Embroiderer

“ I was talking of design, when "huz-ifs" intruded, and was saying that at the period when "blue-and-white" took on the "outline practice" design was a difficult question; indeed, it is always a difficult question for embroiderers. It is so important a part or quality of the art of embroidery. In fact, it is the business of the successful embroiderer to know as much about design as she must about stitchery and color. ”

“ It is almost a depressing sight to watch these embroiderers at work—so different are they from the happy boisterous metal-workers talking and laughing amid the clanging of their little hammers. They are sad and silent. You will be in a roomful of these people for perhaps a whole morning, and not one of them will utter a word. They work on and on, with heads bent down, picking up thread after thread of the one piece of embroidery that they have been constantly working on for months, or perhaps for years. ”

“ Then there were table covers and stand covers and wall pockets of various shapes and designs, and, in short, wherever the housewife could legitimately introduce color and ornamentation, crewelwork made its appearance.
In the very infancy of the art of embroidery in America, the primitive needlewoman was possessed of means and materials which fill the embroiderers of our rich later days with envy. Homespun linen is no longer to be had, and dyes are no longer the pure, simple, hold-fast juices which certain plants draw from the ground ”

“ Akin to lace and embroideries upon net is embroidery in which much of its special effect is obtained by the withdrawal of threads from the material, and then either whipping or overcasting in button-hole stitches the undrawn threads. The Persians and embroiderers in the Grecian Archipelago have excelled in such work, producing wondrously delicate textile grills of ingenious geometric patterns. ”

“ The next step is where the cords of gold enclose little touches of embroidery in coloured floss, as in Illustration 91. These have the value of so many jewels or bits of bright enamel. In fact, just as outline work in simple gold thread resembles damascening or filagree, so this outlining of little spaces of coloured silk suggests enamel. [140] The cord of the embroiderer answers to the cloisons of the enameller, the surfaces of shining floss to the films of vitreous enamel.
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59. COUCHED OUTLINE WORK.
Appliqué embroidery is constantly edged with gold or silver thread. ”

“ Embroidery was a favorite employment of the ladies of ancient times. In the days of Grecian prosperity it was a pastime among all ranks of ladies, and in the middle ages it was no less popular. The French excel in embroidery. Much of the embroidery sold in New York is done in Ireland. "A French manufacturer has invented a process of applying the electric spark to piercing designs on paper for embroidery." There now exists a machine by which one lady can accomplish as much as fifteen hand embroiderers. ”

“ The art of embroidery seems to have attained a higher degree of perfection in France, than any other country in Europe;—it is not, however, so much practised now. Embroiderers formerly composed a great portion of the working population of the largest towns; laws were specially framed for their protection, some of which would astonish the working people of the present day. ”

“ Should the material be too light to admit of stretching it firmly, stretch a piece of strong linen, and pin the work firmly on it. Both hands are employed when working in a frame, one above and the other below the work, and practise will enable you to work with either. Care should be taken to keep the frame in such a position that the worker will not be obliged to stoop.
Very much of the beauty of all varieties of embroidery depends on the harmonious arrangement of the colors, and this cannot be taught in any manual. To some, the color sense seems utterly, or in large part, wanting. ”

“ Scarce fifty years since, an expiring relic of this art might be sometimes seen on the white smock-frock of the English labourer, which, independent of elaborate stitching, was enriched with an insertion of cut-work, running from the collar to the shoulder crossways, like that we see decorating the surplices of the sixteenth century.
Drawn-thread embroidery is another cognate work. The material in old drawn-work is usually loosely-woven linen. Certain threads were drawn out from the linen ground, and others left, upon and between which needlework was made. ”

“ To a careful student each small difference [5] in the art tells its own story in its own language. The hammered gold of Eastern embroidery tells not only of the riches of available material, but of the habit of personal preparation, instead of the mechanical. The little Bible description of captured "needlework alike on both sides" speaks unmistakably of the method of their stitchery, a cross-stitch of colored threads, which is even now the only method of stitch "alike on both sides." ”

“ A poet is said to embroider the truth. [2] But such metaphorical use of the word hints at the real nature of the work—embellishment, enrichment, added. If added, there must first of all be something it is added to—the material, that is to say, on which the needlework is done. In weaving (even tapestry weaving) the pattern is got by the inter-threading of warp and weft. In lace, too, it is got out of the threads which make the stuff. In embroidery it is got by threads worked on a fabric first of all woven on the loom, or, it might be, netted. ”

“ To embroider is to work on something: a groundwork is presupposed. And we usually understand by embroidery, needlework in thread (it may be wool, cotton, linen, silk, gold, no matter what) upon a textile material, no matter what. In short, it is the decoration of a material woven in thread by means still of thread. It is thus the consistent way of ornamenting stuff—most consistent of all when one kind of thread is employed throughout, as in the case of linen upon linen, silk upon silk. ”

“ Some of the most interesting embroideries done during the last few years have been planned and carried out in some of our Scottish schools by untrained workers—designs so simple that the workers do not realise that they are designing at all—since they draw largely with needle and thread alone, and have little assistance from chalk and other markings. And it is this type of work, usually sewn in coarse yarns and on rough canvas, flannel or homespun, that is perhaps the most happy and most stimulating for a designer of needlework to begin on. ”

