Circular Filet Netting

Photo copyright Filet in Tondo.

Enza Termine has updated her website and added some more photos of her exquisite Circular Filet Netting works.

There is a tutorial [in Italian but there is a Google Translate button on the website] on how to get started with Circular Filet Netting and if you were put off because you didn't know what to make besides a doiley which may not go with your home decor, browse through her galleries to be inspired for other projects!

I love her Nativity Scenes!

Photo copyright Filet in Tondo.

I hope this Holiday Season finds you exploring Italian Needlework and perhaps it is inspiring you to try new techniques in the New Year.

Round Knotted Netting

I told you about Enza Termine of Sicily and her Round Filet Netting in this post here last year but I didn't have any photos of my own to show you her exquisite work.

That has changed, look what came in the mail today!

Hand-made knotted netting made with gold thread by Enza Termine.

Hand-made rete a rosoni [circular netting] by Enza Termine.

Today I received two pieces hand-made by Enza herself and they are marvelous! I can't stop looking at them.

Enza has a tutorial (in Italian) on her website for the art of Round Knotted Netting, and you can find an English translation of an article she wrote on the subject at Tuttoricamo, click on the British Flag for the English pages, then click on "Techniques", then "Filet and Bosa Filet", then click on the word "circular" in the fifth paragraph. There are also some great tutorials in English at Rita Bartholomew's website here. There is a bit on circular netting here.

Thank you Enza!!

Mezza Mandolina - Complex Netting

I received an intriguing email some weeks ago from Enza Termine of Sicily. You may remember her from a previous post on circular netting.

Enza had come across a web page by an SCA member who was investigating Mezza Mandolina, a more complex type of netting or Lacis evidenced in a portrait by Bronzino of Eleonora, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici and another portrait of Elizabeth I of England. Both portraits date to the mid-to-late sixteenth century.

This is a detail of the Bronzino portrait taken from Elisa Ricci's Old Italian Lace, 1913, the netting has been further embellished with embroidery:

Enza had also found this page with Mezza Mandolina tutorials by the same SCA member for different patterns that she had been able to figure out by experimentation.

Enza was curious about the name of the technique Mezza Mandolina. We found it mentioned by Elisa Ricci in her Old Italian Lace, 1913 (Antiche Trine Italiane. Trine ad ago - 1908):
"There is a variety of mesh-work very seldom found existing now, although several designs for its manufacture are to be seen in an old pattern-book, Isabella Parasole's Studio delle virtuose Donne published in 1597; the work was known as mezza mandolina, and is a net of irregular mesh, sometimes left plain, but more often embroidered with little leaves in matting-stitch which fill the square mesh and join it to the others so that the background can hardly be seen between the interwoven figures."

In the Ricci text is the above portrait of Eleonora which is preceded by a photo of a pattern page for Mezza Mandolina from a different text by Isabetta C. Parasole called Gemma Pretiosa, 1615. There is then a photo of some plain (not embroidered) extant Mezza Mandolina kept in the Bargagli collection in Florence. (You can download Old Italian Lace from here)

In my researching I found that all texts cite Parasole in one text or another of hers. Unfortunately extant Parasole texts are extremely rare and while out of copyright, are part of private and museum collections and are not yet in the public domain. The German version of a 1616 text can be found here but there are no patterns for Mezza Mandolina. One librarian at the Smithsonian Museum told me that they plan to scan their rare texts and put them online in the future, this is exciting as they have four Parasole texts in their collections.

The tiny text Origine ed uso delle Trine a Refe has a rather complex pattern for embroidering Mezza Mandolina from Parasole's Pretiosa gemma delle virtuose donne, reprinted by Luchino Gargano in Venice, 1600 - you can see it here. I'm not sure how you would manage something so complex on netting but then, I don't have any experience in doing it!

Enza decided to see if she could reproduce the Mezza Mandolina pattern from the Bronzino portrait. She had some good results which she shared with me but asked me to wait until she could perfect her technique and she has just sent me this photo of her results:

She has written of her adventures on her website (click on Mezza Mandolina - text in Italian) and she also found this extant example of Mezza Mandolina from the late 19th century in the National Museum of Abruzzo.

Does anyone know anything else about Mezza Mandolina? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks to Enza for sharing her photo and adventures with us!

To read a follow-up post for this subject, click here.

Circular Filet Lace from Sicily

Yesterday I received a delightful email from a Sicilian lady who wanted to compliment me on my blog. She told me that she had recently started her own website about a needlework technique that she fell in love with about six years ago and taught herself how to do: Circular Filet Lace.

To me, making regular Filet netting looks difficult, but I understand that making Circular Filet netting is even more challenging! Of course I had to go and have a look at her website right away!

Il Filet in tondo [Circular Filet Lace] is full of excellent photos of lovely Circular Filet work and there is even a tutorial with step-by-step photos! As the site is in Italian, I'll tell you a little about the lady who runs it (I'm translating from her biography):

Enza Termine is a mother of three who lives near Palermo on the island of Sicily at the very southern part of Italy. She tells of being struck by the beauty of pieces of Circular Filet Lace resting on a fig tree outside of the Cathedral of Lipari, one of the largest islands to the north of Sicily. She approached the two elderly people selling the lace and asked who had made it. To her great surprise, she discovered that it was the husband, a retired fisherman, who had produced the pieces. She bought the piece that is pictured on her biography page from them.

After that she searched for information on what she discovered was an art form on the verge of dying out. With the help of a friend she learned how to make filet netting and after much searching and the aid of an old Mani di Fata booklet, she was able to achieve the Circular Filet netting called "Rete a Rosoni" [rose netting, rose intending the big rose windows in cathedrals].

Click on her gallery page to view all of her amazingly beautiful works and don't forget to click on the little flower next to "I lavori delle amiche e non solo" [the works of friends and more] to see work by her friends and at the top of that page don't miss "altri lavori" [other works] and "Natale" [Christmas] for some exquisite Christmas decorations. There are more photos under the "Eventi" [events] page and even more under "Novità" [news]. On the "Novità" page there are the works of a Sardinian lady in her 90s.

If you can't get enough of Enza's work, there are more pictures here.

Thank you Enza for telling me about your beautiful work!