Fili di Liguria - Threads of Liguria

This exhibition is going on right now until September 30, 2010 at the Abbey of San Fruttuoso a little to the south of Genoa on the north-western coast of Italy.

Liguria is well-known throughout history for it's textiles, macramé and bobbin lace and there is plenty of all that at this little show.

Two dresses from paintings of Genoese nobilewomen have also been recreated in exacting detail. The gown from this portrait by Rubens of the Marchesa Brigida Doria Spinola (1606) and the gown from this portrait by Van Dyck of Caterina Balbi Durazzo (1624).

On YouTube there is a six-minute video of a television report on the exhibition. It is particularly interesting as they show some great details of the gowns. There are also some beautiful fabrics and macramé fringes as well as laces and gold embroideries. Worth a look!

Italian Stumpwork?

Sometimes you come across an embroidery that is so amazing that you can look at it forever – or never tire of looking at it.

This piece lives in the Don Mazza Museum in Verona:


Most of my photos of this embroidery turned out terribly blurry but this next one is okay and shows many of the different textures and three-dimensionality of this incredible needlework. (Click on the photo for a closer look.)


I'm so sorry that the detailed close-ups didn't turn out but do take a close look at all the things going on in this work; the hair, clothing, different fillings, padding – just each and every thing really.

It was embroidered by the young students of the Don Mazza school in Verona somewhere around the turn of the 20th century.

Italian Stumpwork?

Openwork Embroidery - Italian Style

It's here! It's here! I can finally talk to you about the latest book that I helped with!

Ricami a Fili Tesi - Openwork Embroidery by Anna Castagnetti of Verona, Italy:


Late this past spring Anna contacted me and asked if I would do her the favour of correcting her English on a book she was writing. Of course I agreed! I have had the great fortune to see Anna's needlework many times in the Italian needlework magazines RAKAM and Ricamo Italiano and also at her house in Verona.

Anna likes to fill voided spaces in her embroidery with needle laces stitches from techniques like Hedebo, Reticello, Teneriffe, Aemilia Ars and other needle lace techniques.

This book is filled with a great many step-by-step instructional photos and Anna includes little tips and tricks for achieving better results along the way. There are four different projects, each with a variety of different filling stitches all explained in great detail. Included also are photos of some of Anna's embroideries executed in this technique. There is something here for everyone, from elegant designs to cute ones like the Tortoise on the cover. Text is in both Italian and English.

You can read more about Anna and her needlework activities here and here.

For an extensive book review, go here.

The book is available from Elena at Italian Needlecrafts.

Lacemaking with coloured threads

I was reading Mary Corbet's Needle n Thread blog about different types of threads which led me to remember that I was going to tell you about some different Italian threads but in the meantime I've been discussing needle lace making with coloured threads with Silvia of Dentelles d'abord. I see she's posted her lovely needle lace brooch done in coloured thread with a great how-to series of pictures so even if you don't understand Italian, you should be able figure out how you can make her covered buttons. While you're there, you should check out the rest of her blog, she's got some lovely pictures of needle laces.


Anyway... I wanted to tell you about Seta Reale by Coats Cucirini which does not seem to be part of the North American lineup of threads. I got mine from Italy though a Google search turns it up on the Coats UK website. (My spools came from Italy but were made in Hungary). I think maybe Silvia made her Sun needle lace piece with this thread but I haven't remembered to ask her... perhaps she'll comment here below.

If I understand correctly, this thread comes in two weights: 30 (which is the kind I have) and 100 which is extra fine. Available in 128 and 59 colours respectively means you can have all kind of fun! The UK website has a downloadable colour shade card.

If you've ever seen any of Lucia Costantini's laces, you'll know that coloured lace can be just as breathtaking as white lace.

I tried some pulled stitches and satin stitches (as I am no lacemaker!) with it and it glides through the fabric so smoothly and its so shiny!

I also tried some Antwerp (Punto Chiaro) stitches which look rather pretty - if only my stitching had better tension - I think it could be fun to stitch anything with this thread...

...I'd also like to try the finer weight... I'd like to have all the colours... Oh, I'm in trouble now!

I know Italian Needlecrafts has some of the 30 weight but I see that Elena hasn't had the time to put them up yet on her website, send her an email if you want to try some and let me know what you think!

Broccatello Embroidery

Broccatello fabric is very much like Brocade fabric but a little lighter. Large patterns are woven in such a way as to be raised from the background. It can be used in religious vestments or overclothing like jackets and is more commonly today used in furnishings and upholstery.

The centre strip of a 15th-16th century Tuscan chasuable here gives you little bit of an idea of what I mean (click on the picture for a little larger photo). There are also some photos here of Broccatello fabric which is still made today at Ars Regia in Ferrara. Two beautiful Broccatellos woven in Venice at Luigi Bevilacqua can be found by clicking on the word "Catalogue", then "Broccatelles". The best close up I could find is here at the Antico Setificio Fiorentino in Florence.

Punto Broccatello or Bokara Couching is a form of Italian needlework which imitates the effect of Broccatello fabric. In the central rose window design here, you can get an idea of the effect Punto Broccatello imitates, though that photo is of a woven piece. While Bokhara Couching has origins in the Orient, it is probable that it came to Italy through Sicily with traders from the East or Morocco.

Nuova Enciclopedia dei Lavori Femminili by Mani di Fata describes Punto Broccatello as being suited for fabrics such as Organdis and Linen but also for heavy fabrics. The stitch can be executed either in horizontal or vertical lines and is a self-couching stitch with the couching stitches slightly diagonal. The Manuale del Cucito e del Ricamo by Cucirini Cantoni Coats says not to follow the outlines of the design but to fill spaces with rows on the straight of the grain with a distance of two or three ground threads between rows, depending on the density of the weave.


