New Punto Antico book!

Nothing cheers me up more than a package from Italy. When I arrived home after a long shift yesterday, my spirits were immediately uplifted by seeing an envelope sticking out of the mailbox with Italian postage stamps on it.

It was the latest book on Punto Antico by Bruna Gubbini! It is called: Ciclamino, oggetti a punto antico and has designs done in mauve tones. The introductory page says that this is the first in a new series of smaller projects in Punto Antico embroidery which "...can be made in a weekend, to pass a rainy day, to make an unusual gift..."

This is the sixth book on Punto Antico that features Bruna Gubbini's interpretations of this type of Italian needlework. While previous books were full of breathtaking but larger projects, this one has smaller things like napkin rings, scissor fobs, a box top, buttons, tassels, needlebooks, coasters, pincushions, a handkerchief carrier, a needlework roll and small bags for bomboniere. (A needlework roll is a cylinder covered in fabric for you to roll your projects up in for storage or when traveling.)

There are 60 pages and at the beginning are the stitch instructions for the stitches used in the projects found in the book, the text is in both Italian and English and there are lots of close up photos. There is very little cutwork, only a few designs call for it, so if that's what has been stopping you from trying Punto Antico, here's your chance to try it out without stressing too much over cutting the fabric.


You can purchase this book directly from the Associazione Il Punto Antico. Many patterns call for Graziano 28 ct Riviera linen. Thread listed is Retors d'Alsace or Alsatian Twist by DMC which is not available in North America, you can use Pearl Cotton as an acceptable substitute. If you're like me and like to hunt down what is called for in designs, Tombolo Disegni sells it, (Click on: "Negozio", then "Retour d'Alsace" - send an email request to order) colour numbers correspond with other DMC threads.

TALÈA Officina Tessile

Whenever I want to investigate something that someone tells me about, I leave their email in my inbox until I can get to it. Sometimes this takes a long time.

Last November, I received an email announcing the 6th Annual Hemp Fair in Gambettola, Italy which was sponsored by the hand-stamped fabric manufacterers Bertozzi and Pascucci. At this exhibition lessons in Savignano Braid Embroidery were offered and in the email was a photo of a cushion done in Savignano Braid Embroidery which was auctioned off with proceeds going to charity.

This is the cushion:


Now, I already knew about Savignano Braid Embroidery, but I was interested in the school that was teaching it as the instructors listed where women that I had met: Cristina Notore and Paola Paglierani of Italia Invita. These two delightful women are co-authors with another woman, Bianca Rosa Bellomo in a book on Savignano Braid Embroidery, and Cristina Notore wrote a beautiful instructional book on Macramé borders called: Macramé in Toscana which is already in it's second printing.

It has taken me 8 months to investigate, but better late than never! The school is called: TALÈA Officina Tessile and is currently holding courses in three different locations: Rimini, Riccione and Bellaria – all on the north-eastern coast of Italy. Cristina and Paola have participated in numerous exhibitions and have won many awards for their work.

If you visit the TALÈA Officina Tessile website, you can check out many photos and watch a video which shows a little of what you might expect to learn in their Macramé courses. Clicking here will show you some of the techniques of needlework that they teach and there are even kits available for the techniques of Macramé and Savignano Braid Embroidery. When I asked if these kits where available for overseas customers, Cristina told me that they are not set up for online sales at the moment but are looking into it. She promised to get back to me with details after summer holidays.

We will talk about Savignano Braid Embroidery next post...

Punt'a Brodu - Sardinian Needlework

I have a fascination with Sardinian Artwork, especially traditional motifs which are heavily used in the different Sardinian textile arts.

Let's look at some Sardinian Whitework embroidery called Punt'a Brodu.

Punt'a Brodu can be done on any kind of compact fabric and is made up of delicate ornamental motifs which form arabesque designs. Motifs are based on animal, vegetal, religious and domestic forms. Traditionally it is used to ornament shirts and blouses for both men and women. Shirts and blouses are usually ornamented with Punt'a Brodu on the collar, cuffs and chest area. The embroidery is completed separately and is later applied to the clothing item. All decorated parts are then finished with edgings of Crochet lace.

