Embroidery

Exquisite gold embroidery on the gognots (apron) of a 19th-century Armenian bridal dress from Akhaltsikhe.

Traditional embroidery in chain stitch on a Kazakh rug, contemporary.

Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. Embroidery is most often used on caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or yarn color.

Caucasus embroidery

An interesting characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches on surviving examples of the earliest embroidery—chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today.

History

Embroidery has been dated to the Warring States period (5th-3rd century BC) of ancient China.^[1] The process used to tailor, patch, mend and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery.^[2] In a garment from Migration period Sweden, roughly 300–700 CE, the edges of bands of trimming are reinforced with running stitch, back stitch, stem stitch, tailor's buttonhole stitch, and whipstitching, but it is uncertain whether this work simply reinforced the seams or should be interpreted as decorative embroidery.^[3]

The remarkable stability of basic embroidery stitches has been noted:

It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery ... there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times.^[4]

In the 16th century, in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, his chronicler Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak wrote in the famous Ain-i-Akbari: "His majesty (Akbar) pays much attention to various stuffs; hence Irani, Ottoman, and Mongolian articles of wear are in much abundance especially textiles embroidered in the patterns of Nakshi, Saadi, Chikhan, Ari, Zardozi, Wastli, Gota and Kohra. The imperial workshops in the towns of Lahore, Agra, Fatehpur and Ahmedabad turn out many masterpieces of workmanship in fabrics, and the figures and patterns, knots and variety of fashions which now prevail astonish even the most experienced travelers. Taste for fine material has since become general, and the drapery of embroidered fabrics used at feasts surpasses every description."^[5]

Embroidery was a very important art in the Medieval Islamic world. One of the most interesting accounts of embroidery were given by the 17th century Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi, who called it the "craft of the two hands". Because embroidery was a sign of high social status in Muslim societies, it became a hugely popular art. In cities such as Damascus, Cairo and Istanbul, embroidery was visible on handkerchiefs, uniforms, flags, calligraphy, shoes, robes, tunics, horse trappings, slippers, sheaths, pouches, covers, and even on leather belts. Many craftsmen embroidered with gold and silver thread. A number of embroidery cottage industries, each employing over 800 people, grew to supply these items.^[6]

Elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, and household items have been a mark of wealth and status in many cultures including ancient Persia, India, China, Japan, Byzantium, and medieval and Baroque Europe. Traditional folk techniques are passed from generation to generation in cultures as diverse as northern Vietnam, Mexico, and eastern Europe. Professional workshops and guilds arose in medieval England. The output of these workshops, called Opus Anglicanum or "English work," was famous throughout Europe.^[7]

Industrial Revolution

The development of machine embroidery on a mass production scale came about in stages. The earliest machine embroidery used a combination of machine looms and teams of women embroidering the textiles by hand. This was done in France by the mid-1800s.^[8]

The manufacture of machine-made embroideries in St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland flourished in the latter half of the 19th century.

Hand made embroidery - Székely Land, 2014

Classification

Japanese free embroidery in silk and metal threads, contemporary.

Embroidered Easter eggs. Works by Inna Forostyuk, the folk master from the Luhansk region (Ukraine)

Embroidery can be classified according to whether the design is stitched on top of or through the foundation fabric, and by the relationship of stitch placement to the fabric.

In free embroidery, designs are applied without regard to the weave of the underlying fabric. Examples include crewel and traditional Chinese and Japanese embroidery.

Cross-stitch counted-thread embroidery. Tea-cloth, Hungary, mid-20th century

Counted-thread embroidery patterns are created by making stitches over a predetermined number of threads in the foundation fabric. Counted-thread embroidery is more easily worked on an even-weave foundation fabric such as embroidery canvas, aida cloth, or specially woven cotton and linen fabrics although non-evenweave linen is used as well. Examples include needlepoint and some forms of blackwork embroidery.

Hardanger, a whitework technique. Contemporary.

In canvas work threads are stitched through a fabric mesh to create a dense pattern that completely covers the foundation fabric. Traditional canvas work such as bargello is a counted-thread technique.^[9] Since the 19th century, printed and hand painted canvases, on which the printed or painted image serves as a guide to the placement of the various thread or yarn colors, have eliminated the need for counting threads. These are particularly suited to pictorial rather than geometric designs such as those deriving from the Berlin wool work craze of the early 19th century.^[10][11][12]

In drawn thread work and cutwork, the foundation fabric is deformed or cut away to create holes that are then embellished with embroidery, often with thread in the same color as the foundation fabric. These techniques are the forerunners of needlelace. When created with white thread on white linen or cotton, this work is collectively referred to as whitework.^[13]

Materials

Phulkari from the Punjab region of India. Phulkari embroidery, popular since at least the 15th century, is traditionally done on hand-spun cotton cloth with simple darning stitches using silk floss.

