Italia Invita Forum - Part One - 2003

I have been putting off telling you about the Italia Invita Forum because I was waiting for them to release information about the next event. Now that they have, I can tell you about this amazing bi-annual event now held in Parma, Italy and a bit of it's history.

Italia Invita, which means Italy Invites, was started by five Italian women in October of 2001 with the aim of "promoting contact and rapport between the Italian lace and embroidery entities, inheritors of the tradition, and analogous entities abroad". Italy has a long history with embroidery and lace. The idea of Italia Invita was to take from the past and carry into the future the priceless patrimony of Italian needlework; possibly rediscovering techniques which had fallen by the wayside, bringing to light for the world the treasures of Italian textile arts.

These women (Antonia Busi, Fiorella Gaggi, Cristina Notore, Rosalba Pepi and Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols) proposed the ambitious idea of holding a bi-annual event and inviting the world to Italy. The first Forum was to be held May 9th to 11th, 2003 in the town of Bellaria Igea Marina in the north-eastern part of Italy, near Rimini.

When I discovered this, I nearly lost my mind. I had been struggling to find any scrap of information about Italian needlework until then with almost no results. I wanted to drop everything and leave for Italy. I had been at a new job only a few months and had no savings to speak of, certainly nothing that would permit me to risk losing my job or to buy plane tickets. My daughter was 12 and refused to even think of travel... and so I became a voyeur. The internet was all I had and it was still relatively poor in information. I had my subscription to RAKAM, an Italian needlework magazine and I searched for articles about the Forum everywhere, even going to my local library and sitting in the reading lounge pouring over Italian newspapers. I belonged to an Italian cross-stitch message board and read with envy the plans the Italian girls were making to go to the Forum. I begged them all to tell me everything without leaving any small detail out.

The 1st edition of the Italia Invita International Forum of Lace and Embroidery was host to 19 countries, exhibited over 50 needleart techniques and had more than 1500 visitors. It was attended by embroidery and lace schools and associations; there were private collections and over 20 merchant booths selling supplies. The girls of my message board came back with fabulous tales of beautiful techniques, how much they bought, things they'd seen that until then, they had only heard of and they had been able to take workshops on embroidery and lace techniques!

It was at this point in time that I discovered a girl named Agnese who wrote a column for the guide website SuperEva called "Not only cross stitch" (SuperEva is similar to About.com). Agnese listed all the techniques that had been on display at the Forum which I diligently copied down. This gave me a real starting point to target my random searches for information and add to the lists that I had been making from the pages of RAKAM.

It was also from Agnese's column that I learned about the CD-ROM that Italia Invita had made about the Forum. I wrote a letter to them in what I'm sure was terrible Italian asking how I could purchase the CD-ROM.

Here is a scan of the cover art for the CD-ROM:


Eventually I sent a money order and the CD-ROM finally arrived after months of waiting, worrying and anticipation... but it was formatted for the PC – I have always had Macintosh computers. When I successfully got my mother to leave her PC I sat down expecting the whole CD to be in Italian but was elated to discover that it was in Italian and English! What a bonus! Not only could I read and understand completely (the CD-ROM was very well translated by Vima deMarchi Micheli, Patricia Girolami and Marina Martin) but now I knew the English words for the Italian techniques, stitches, materials, tools... I now had the names of teachers, schools, associations that I could investigate. Some of the techniques exhibited had a photo, some historical and technical information, not all the works were shown and I found out later that this was because the CD-ROM was produced before the Forum in order to be given out at the event and so the embroideries and laces that were actually exhibited could not be photographed beforehand. Still, this was the mother lode of all finds for me and kept me fascinated for many, many hours. I hung out at my Mom's house quite a lot in those days, stealing every minute that she wasn't at her computer.

There is a French website about lace that made five pages of pictures and reports about the 2003 Forum. You can still see them today. Click on anything in blue with an underline to see other pictures, at the bottom right-hand corner of each page click on "suite" to go to the next page.

Tomorrow we'll talk about the 2005 edition of the Forum...

Italia Invita - Part Two - 2005

Italia Invita - Part Three - 2007

Italia Invita - Part Four - 2009

Italia Invita - Part Five - 2011

Antique Pattern Books

In the early twentieth century Italian needlework scholar Elisa Ricci edited the reprints of five 16th century pattern books for embroidery and lace.

Last year these reprints were collected together and reprinted again in one volume called Disegni per Merletti e Ricami [Designs for Lace and Embroidery] edited by Bianca Rosa Bellomo. Pattern books included in this volume are: I singolari e nuovi disegni per lavori di biancheria by Federico Vinciolo, La vera perfectione del disegno per punti e ricami by Giovanni Ostaus, Il Burato: libri de Ricami by Alessandro Paganino, and two by Giovanandrea Vavassore: Opera nuova universale intitolata Corona di Ricami and Esemplario di lavori: che insegna alle donne il modo e l'ordine di lavorare.