Punt'a Brodu border taken from the Italia Invita 2005 Forum book:


Punt'a Brodu is usually combined and complimented with two other kinds of Sardinian needlework, Punt'e Nuu and Puntu Vanu. Punt'e Nuu is a knotted Counted thread technique and Puntu Vanu is similar to smocking. Both of these embroidery types will be presented in separate posts at a later date.

Finished Punt'a Brodu needlework is very textured and often the individual motifs are difficult for the untrained eye to recognize. This work is traditionally executed in white thread on white fabric, the only exception is the motif:"su caboniscu" [a cockerel] which is embroidered on the purple velvet of the male corset with silk threads in the five traditional colors: green, orange, blue, yellow and purple.

There is an excellent series of videos online to watch about this needlework. Make sure to view them in order and set the window to display 420p for higher resolution!
The first video (8 mins 17 sec).
The second video (7 mins 14 sec).
The third video (6 mins 11 sec).
If you haven't had enough there is a slide show of still pictures to watch (5 mins 8 sec).

Fine Italian Whitework II

The following handkerchief is in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. I made the photo in black and white so you could see more details. The handkerchief is in fact, white with white thread work.

This is one half:


This is a corner motif detail:


This is a Whitework detail:


The ground fabric is a very fine linen and the threads used in the needle lace and Whitework are also very fine. There are a lot of Curl Stitches and Bullion Knots. It's hard to see, but the leaves are filled with French Knots. There are so many picots! Even the border is needle lace. Can you imagine how much time this must have taken to make? This would really be a handkerchief you'd want to carry around and show people!

The style of this handkerchief reminds me of the one we looked at in Florence at the Palazzo Davanzati Museum. I wonder if they were made around the same time?

Thanks to Stefania for the photos!

RAKAM Magazine

RAKAM is an Italian needlework magazine which started up in 1930. In the year when it should be celebrating it's 80th birthday, it has had quite a shakeup.


Many non-Italian speaking readers who either can purchase it at a local newsstand or have a subscription might be wondering what has happened to it.


Instead of being a celebratory year for RAKAM this year has been dogged with much rumour and speculation so I will try to only state facts that I personally know to be true.


The April 2010 issue was the last RAKAM issue under the publishing company Edizioni Mimosa which was in liquidation. The new publisher, Guido Veneziani Editore, took over the name RAKAM only. This means all subscription records are not available to them and so they have no way of contacting subscribers to the previous publisher. If you stopped receiving your magazines that is why.


As you can well imagine this has upset many faithful subscribers to RAKAM and undoubtedly the other magazines that Edizioni Mimosa published. If you tried to contact them through their website in the last few months your web browser probably warned you that the site was infected with a virus.


Last year I visited the offices where production of RAKAM was executed in Milan. I know that the women I talked to then are no longer with the company. This includes the brilliant illustrator who drew those comprehensive stitch and pattern diagrams.


My own subscription to RAKAM coincidentally was due for renewal in May of this year and I had already chosen not to renew it due to increasing costs for overseas subscriptions. I have held a subscription since 2001 and am very sorry to not be getting it anymore as it has always been full of eye-candy and inspiration for me.


I am told the May 2010 issue of RAKAM was a bit of recycled articles but that the June 2010 issue showed promise although photo quality was not the best. I have not seen them.

The July 2010 issue however carries a letter to readers which a kind Italian lady typed out for me and which I have translated for you here:

Dearest Readers,
The publisher Guido Veneziani Editore has purchased only the name RAKAM from Edizioni Mimosa in liquidation. They have not, therefore, assumed commitment for any previous contracts with Edizioni Mimosa. This also holds true for subscriptions which GVE has no possibility of dispatching, not being in possession of the subscription files.
However to us at GVE it does not seem right to disappoint the readers of a magazine with so much history and so many loyal customers. Therefore we have decided to send, free of charge, the number of issues owed for the previous subscriptions with the other publisher. To this end, we invite you to contact our Subscriptions office at 02 58205207 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm and from 3 pm to 4 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
We take this opportunity to remind you that every week you can find Guido Veneziani Editore’s weekly news magazines on the newsstands: Vero, Top, Stop and Vera as well as the monthly Vero Cucina and Vero Salute.
With fondest regards,
Guido Veneziani, Publisher
Elio Michelotti, Director

Interesting to note here that the new Director of RAKAM and the Director of Ricamo Italiano, another Italian needlework magazine are now the same person.

