Cadolingio Embroidery

Ebe Ciampalini Balestri has just released her latest book, this time it is a style of embroidery which she invented herself, inspired by the ruins of an ancient castle near where she lives in Tuscany. If you have Facebook, you can visit the archaeological dig's page and read in English and Italian what they've been doing and look as some photos in their photo albums.

Cadolingio Embroidery, or Ricamo Cadolingio as it is called in Italian, falls under the category of metal thread work and reminds me of the ancient works like Queen Constance's crown found today in Palermo's Cathedral.

The book is 51 pages long and is divided into two sections: Italian first and English second. Each section is further divided into subsections which list the materials used, technical information including finishing ideas, the history of the family and the castello which inspired this embroidery, seven different projects and more ideas and then the bibliographical notes.

Ebe, acknowledging the economic difficulties of our times, has sourced materials which are easier to fit into your budget than real gold threads and gems for the projects of this manual but if you have the resources for using more expensive materials, that option is always open to you.

The projects are delightful and not your usual embroidery items, here there are mirror and picture frame surrounds, small boxes of various shapes and eyeglasses cases. As the materials used are synthetic, they are also washable, making the projects more usable.

Speaking of eyeglasses cases, Ebe made one for me!

As usual when I translate things, I learned a lot. This book taught me not only about the different aspects of this embroidery style but also about a family's history which I always find fascinating.

You can purchase Cadolingio Embroidery from Tombolo Disegni, send an email request to order.

Deruta Drawn Thread Work - Deruta Sfilato

About this time last year, I wrote a post about the Castello di Verrazzano in Tuscany and the unusual needlework on the curtains we found there.

This year at the Italia Invita Forum in Parma, there was a small booth filled with this needlework called Deruta Sfilato or Deruta Drawn Thread Work. The booth was displaying the work of Maria Elide Melani and the Association Ago, Aga e Fantasia of Pistoia.

I was delighted to meet Maria as we had exchanged some emails some time ago regarding the curtains at the Castello Verrazzano. She has been very busy researching this technique and producing some wonderful needlework.

This shawl for a bridal gown is exquisite:

And there are matching shoes!

Maria decided to exhibit the work at the Italia Invita Forum this year to see if anyone was interested in it. From what I saw of the continuous crowds around the booth and the talk of the people attending, Deruta Drawn Thread Work has a solid future and we will be seeing more of it in the future.

The Association Ago, Aga e Fantasia is offering an intensive embroidery course on Deruta Sfilato from June 17 - 19, 2011 at the Hotel Leon Bianco in Pistoia - how I would love to go... isn't it beautiful?

Corso Intensivo di Deruta Sfilato

Some days later in Florence, we came across the hand embroidery shop TAF at no. 17-red in Via Por Santa Maria and spotted what looked like the same kind of needlework:

As the shop was closed, we returned the next day to ask about it. We were told that the price was reduced as they only had pink tablecloths left and didn't think they could get any more of this kind of embroidery as it was done by elderly embroiderers in the areas surrounding Florence.

I was also told by another person that this kind of embroidery is done in the Sorrento area of southern Italy. Hmmm... this will mean further investigation into the roots of this needlework!

At the website Tuttoricamo, you can read some history about Deruta Drawn Thread Work, from the homepage, click on the British Flag for the English pages, then on "Techniques", then on "Deruta Drawn Thread Work", there are some pictures of a couple of fantastic cushions there too.

Raffia Embroidery

My grandmother's knitting bag was made of straw with flowers embroidered on one side in Raffia. She always brought it with her when she came to visit and it was always beside "her" armchair in her living room when we went to visit her. Recently my mother has been cleaning out her sewing room and she decided that grandma's old knitting bag should be thrown away as it is somewhat chewed up on one side and the centre of the embroidered flower has become undone.


The bag is hand-sewn and lined with a canvas-type fabric. The flowers are quite raised, while the leaves are flat:


I couldn't let it go without taking some pictures, my grandma was a great needlewoman and did many forms of needlework though I don't know for sure if she made this bag.

The May 2010 issue of Ricamo Italiano, an Italian needlework magazine has an article on the tradition of Raffia embroidery in the Mugello region of Tuscany. In particular they talk of the embroidery of Maria Margheri Manetti of the Embroidery School of Borgo S. Lorenzo, a town about 30kms away from Florence. The article says that this embroidery dates back to the 1950s when the works of local women were exported through the town of Signa to the rest of the world.

In Signa is the Museum of Straw and Plaiting [Museo della Paglia e dell'Intreccio] "Domenico Michelacci" where they also teach courses (click on the far right hand part of the photo to get a close up of a woman embroidering in Raffia). The Museum has published several books, a couple of which I will endeavor to get my hands on!