For the presentation of Disegni per Merletti e Ricami, Bianca Rosa asked several needlework friends to stitch patterns from the volume in whatever technique they liked. The pieces were then part of a display at the Italia Invita Forum in Parma in May of 2009. The stitched pieces were displayed beside a printout of the pattern chosen from the antique pattern books. It was a delightful display to look at!! (Click on the little photos on the linked page to look closer)

Later in May the works were displayed again in Bologna. It was very difficult to pick which ones to show you so this is a random pick of one design from each author:

Vinciolo:

Ostaus:


Paganino:


Vavassore I:


Vavassore II:


I saw both displays and can tell you that it was fascinating to look at the different interpretations of each pattern. I noticed things in Bologna that I hadn't paid attention to in Parma – I could have looked forever!

You can read more about Elisa Ricci at the Italian Embroidery website Tuttoricamo, click on the British flag for the English pages and look under 'prominent characters'.

Disegni per Merletti e Ricami can be purchased here. (Send an email request.)

Thanks to Elisabetta for the Paganino photo.

Ars Panicalensis - Embroidery on Tulle

Panicale is a small town in Umbria, Italy. It is where an Italian lady by the name of Anita Belleschi Grifoni founded a school of embroidery and named it Ars Panicalensis [Art of Panicale] in the early 1930s.

Born in Panicale in 1889, Anita lost her mother at a young age and was then taken in by the Institute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish were she received her education and was taught embroidery. When she was in her forties, Anita was asked to restore a veil owned by the Countess Barabino di LeMura. Whether the veil was Venetian or French is unclear, in any event Anita was then inspired to start a revival of the technique of Embroidery on Tulle. She studied many antique pieces at the Collegiate Church of St. Michael Archangel and in other local churches and the embroidery school was born.

Anita's designs were of typical 19th century taste: mostly floral motifs enriched by volutes and festoons, or birds of paradise on flowering branches, love knots, ribbons, landscapes, swallows and rural elements.

The school provided a means for local women to earn some financial and moral independence by making and selling their work. Anita was so convinced of the potential of Ars Panicalensis that she sent some samples to the House of Savoy. As a result, Anita and her daughter embroidered the christening robe for Princess Maria Pia of Savoy. The embroideries became well-known and sought after by the upper class and noble families and the school was commissioned to do bridal veils, tablecloths and other items destined not only for individual use but also for Embassies and many pieces went out to foreign markets.

Today you can see many of these works in the Panicale Tulle Museum in the Church of S. Agostino in Piazza Regina Margherita, Panicale. A few photos are here. Paola Matteucci, a master of the technique of Ars Panicalensis consults and assists in the management and promotion of the museum. She also teaches courses on the technique and in 2004, wrote for and co-edited the book, Ars Panicalensis, il Museo del Tulle 'Anita Belleschi Grifoni'.

I was lucky enough to see her display in Rimini at the Italia Invita Forum. The work was breathtakingly beautiful and the display was the talk of the show. Be sure to watch the slideshow of the display at the Italia Invita Forum in Rimini in 2007.

Read about Ars Panicalensis at Tuttoricamo under the 'Techniques' heading, the article is entitled: Embroidery on Tulle. While you're there, check out the book reviews for a review of the book Ars Panicalensis, il Museo del Tulle 'Anita Belleschi Grifoni' and the CD offered by Paola Matteucci in the 'Books' section under the heading: Other Italian Techniques.

The book (with text in Italian and English) and the CD (Italian but has some English text - step by step photos are very easy to follow) are available directly from Paola Matteucci's website. She also sells kits!

The Lacemakers of Aquila

Last year on April 6th, a terrible earthquake devastated the town of Aquila, Italy and the surrounding regions. Many stitching groups rushed to organize aid of a less urgent nature for the lacemakers of the area. There was even a depository set up at the Italia Invita Forum of Lace and Embroidery in Parma in May to take donations of needlework supplies. A fund was set up for monetary donations. Simona Iannini's house crumbled on top of her and she sustained many injuries, not to mention the loss of everything in her house. Everything she had prepared for the Italia Invita Forum (she and another woman, Rita Fattore were to exhibit pieces of Aquila Bobbin Lace) was lost. Rita Fattore was marginally more fortunate, her son insisted she leave the house after the first quake and so she was saved... but after the second quake a couple of hours later, her house and all it's contents were lost.

