Friday, November 30, 2012

Writing stitch from Transylvania





Hand embroidered on hand woven vintage linen. These cushions originate from the Kalotaszeg region of Transylvania, Romania. These villages, inhabited in the main by ethnic Hungarians have a strong  folk culture.  These cushions are embroidered using "irasos"  which is translated as "writing", stitch. Traditionally, in each village there was a "writing woman"  who was an expert at drawing  these traditional patterns onto cloth to be embroidered. Girls learnt to embroider at an early age. Evenings would be spent embroidering by gas or candlelight. Embroidered pieces would be used to decorate the best room in the home or were destined for the dowry chest.

 Traditionally these pieces would be embroidered in either red or blue and  more rarely black or green. We work with woman in  Transylvania who beautifully hand embroider these cushions on home loomed vintage linen to make these heirloom pieces. Its truly beautiful work.