I found reference to Raffia embroidery in the Dizionario Enciclopedico di Lavori Femminili by Lucia Petrali Castaldi which is dated 1941.

Raffia embroidery is traditionally stitched on straw or hemp cloth. Today many different colours of Raffia are available, I found some here. Stitches used are those of classic embroidery like Straight Stitch, Feather Stitch, Running Stitch, Chain Stitch and Buttonhole Stitch.

I poked around a bit in the Italian high fashion world and found that many famous designers used Raffia embroidery in their fashion lines of clothing and accessories. Check out this Fendi purse embroidered with Raffia and silk ribbon from their Spring 2010 line:
On this Italian woman's blog she did some Raffia embroidery on a bag and shows you her great-grandmother's embroidered Raffia bag as well.

Sansepolcro and the XIV International Lace Biennial

The comune of Sansepolcro is located in the province of Arezzo in Tuscany. For those with little geographical knowledge of Italy, it is near Florence.

Around the turn of the 20th century two sisters from Sansepolcro started a lace school. Adele and Ginna Marcelli, the daughters of a local elementary school teacher, developed a bobbin lace technique they had learned and developed it in order to personalize it to their local area and give it a decidedly Italian flavour.

You can read the history of this development here, there are also some photos of Sansepolcro Lace.

The Italian needlework scholar Elisa Ricci mentions the sisters and their lace in the introduction of her book Antiche Trine Italiane - Trine a Fuselli (1911) and there is evidence that Elisa Ricci herself believed strongly in the beauty and expertise of this lace and that she contributed quietly to its success by supplying designs and spreading the news of its development. In the preface of the 2007 reprint of this volume, Bianca Rosa Bellomo has inserted a photo of an amazing work of Sansepolcro Lace from an article written by Elisa Ricci entitled: Le trine di Sansepolcro which appeared in the Italian magazine La Casa Bella in 1929.

Sansepolcro Lace from the Italia Invita 2005 Forum book:


In 1983 the Sansepolcro Cultural Centre developed local exhibitions to show local artisan crafts and in 1984 started the Sansepolcro Lace Biennial which became an international event in 1990.

This event is considered one of the most important lace events and hosts an international competition for lace works which is open to all kinds of lace, be it needle lace, bobbin lace, crochet lace, etc. For a full list of competition guidelines go here. It is too late to enter this time but you could get a great head start on a piece for the next show in 2012!

The Sansepolcro International Lace Biennial also hosts an exhibition which is divided into five categories: European Countries, Non European Countries, Italian Regions, the International Competition and the Lace School of Sansepolcro.

Each event has a theme and this year the XIV Sansepolcro International Lace Biennial, which will be held between September 11th and November 15, 2010, is dedicated to Botticelli - celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death in 1510 - the theme is: the beauty of the body and the beauty of the soul.

There will also be workshops: "for theoretic-practical knowledge of the techniques of lacemaking and of their old and new workmanship, with didactic intervention by italian and foreign teachers."

If you happen to be in Tuscany in the fall, you might like to take in this incredible event!


If you can find it at a used book dealer, there is a book on Sansepolcro Lace called: Ginna Marcelli e Il Merletto Di San Sepolcro by Anita Chersi Casini, 1996. (Text in Italian)

Clicking here will take you to a page in Italian on Sansepolcro Lace, click on the small photo at the beginning of the article to get a closer look at a tablecloth called: The Warriors - the lace reproduces a Roman frieze preserved in the Civic Museum of Sansepolcro. It is a work of the Marcelli sisters' school. There is also a picture of it here.

Take a look at photos from a workshop taken at the XIII Biennial in 2008!

Castello di Verrazzano

I told you in a previous post about Deruta Pulled Thread work and in that post I also told you that Deruta Drawn Thread work was something different. I will show you the difference here.

Last year on my tour with Vima deMarchi Micheli we visited the little town of Greve in Chianti in the Tuscany region of Italy where I bought a great woven tea towel with the Chianti region depicted on it from a little shop that sold household linens along the main street of the historic centre. We went on to visit the Castello di Verrazzano in the hills outside of town.


We enjoyed a guided tour of the grounds which were breathtakingly beautiful and looked down onto a wild boar reserve. After a tour of the wine cellars we went up to the loggia to admire the view and listen to some of the history of the company and the area. While listening to our guide I glanced over to some windows across from the loggia and started to examine the curtains which were really interesting...

This is my photo from outside, sorry it's not more clear but you get the complete design:


To my delight we went into the room where they were. All along the one wall in sets of two were windows, each with the same curtain in this intriguing embroidery.