Over the last year I have thought often of the people of Aquila and have searched for news of their fate. It seems that the Italian government, under the public eye of the world's attention, made many promises to help at the time, but have still not delivered - over a year later. In this month's issue of Ricamo Italiano (an Italian embroidery magazine) there is a letter from Simona Iannini. She has given me permission to translate a portion of it here for you to read:


In L’Aquila
Starting over... a semi-serious article of a school that begins to work again

...we Aquilani, mountain dwellers and determined, never lost hope of meeting once again to work our beloved lace (...and more). Unfortunately, what was previously done in a day, now takes a month and there were more important priorities like putting a roof over my son’s head! Having partially resolved these kinds of problems, it was time to start over.

Fed up with unkept promises, a widespread enough trend, Sunday, March 7th we met at the home of Alessandra Tagliaferri who, by good fortune (and good construction) has her house still intact. In the yard, she and her husband, obviously at their own expense, constructed a delightful wooden cabin. From there we will start over. Via the grapevine of telephone calls we were able to meet again with enthusiasm and emotion. I found it a bit trying, but beautiful and affectionate as always.

What do the Aquilani miss? We miss contact, we are divided, split up, dispersed. We miss a place to get together. One walks in the few streets or in the shopping centres searching for familiar faces. We tell ourselves: “Enough sadness, the aftershocks continue, our houses are gone, so are our jobs, we must find ourselves something to do. Let’s start again”. Our Accademy starts over from here, to teach various courses besides lace, to share our passions, to promote new projects and it is open to all those “of good will” and good character. We want to speak positively. Ideas abound.

For the record, I would like to thank my “ladies” for having listened to me when I had to vent about the situation for those of us who were wounded. By now we are no longer “odiens” [sorry, I don't know what this means] and we are only an uncomfortable expense for society. Does it seem right that there might not be any compensation? “In the end” I was told “it was hardly a workplace accident.” I was forgetting that ending up under the rubble of a house (mine was reinforced with cement), was our fault. Of course, we could have gotten out of the way!

Let’s unite for something which will give us support, even if only moral. But let’s leave the controversies elsewhere, the password is: pragmatism. Our courses will be given with lessons of different [skill] levels, in study groups. I also had two other locations in Montesilvano (Pescara) and Francavilla (Chieti), for giving lessons on Aquila lace, I hope to organize courses on the coast as well, like we have already been able to do in Lanciano. My thanks go to those who are contributing to my moral and occupational reconstruction, more precisely, my pupils and the great help that comes from outside our region.

To Alessandra’s cabin, I will bring the materials that you all have sent me which will be available to everyone, we will work to realize artifacts, in the hope of supporting ourselves.

I would like to say something to my countrymen: it is not living angry that resolves problems, a smile should not be denied to anyone and can help us move forward. At times I fear that we have forgotten the tragedy of those who lost loved ones and one might think only of one’s material possessions, I believe I can say this in hindsight, and I continue to send a thought to the little ones who are no longer here.

I, or rather we, have decided to start over with all our hardships, our long periods of time, our fears. The cabin will be the starting point for creating with our hands, for creating with our hearts, for planning, for growing, for being together. Those who love us, follow us (and help us) otherwise... we are strong enough to get by peacefully all by ourselves.

Thank you everyone. Simona Iannini


You can see some of Simona's incredible work at her website.
Rita Fattore is the co-author of Tombolo Aquilano.

If anyone knows what "odiens" are, please post a comment!

Shops in Rome

In the spring of 2007 I packed up my daughter and we went to Italy. It was her first time and I dragged her all over before abandoning her with the kids of embroidery friends of mine so I could enjoy the Italia Invita Lace and Embroidery Forum in Rimini. I thought it was a good deal. I spent nearly two weeks agreeing to her every whim so that in the end, all she had to do was hang out with friends while her mother went crazy. We'll talk about how crazy I went in another post!

At the beginning and again at the end of the trip we stayed with a stitching friend and her family in Rome. One afternoon after fulfilling my daughter's wish to see the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Square, we took a side trip to try and find a little shop in Borgo Vittorio called Italia Garipoli Laboratorio. We came along to number 91 to find that the shop was closed. This didn't stop us from pressing our faces to the window to see the embroideries and laces on display inside. My friend's husband found us amusing:


The sign read "embroideries and restorations"... we were intrigued but alas could not go in. In the photo you can just make out some needlework pinned to the wall on the right-hand side. They were lovely drawn-thread works.

The next time I was in Rome was in 2009 and this same friend took us to a different shop near Piazza Navona, Le Tele di Carlotta in Via dei Coronari no. 228, where we met the owner Simona Virgilio and observed a one-on-one lesson being given to a girl who'd come from France to learn Reticello. We bought some lovely pieces of Italian linen there!


I have a list of shops I want to visit but never seem to find the time, I'll list them here in the hopes that perhaps you might be able to visit them:

Downtown near Piazza Venezia there is Canetta in Via IV Novembre n. 157/B, they are the company that publishes the embroidery magazine Mani di Fata and here you can get fabric, books, patterns and stitching supplies. I have only peered into the window of their shop in Milan, but they seem to have lots of embroidery stuff.