Laid threads, a surface technique in wool on linen. The Bayeux Tapestry, 11th century.

The fabrics and yarns used in traditional embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen, and silk have been in use for thousands of years for both fabric and yarn. Today, embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns as well as in traditional wool, linen, and silk. Ribbon embroidery uses narrow ribbon in silk or silk/organza blend ribbon, most commonly to create floral motifs.^[14]

Surface embroidery techniques such as chain stitch and couching or laid-work are the most economical of expensive yarns; couching is generally used for goldwork. Canvas work techniques, in which large amounts of yarn are buried on the back of the work, use more materials but provide a sturdier and more substantial finished textile.^[12]

In both canvas work and surface embroidery an embroidery hoop or frame can be used to stretch the material and ensure even stitching tension that prevents pattern distortion. Modern canvas work tends to follow symmetrical counted stitching patterns with designs emerging from the repetition of one or just a few similar stitches in a variety of hues. In contrast, many forms of surface embroidery make use of a wide range of stitching patterns in a single piece of work.^[15]

Machine

Commercial machine embroidery in chain stitch on a voile curtain, China, early 21st century.

Much contemporary embroidery is stitched with a computerized embroidery machine using patterns "digitized" with embroidery software. In machine embroidery, different types of "fills" add texture and design to the finished work. Machine embroidery is used to add logos and monograms to business shirts or jackets, gifts, and team apparel as well as to decorate household linens, draperies, and decorator fabrics that mimic the elaborate hand embroidery of the past.

Industrial embroidery machines

There are a number of brands available on the market; the top two are Tajima and Barudan, followed by Toyota and SWF.

Qualifications

City and Guilds qualification^[16] in Embroidery allows embroiderers to become recognized for their skill. This qualification also gives them the credibility to teach. For example the notable textiles artist, Kathleen Laurel Sage^[17], began her teaching career by getting the City and Guilds Embroidery 1 and 2 qualifications. She has now gone on to write a book on the subject^[18].

Gallery

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  Detail of embroidered silk gauze ritual garment. Rows of even, round chain stitch used for outline and color. 4th century BC, Zhou tomb at Mashan, Hubei, China.

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  English cope, late 15th or early 16th century. Silk velvet embroidered with silk and gold threads, closely laid and couched. Contemporary Art Institute of Chicago textile collection.

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  Extremely fine underlay of St. Gallen Embroidery

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  Traditional Turkish embroidery. Izmir Ethnography Museum, Turkey.

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  Traditional Croatian embroidery.

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  Brightly coloured Korean embroidery.

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  Uzbekistan embroidery on a traditional women's parandja robe.

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  Traditional Peruvian embroidered floral motifs.

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  Woman wearing a traditional embroidered Kalash headdress, Pakistan.

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  Decorative embroidery on a tefillin bag in Jerusalem, Israel.

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  Bookmark of black fabric with multicolored Bedouin embroidery and tassel of embroidery floss

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  Chain-stitch embroidery from England circa 1775

See also

• Chikankari
• Mary Ann Beinecke Decorative Art Collection
• Sachet (scented bag)
• Embroidery of India
• Broderie de Fontenoy-le-Château
• Chinese embroidery

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Embroidery.

• Berman, Pat (2000). "Berlin Work". American Needlepoint Guild. Retrieved 2009-01-24. 
• Caulfield, S.F.A., and B.C. Saward (1885). The Dictionary of Needlework. 
• Embroiderers' Guild Practical Study Group (1984). Needlework School. QED Publishers. ISBN 0-89009-785-2. 
• Gillow, John, and Bryan Sentance (1999). World Textiles. Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown. ISBN 0-8212-2621-5. 
• Lemon, Jane (2004). Metal Thread Embroidery. Sterling. ISBN 0-7134-8926-X. 
• Levey, S. M. and D. King (1993). The Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collection Vol. 3: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750. Victoria and Albert Museum. ISBN 1-85177-126-3. 
• Quinault, Marie-Jo (2003). Filet Lace, Introduction to the Linen Stitch--Instruction book to learn How to do Embroidery on a Knotted Net - FILET LACE BY THE SEA. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-4120-1549-9. 
• Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, (2005). Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 1. Boydell Press. ISBN 1-84383-123-6. 
• Readers Digest (1979). Complete Guide to Needlework. Readers Digest. ISBN 0-89577-059-8. 
• van Niekerk, Di (2006). A Perfect World in Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork. ISBN 1-84448-231-6. 
• Wilson, David M. (1985). The Bayeux Tapestry. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-25122-3. 
• Crummy, Andrew (2010). The Prestonpans Tapestry 1745. Burke's Peerage & Gentry, for Battle of Prestonpans (1745) Heritage Trust. 

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