Wow! That needlework is almost unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day!
Chris from Boise
Thank you. It was quiet, son working, but plenty of messages.
DeleteLike Magpie above, I wonder about how physically demanding so much detailed work was - on the eyes, the back, the neck, the fingers... maybe even the shoulder of the arm that held the needle (like mine does). It's wonderful to imagine a beautifully embroidered garment being repurposed and given new life as a new item.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the photos of the beautifully embroidered pieces. They remind me of how much I enjoy going through various textile exhibitions at the V&A. Love getting a close up look of the intricately detailed work of different ethnicities that have survived hundreds of years. As you say, definitely not fast fashion. Just so beautiful. Hope to get back there in the next year or so.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! And oh, the countless hours of work that such needlework represents!
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I meditated and wrote on my blog about patience, or lack thereof. I can only imagine the skill and patience required to these works of art. I once saw an exhibit called Threads of Light showing works by Chinese women who embroidered nature scenes based on photos by an American nature photographer, forget his name. But I never forgot the incredible scenes these women created with needles, thread, skills and patience.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lifelong embroiderer, started very young as they did in the UK then, abd I've found that what looks like patience is in fact absorption.
DeleteThe fiber arts are slow, but it's not like the patience you need to let life and events unfold, because you're fully occupied.
Such beautiful work!
ReplyDeleteSuch incredible work!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous embroidery!
ReplyDeleteI see Jacobean, Pennsylvania Dutch, and a tad of Egyptian vibes that probably filtered down through the ages.