Italian Finalists - A Mirror to my Art Contest

You have seen several posts here regarding the Needleprint blog's A Mirror to my Art Contest. I was personally very taken with the concept and enthusiastic to invite some of Italy's needleworkers to join.

I'm proud to say that several Italian stitchers stepped up and 4 of them became finalists with the 3rd place prize being shared between two works, one of which was the stunning gold and silk embroidery by Francesca from Rome. Check out Francesca's blog where she describes (in English!) the creative process of her design. Don't miss this post about Francesca's mirror art at the Needleprint blog either.

Silvia from Turin was a finalist with her needle lace/trapunto combination inspired by an amazing tablecloth in Aemilia Ars work held by the Palazzo Davanzati Museum in Florence. She has written about her creative process in this post on her blog as well as being the subject of a spotlight post here on the Needleprint blog.

Elisabetta from Ferrara was named a finalist with her beautiful Estense Embroidery mirror. Attention to detail going right down to the beads on the cording closure which match the thread colours of the embroidery!

Rosella from Milan was a finalist with 2 designs (see them here and here) of the 5 embroideries that she submitted! Rosella has kindly allowed me to show you her other works which were submitted to the contest.

Rosella told me that she was inspired for one of her entries by an old collection of patterns given to her by a 91-year-old friend. These old patterns had belonged to the friend's mother, some of them dating back to the late 1800s. Rosella's friend was pleased that the patterns had inspired one of Rosella's entries for the contest and she was sure that her mother would have been pleased as well.

Thank you Rosella for sharing your photos!

English Insert for Il Reticello by Paola Barbieri

A quick note to let you know that the English translation booklet (pictured above) is now available for the book Il Reticello interpretata da Paola Barbieri published by l'Associazione Il Punto Antico.

If you've hesitated to get this lovely book because it was only in Italian text, now you don't need to hold off anymore. While the website says that the English will be available soon, I know that it is available now as I have waited to get the printed copy in my hands before announcing it's availability to you.

The insert is 31 pages with the complete text of the book translated into English. The English is of very good calibre, not done with an online translator so it is actually understandable. The first sentence of the note from the author reads:

In the pages that follow, you will find very simple and accurate instructions. In fact, several times I choose to also repeat the various steps required for creating a quadrant, in order to be very clear, so as to allow those who have never experimented with reticello to be able to approach this technique.

If you purchased this book already and want the English text, contact the Associazione Il Punto Antico to get your insert sent to you.

Deruta Drawn Thread Work Sample

I seem to have less and less time for my blog as I do more and more translations but I cannot give it up just yet. Quickly I want to tell you a fun story.

Some years ago I corresponded with Maria Elide Melani of the Associazione Ago Aga e Fantasia while she was researching Deruta Sfilato or Deruta Drawn Thread Work Embroidery. We have since met (at Italia Invita 2011) and correspond once in awhile. She wrote a lovely book on the technique, which I told you about here.

I have been very lucky with my internet friendships and I have been able to meet lots of great people who share my interests. I have been very enthusiastic in my reporting of Maria Elide and her endeavours because I find her to be a delightful person as well as a talented embroiderer.

Some time ago, a reader of my blog from the Netherlands wrote to me that she was going to Tuscany and wanted to learn about Deruta Drawn Thread Work. I put her in touch with Maria Elide and they enjoyed a lovely visit together. Then a couple of readers from other countries did the same and I was excited to assist in the discovery by stitchers outside of Italy of this wonderful Italian needlework.

But the best has got to be when you assist without knowing it. Maria Elide was contacted directly by a whole group of Japanese stitchers who were going to Italy and wanted to learn Deruta Drawn Thread Work while they were there. Maria Elide didn't understand how they had found her or why they would choose her over the many embroidery schools in Italy but when the group arrived they showed her a printout of my blog post about her! When she wrote and told me after they were gone, she assumed that I had known - but I was completely ignorant! 

I can't tell you how happy this kind of thing makes me. It is the whole point of this blog. This past week I received a thank-you gift from Maria Elide which, while unnecessary, is much appreciated. Lovely Deruta Drawn Thread Work done by her own hand. It barely fit into my scanner:

I'm very happy to have helped these people and hope that my readers find things of interest in the posts that I write, however infrequently they seem to be written these days.

Punto Maglie - prizewinner

Back in September I told you about the Hand Embroidery and Weaving Exhibition in Valtopina and how some Veronese Crochet Lace split the prize for the lace category with some Punto Maglie needle lace. I'm happy to tell you that I can now show you what the Punto Maglie entry looked like:

Napkin with corner insert of Punto Maglie needle lace. Image copyright Assn. Punto Maglie.

Central insert of Punto Maglie needle lace for the tablecloth. Image copyright Assn. Punto Maglie.

Following the theme of the exhibition: Green Monuments of Umbria - the trees, we can identify the leaves and the fruit of the Olive tree in the Punto Maglie pieces pictured above. Besides occupying an important role in mythology and symbology, the olive is also predominantly present in the two regions of Umbria (where the exhibition was held) and Apuglia (where Punto Maglie comes from) thus, this entry creates a bond between the two areas. Exhibition participants were required to demonstrate the development of their ideas for their patterns on paper and produce pieces of their chosen lace or embroidery for a six setting tablecloth (140 cm x 160 cm) with matching napkins (40 cm x 40 cm). The central insert of Punto Maglie needle lace pictured above measures 30 cm x 21 cm.

I wrote to Liliana Ciriolo of the Associazione Punto Maglie to ask her some details about this prizewinning lace which she made together with Anna Borgia, Mina Saponaro and Renata Skovran from a design by Alessandra M. Chiurazzi inspired by a 16th century model. It took them a month to make the pieces using white DMC no. 80 thread. Stitches employed were the buttonhole stitch, the cording stitch, picots and the net.