I have two Mani di Fata pattern books for Punto Broccatello. One is just iron-on transfers which indicate where you should place your lines of stitches and the other one is from the 1950s with some photos of stitched pieces as well as traceable designs. I really like it executed on coloured fabric with white thread as shown here. While in Italy last year I saw a lovely pastel green tea service tablecloth from the 1950s which this reminds me of.

I love this purse but unfortunately it is the only pattern that is cut out of the 1950s book that I have:


This is how the patterns are drawn, this one is for a towel border:


You should be able to get Mani di Fata Broccatello iron-on transfers from Italian Needlecrafts, though you may have to ask Elena if she can still get them, I didn't see any on the Mani di Fata website – I only got my iron-on pattern book (Disegni Decalcabili - Motivi a P. Broccatello no. 159) a couple of years ago but it could have gone out of print. I believe my copy came from one of the Canetta stores in Milan.

Aemilia Ars Dress

A kind gentleman named Claudio over at the MI1906 Milan 1906 World's Fair website has brought to my attention a magazine article he found while looking for something else in a copy of L'Illustrazione Popolare Sunday Edition no. 46 for the 14th of October, 1906 (click on the photo for a closer look):


I give you the entire article in Italian for those Italian readers and I will translate it here below for those English-speaking readers.

Unfortunately it corresponds with a photo in Merletti e Ricami della Aemilia Ars (1929). What must have been a completely amazing dress, tragically lost to fire when the Fine Arts Pavillion was consumed by flames on the night of the 2nd-3rd of August, 1906. (Click on the photo for a closer look):


The caption in Merletti e Ricami della Aemilia Ars reads:

"Dress designed from a sketch by A. Rubbiani by A. Casanova and executed by commission for Signora Marsaglia Balduino (Genoa) in 1905, according to the fashion of the time. There were 15 different kinds of birds among flowers, fruits and ornaments. The hemline was made of individually attached peacock feathers so as to be light and rich at the same time."

The article from L'Illustrazione Popolare reads:

Needlework Miracles burned at the Exposition in Milan

Because at least the memory remains of an object worthy of note lost in the fire – August 3rd – in the Italian Decorative Arts Pavilion, we believe it opportune to present to our readers the gown executed in punto in aria without seams and made on commission, as an almost actual-size detail of the patient work. It was made in two months by sixty-five workers at the Aemilia Ars workshop from a design by A. Casanova. In its sweet whiteness and in its fair and refined richness the beautiful gown made one think of a gift from a fairy who had wanted to wrap up and protect a princess in a cloud of leaves, flowers, birds because she was the most elegant of women. And this dreamy gown, an envied masterpiece was itself destroyed along with many other beautiful things that fateful night.

The flames also burned the laces of the company Jesurum of Venice. So many other wonderful things lost! They were the results of more than a year of study done by Jesurum of the most remarkable reproductions of ancient works and for that purpose many repeated trips were made to visit a few precious originals kept in the Decorative [Arts] Museums of Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. They had also specially bought ancient fragments and made many very expensive attempts to achieve results which are now lost. Among the most important works displayed were a cushion, table centres and doilies, reproduced for the first time from the Byzantine medallions of the church of Torcello, which were bought by the best lace dealer in Paris, Lescure: a Gothic placemat all embroidery and needle lace, a trim rich in a plastron collar [sorry, I don't know what this is!] fan of needlepoint lace, so fine that it was necessary to put a strong lens in front of them so that the public might see the design and workmanship; a complete trim of Rosaline Point, the finest that has been made in recent times; an embroidered blanket, made with all the needle lace stitches manufactured by Jesurum in Burano; a complete rich collection of Burano laces of every stitch; window curtains and covers in every stitch, individually designed and studied; an outfit in coloured lace, bobbin lace, etc.

There were also many items for the table, including a magnificent placemat, composed of sixty-four squares with sixty-four different designs, handkerchiefs, ties, fans. A few reproductions of antique Pellestrina lace were placed together with original pieces from the same Pellestrina museum to show the accuracy of the copy. Jesurum had insured its exhibit for thirty thousand lire, but the damages are, in a complexity of respects, incalculable.

Captions for the L'Illustrazione Popolare photos are as follows:
Photo of dress: Gown executed in punto in aria, without seams, destroyed in the fire at the Decorative Arts Pavilion on the 3rd of August at the Exposition in Milan.

Photo of dress detail: Detail of the gown in punto in aria, exhibited in the Decorative Arts Pavilion, destroyed by the fire of the 3rd of August.

If anyone can tell me about the plastron collar fan - I'd appreciate it!

Many thanks to Claudio for this article!

New Drawn Threadwork Book

There is nothing like coming home from a difficult day at work to find a manilla envelope from Italy sitting in the mailbox. It doesn't matter what's inside, as soon as I see that golden paper sticking out of the top of the mailbox, I know my day is about to get infinitely better.

This is what arrived today:


It is the latest book by Antoinetta Monzo Menossi, collaborating with Laura Marzorati and Stefania Bressan. Three enormously talented needlewomen who have worked together to bring us lace-like drawn thread work.

While the text is in Italian only, the diagrams and step-by-step photos are so good, you can figure out the compositions easily.

The book is 64 pages and goes for 18 euros. There are over 30 stitches explained and many corner treatments as well as tips and tricks.

All stitches are accompanied with actual photos of what they look like stitched up.

You can purchase Guida al Ricamo Sfilato from Tombolo Disegni, click on "Libri/Books", then "Libri/Ricamo", then "Ricamo Italiani" – send an email request to order. I notice today that there is also a new book on that page on Punto Perugino which we talked about yesterday!