This photo is much better, taken from inside:


There were six small tassels along the bottom hem which hung down, made of the same linen fibres as the curtains - I wondered if they were made out of the withdrawn threads.

I found out later after translating an article for Tuttoricamo on Deruta Drawn Thread work that that was indeed the technique that these curtains were embroidered in.

In fact, there was embroidery throughout the Castello... when we entered the dining room to have lunch we noticed that all the curtains there were embroidered in Punto Antico. We said to each other that we'd get photos after lunch but of course after many wine tastings we completely forgot!

A few days before, we had dined at the Cantinetta di Verrazzano restaurant in Via dei Tavolini no. 18 in Florence - enjoying the Verrazzano Chianti with Focaccia samplers for lunch. They have Verrazzano wine labels available for those who collect them. I picked up these two because they had photos of needlework on them!



To learn more about the history of Deruta Drawn Thread work, look under the 'Techniques' section for an article and more photos on the Tuttoricamo website.

There are some close up photos here.

Thanks to Armida for the photo of the curtain.

On An Evening in Roma

Last year after an exhaustive day touring the Vatican and all its textile treasures, we were invited to have dinner in our tour guide's home. Located right in downtown Rome, Simonetta's apartment had a beautiful terrazza where we ate the most delicious meal. We weren't there long before we started to notice the various embroidered household linens in use around the house. When asked about them, I expected Simonetta to say that she had done them herself but she said they were all done by her mother. I begged her to let me get a closer look and take some pictures.

All the linens were in use, so you will notice that some have stains because we did spill during dinner. Simonetta took it in stride telling us not to worry, she knew how to get out stains. It would be a pity to to put the linens away where no one ever saw her mother's beautiful work and she said that it felt a little like her mother was with her, to have her things all around.

This tablecloth has a design of applied Crochet chain lengths in different shades of Coral with Drawn Threadwork criss-crossing in sections around the edges...


This serving tray cloth is stitched in Punto Stuoia [Rush Stitch] which is similar to Roumanian Couching. It is an excellent stitch to use for filling areas as it is a self-couching stitch and gives great coverage without bulk as most of the thread lays on the front side of the work and only the tiny couching stitches show on the back (see the post on Bizantina Ars for an example of front and back):


This was my favourite and I took many pictures but this one shows a little of all the features. Padded Satin Stitched roses in an Art Nouveau (known in Italy as Liberty) design, Drawn Threadwork lines connecting motifs of Netting worked in the Linen Stitch (also known as the Cloth Stitch). It was exquisitely worked.


The wine stain was an excellent Chianti Riserva that we picked up at the Castello di Verrazzano on our way through Tuscany. They had the most interesting embroidered curtains... but we'll talk about that another time.

Our last evening together in Rome was spent in the very best way: among friends with great food and wine, admiring Italian needlework!

Il Gigliuccio - Peahole Hemstitch

As can happen with many different stitches and embroidery techniques, there are different ways to execute a stitch. This can depend on the country where it is being done, or in the case of Italy: the region or even the town. Some associate the Gigliuccio's origins with Tuscany where it is the traditional edging of Punto Antico which some also associate with Tuscany, but in truth it is done all over Italy.

Some call the Gigliuccio the Fleur des lys stitch and associate it with Florence and the lily. Some associate it with the Gigliucci family of Fermo, Italy where it is said there is evidence of the stitch as far back as the end of the 1600s. We might be safe to say it is definitely an Italian stitch from the region that became Italy in the late 1800s – because technically Italy was not officially "Italy" before the Unification. I say 'might' because when I did finally find something that looked like the Gigliuccio I'd seen in RAKAM, it was in a Schwalm book by Renate Fernau and it was called the Peahole Hemstitch.

If you don't care too much about where it came from, then we can move on to what it is, because here, more or less most people are in agreement. More or less. ;-)

Basically it is a Drawn-Thread technique consisting of groups of knotted bundles in an open channel between two rows of Four-Sided Stitch, also known as Italian Hemstitch. There is a tutorial for executing it on the right side of the fabric here, and a two-part tutorial for using it to secure a hem, executing it on the back side of the work starting here and ending here.

There are many different ways to execute the Gigliuccio hemstitch, you will need to try a couple different ones (I'm sure there are other methods that I haven't yet discovered) to see which one you like best, regardless of the technique used to make it, the result is a beautiful openwork channel which plays with the effects of chiaroscuro and is very pleasing to the eye.

It can be done in tone-on-tone, in light-coloured thread on dark fabric or dark-coloured thread on light fabric: each gives a different effect. Done in multiple rows at a hemline, or in a single row to connect the motifs of a tablecloth, or however else you can imagine it, it is always attractive. Do a Google image search for some inspirational photos!