Here is an email address which might be of use to you, it is for the subscription office: abbonamenti@gveditore.com

I couldn't find any cover art for any 1940s editions which is why there are only 7 photos!

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.

Macramé Summer Bags

Summer has finally arrived where I live and it reminds me that I was going to make myself a Macramé Summer Bag. It looks like it will be a project for next summer!

Last year I took a Macramé course in Cesena, Italy with Liliana Babbi Cappelletti. A friend and I took the train from Rome on a hot day in May and headed for Cesena where we would spend the weekend enjoying ourselves with other friends at Lilli's home while she taught us the secrets of Macramé.

The first leg of the trip was great, aside from our train being a bit behind schedule, we were in a modern, air-conditioned train car with comfortable seats and a table between us. The trouble started when our train ran more behind schedule and we discovered that it would now be difficult to make our connection. We also discovered that there was to be massive computer system upgrade to the Bologna train station on the very day that my friend had to head back to Rome. Bologna is one of the main connector stations in Italy and most of the northern trains run through it. The computer upgrade meant that the Bologna station would be closed to traffic during the upgrade. With these worries, we arrived at our connecting station and ran to catch the next train, lugging behind us our baggage in the 40 degree Celsius heat. Sweating and out of breath, we pulled each other onto the train and squeezed in with our bags. The train was more than full of passengers and was an old, non air-conditioned model. Packed in tight like sardines in a can we stood sweating a few feet from the door - no chance of any kind of a seat on this train. We also realized at this point that my friend had left her cell phone on the kitchen table at home and we had no way to contact Lilli and her husband who were waiting to pick us up at the station in Cesena to tell them we were quite late. Then, at the last stop before ours we saw a ticket official working his way towards us. Oh no! In our haste to make the connection, we had not stamped our train tickets in the little yellow validation boxes at our connecting station!

It seems most other people had not stamped their tickets either so his approach was excruciatingly slow and he was becoming more and more abusive as he got closer to us. I dug into my pocket for the 10 euros we would need to pay the fine he was going to give us. He was not happy even with those who paid without a fight (and most people protested loudly). Thankfully the suffering was soon over and we stepped out onto the platform to look for Lilli. I was drowning in sweat and felt self-conscious getting into Lilli's husband's nice air-conditioned luxury car.

Things went much better after that and we went to the hotel and had an amazing seafood dinner during which we told our tale of the day's travel woes. Cesena is located about 15km from the Adriatic coast in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and most definitely a great place for seafood! After dinner Lilli and her husband took us for a drive around town to see the main architectural delights and then we stopped to take a bit of a walk in the historic centre.

Since we had come for Macramé, Lilli took us to a shop window which had wonderful Macramé purses. These were not the casual Macramé summer bags that I was used to at home. These ones were full of Italian style and far more attractive. It's a good thing the store was closed or I would have been tempted to get one!


Somewhere in my mind I thought I might make myself one someday... after taking Lilli's course, I was able to identify the different knots. The principal knots on all of these purses were the Nodo Giuseppina (Josephine Knot) and the Nodo Piatto Alternato (Alternating Square Knot). I still want to try making one... one day!

For our class we made the tassel I showed you in a previous post. I'm sure Lilli could make one of these purses easily, she is very good at Macramé – here are two pictures of Macramé borders on pieces she made/was making for her home:



Here Lilli demonstrates, making it look easy:


In the end, it was a fabulous weekend, though my friend from Rome had to leave early and spend all day trying to get home due to the Bologna train station closure.

There are some pictures of other Italian Macramé bags here, here and here.