Then there are many textile shops along Via delle Botteghe Oscure near the Ghetto in the Largo Argentina area.

A little ways out of the "downtown" area (you can take the metro and it is apparently well worth the trouble) there is Rinaldi-Decoricamo in Viale di Valle Aurelia no. 61.

I would really like to visit the embroidery school/laboratory CBC Needlepoint in Via Confalonieri n. 1. They do some absolutely stupendous goldwork embroidery.

Please leave a comment if you know of other stores!

Check out this post for more shops in Rome.

Arezzo Embroidery

At the end of the 19th century excavations in Arezzo, Italy revealed some pieces of unevenly woven cloth dating to about 1400. Embroidered on these pieces were some patterns executed in Cross Stitch using only rust and blue coloured thread.

Just after these discoveries some women of the area decided to recreate and revive this embroidery. At the time, women in many cities and areas of Italy were developing or reviving local embroidery and lace techniques.

Fabric was handwoven in the nearby town of Città di Castello especially for this project. Designs of traditional motifs like stylized birds, fantasy animals and Romanesques were used with geometric patterns – designs very similar to the traditional designs of Perugian weaving.

Essentially a Counted Thread technique, the designs were filled in with Long Arm Cross Stitch over four/eight ground threads, and lines were done in Double Running Stitch over four ground threads. The narrow hems of the pieces were finished with Four-Sided Stitch. Hemp threads were used in rust and blue colours.

Items made were: placemats, bags, curtains, tablecentres, panels, cushions with inserts of bobbin lace and sometimes with knotted fringe or tassels.

Works were exhibited in local and regional exhibits.

This embroidery enjoyed some popularity at the time and other areas like Florence adopted it.

Over time it went into decline and is today almost forgotten. I have seen only a couple of modern pieces – one is pictured in the catalogue for the Italia Invita Lace and Embroidery Forum of 2005, executed by the Laboratorio Tessile di Alice in Castiglion Fiorentino; the other can be found if you click on the 'english' button in the top right hand corner of their homepage, then 'activity' at the bottom of the page, then 'weekly courses' there will appear a row of six images along the bottom left-hand side of the page: in the third from the left, is a small bird stitched in blue and rust. This is the only online picture that I can find to show you - if anyone knows of others, please, please – leave a comment below!

Black and white pictures of works from the beginning of the 20th century can be found in:
Anchor Manual of Needlework, Interweave Press
Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili by Lucia Petrali Castaldi
L'Opre Leggiadre by Lucia Petrali Castaldi

Aemilia Ars needle lace from Bologna - Part One

Aemilia Ars needle lace is one of the most breathtaking laces I've ever seen. Conceived in Bologna, Italy at the end of the 19th century, it is made by building a structure of supports with thread, covering them and filling in the spaces between; working on cardstock and later inserting the lace into the finished artifact. The principal difference between this and other applied needle laces is that it makes use of a system of support stitches which are then cut away enabling the execution of some pretty amazing designs.

In 2007 I went to the Italia Invita Lace and Embroidery Forum in Rimini, Italy and took a three hour workshop on Aemilia Ars needle lace while I was there. Needless to say, this kind of beauty takes time and much practice! I'm not showing you the 'lace' that I made, but I will say that it did ignite my curiosity! Last year I went for the 2009 Forum, this time it was in Parma, and afterwards I went to Bologna in the hopes of seeing some of this lace up close. What I saw left me awestruck and literally brought tears to my eyes.

Two very generous ladies met me at the train station and took me to the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte Museum which has a small but unbelievable collection of pieces. I say the collection is small because when you walk into the room there are (if I remember correctly) only five glass cases with the lace inside. However, to study the individual pieces would require many, many visits as they are all very intricate and the more you look, the more you observe.

There was a very nice attendant who let us take photos but without flash and consequently many of mine did not turn out or are quite grainy (all the more reason to go back!). I'm putting them here just to give you a feel for the pieces though obviously I'd like to get my hands on clearer pictures...

Our nice attendant was replaced by one who was not so crazy about us taking photos so if you go, be prepared to be refused. If you're interested in this lace and you're in Bologna, you could study these pieces everyday and never get tired!

To learn more about Aemilia Ars needle lace, visit Tuttoricamo (click on the British flag for the English pages, there are articles under both the "History" and "Techniques" headings. While you're there check out "Prominent Characters": Antonilla Cantelli, Virginia Bonfiglioli and Christine Bishop for even more photos and info.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the second half of that day in Bologna and some books on the Art of Aemilia Ars needle lace.

Aemilia Ars needle lace from Bologna - Part Two