Congratulations to the women of the Associazione Punto Maglie and thank you for sharing these pieces with us!

On November 4th, the town of Maglie was featured on an Italian TV program "Ti ci porto io" [I'll take you there]. Around the 8:25 mark of the video below, you can see how they execute Punto Maglie needle lace and see some of the Associazione Punto Maglie's work which includes a bridal gown which took four women more than 5 months to make.
The interviewer says: Four people took five months to make it? Why do you do it?
Anna Borgia answers: For love.
The interviewer then asks how much it might cost and she asks for a ballpark figure.
Anna Borgia: Around six thousand euros.

Embroidery using a hoop

For those who would like to learn to use an embroidery hoop to aid in creating beautiful traditional needlework, Anna Rondelli of Bologna has just released her second publication: Ricamo a Telaio [Embroidery using a hoop].

Translated from her website:

Through the pages of this book, we learn how to hold the hoop in hand. It is the "ABCs" of embroidery that you should know before moving on to more complex techniques. The principal stitches of embroidery executed using a hoop like cording stitch, padded satin stitch, shadow work, buttonhole stitch edgings, Rodi Stitch and many others and their variations are explained step-by-step. Different projects are presented in detail in the third part. The designs of some of the work (on transfer paper and ready to use) are enclosed in a separate envelope. This publication may be useful to experts for consolidating their technical knowledge and for beginners who want to get to know embroidery using a hoop.

Sample of stitch instructions.

This book is also a showcase of Anna's gorgeous traditional embroidery. There are some designs dedicated to the bridal trousseaux in elegant colour choices.

Anna dreams of continuing to publish more and more complex stitches and techniques in the future, so if you enjoy this book, there may be more to come. The text of this book is in Italian.

If you're in Bologna from the 16th to the 18th of November 2012, you can get your hands on this book by attending the fair Il Mondo Creativo in Bologna, otherwise you can contact Anna through her website La Prilletta.

For a review of this book in Italian, see the TuttoRicamo blog.

Scuola d'Industrie Italiane - Piecework article

For those who enjoy a good story to go along with your needlework, check out the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Piecework magazine:

Inside you will find the story of the Scuola d'Industrie Italiane of New York by Ivana Palomba.

Some of you may remember me telling you about Ivana's thesis being published last year on Carolina Amari and her impact on the emancipation of women. This article tells of the school/workshop that Carolina Amari and Florence Colgate started in 1905 in New York for italian immigrant girls as a means to earn a living without having to work in a sweatshop or factory.

While translating this article I have to say that I was fascinated by the lives of the women we tried to research and found it immensely frustrating to be so far from New York and all the archives that are there. If you have an ancestor who was a student of the Scuola d'Industrie Italiane of New York. I would love to hear from you!

Photo by Joe Coca, image copyrighted by Interweave.

As Piecework required a project to accompany the article, there is a Punto Antico needlebook inspired by a card case featured in an advertisement for the Scuola D'Industrie Italiane from The Journal, November 1908.

I hope to have more news early in the new year regarding the Scuola D'Industrie Italiane of New York, so keep an eye out for further developments!

Italia Invita 2013

 

The 6th International Italia Invita Forum of Textile Creativity has updated their website to include the theme and competitions for the next Italia Invita Forum in Parma, Italy on May 10 - 12th, 2013.

Techniques covered at the next Forum will include: Embroidery, Lace, Quilting, Knitting, Crocheting, Felting, Cross Stitch, Weaving, Straw Plaiting, and just about any other textile art.

The theme will be: Intreccio Internationale which is difficult to translate into two words."Intreccio" is a weave, a plait or braid, a plot (of a story), an intertwining or interweaving - of paths, lives, things. The way they have explained it on the English general info page of their website is as follows:

...the theme is “Intreccio Internazionale” because we will search the path that “the thread” has made, prior to materialize into an art, a technique, a precious artifact. An invitation to retrace the steps through which every single work of each school has reached perfection, thanks to contamination with other techniques.

As usual, there are two competitions open to the public with the entries being displayed during the Forum:

The topics chosen for 2013 are ‘circle’ and ‘internationality’: one as a symbol of unity, of what has no beginning and no end, and the other as the basis of the “growth” due to the exchange between different cultures.

The Squaring the Circle competition is open to individual quilters, groups and associations and the International Circle competition is open to anyone who wants to use any textile method to create a themed piece.

Prizes include a Juki sewing machine, a Juki cutting and sewing machine, Aurifil threads and €1,800.00 in vouchers to spend at the Italia Invita Forum in the vendors section.

I was waiting until they had made the rules available in English on their website to tell you about this but I have learned that the rules will not be made available in any other language than Italian. This seemed strange to me for an international competition and event. I received this response to my query from Fiere di Parma, the company that hosts the event:

The rules are only in Italian because the competition is reserved only for Italian citizens due to issues with the Government.
Unfortunately, the law does not allow Italy to organize international competitions and so we were forced to deal with this limitation.

There will be workshops and classes that you can register for and attend and I am told that a list of these will be available in the next couple of weeks.

A list of exhibitors and vendors will become available after the new year.  So check back to the Italia Invita website often for updates.

In other posts I have told you about previous editions of Italia Invita Forums:

Italia Invita - Part One - 2003

Italia Invita - Part Two - 2005
Italia Invita - Part Three - 2007

Italia Invita - Part Four - 2009
Italia Invita - Part Five - 2011

Truly, if you get the chance to go, make the effort. No where else can you get so many Italian needlework schools, teachers, techniques and supplies at a single event.