“ In the practice of embroidery the needlewoman has an advantage not now shared by workers in any other craft, in that the technical processes are almost a matter of inherited skill. Every woman can sew, and it is with little more than the needle and thread, which she habitually employs, that the greatest masterpieces of the art have been stitched. The art of embroidery, however, is not merely an affair of stitches ”

“ Some of the quaint pattern books of those days still exist, and they consist mostly of elements—dainty flower sprays, sprigs, fruits, birds, animals, fishes, border patterns and geometrical forms—all intended to assist the workers in the composition and building up of their designs and patterns.
In the busy world of nowadays, we cannot hope ever to attain to such perfection, nor to regain for embroidery the high position it once held in this country; but we still have many clever needlewomen who could produce beautiful work provided they had a better knowledge of how to set about it. ”

“ It is possible, by the help of such expedients, to emphasise certain colours and bring out points of the design, as well as to give completeness and finish. Such things as fringes, cords, and tassels are often more satisfactory when made by the worker and with materials like those used in the embroidery, for such will be more likely to be in keeping with the character of the rest, and to be more interesting in detail. In the finishing off the same taste and neatness of execution is required as in the embroidery. Good work can be very much marred in the making up ”

“ There was in every piece of embroidery done under the instruction of the accomplished and devoted Sisters certain virtues, certain effects of conscientious and patient work, mingled with the love of good and beautiful art, which were plainly visible. It had in all its flower pieces, and they were many, the quality of beautiful charm. The ministry of nature may have had something to do with this, since the lives of the executants were open to its influences. ”

“ Rich, but light embroidery? Count. No, sir: Spanish point—ample, massive, and of the best workmanship; well designed, splendid, but nothing that shines. Tail. Everything that you can desire. Shall I take your measure? Count. Yes—on one condition. Tail. What is it? Front. [Aside.] Ay, let us hear the condition. Count. You must tack on the embroidery slightly, that it may not be spoiled. I would have no buttons of false diamonds. I shall wear my four suits each of them twice during the first eight days of my nuptials, so that your embroidery will still be new, and may again be sold as such. ”

“ It is an exceedingly durable type of embroidery or lace—for it partakes of the nature of both—and is simple to work. The designs are mostly of the geometrical type, consisting of squares, circles, ovals, etc., worked in button-hole stitch, arranged to form borders, corners, or centres for table and bed linen. By combining other embroidery stitches with the button-hole stitch many charming pieces of work might be produced without much difficulty. Many of the Danish peasantry earn their livelihood by means of this beautiful work. ”

“ Many of the charming pieces of embroidery stored up in our museums give us an idea of what can be done in this way, and though we lack, perhaps, both time and patience nowadays, there is no reason why we should not, by cultivation of our tastes, raise the level of the art considerably above its present standard and [Pg 25] prove that we can still produce embroidery—of the modest, reticent type—adapted to our own conditions of life, which will reveal both refinement and artistic delight. ”

“ The bold, yet dainty treatment of the needlework is first-rate, and the whole arrangement of the design, colour and stitchery show that the purpose for which the embroidery was meant must have been continually in the mind of the worker. ”

“ A. counterchange. B. appliqué.
Appliqué work is thought by some to be an inferior kind of embroidery, which it is not. It is not a lower but another kind of needlework, in which more is made of the stuff than of the stitching. In it the craft of the needleworker is not carried to its limit; but, on the other hand, [150] it makes great demands upon design. You cannot begin by just throwing about sprays of natural flowers. It calls peremptorily for treatment—by which test the decorative artist stands or falls. ”

“ In modern English embroidery, the days of Queen Anne have been the limit of backward imitation; and, in fact, ancient English embroidery was a process of long and assiduous labor, as well as of knowledge and inspiration. Our hurried modern conditions would not encourage the repetition of the hand-breadth pictures in embroidery of the earliest specimens, where countless numbers of stitches were lavished upon a single production. The embroidered picture of The Garden of Eden described in chapter four is a specimen of the minute representation. ”

“ They form the basis of all embroidery, and their numerous modifications cannot be fully discussed in the limit we have prescribed to ourselves. It is sufficient to observe that the instruction we have tried to impart is that which it is absolutely necessary for the needleworker to master thoroughly before she attempts to cope with the artistic element of her work. That it is a creative art is undoubted, for no two pieces of embroidery are alike unless executed by the same hand, and from the same design. ”

“ The chenille must pass through the material freely, so as not to draw it. It looks well done in velvet, with occasional introductions of gold and silver thread.
Raised Embroidery.—Draw the pattern on the material as before. Work the flowers, &c., to the height required, in soft cotton, taking care that the centre is much higher than the edges. A careful study of nature is indispensable to the attainment of excellence in this kind of work. Pursue the same method with your colors, as in flat embroidery, only working them much closer. ”

“ The story of embroidery includes in its history all the work of the needle since Eve sewed fig leaves together in the Garden of Eden. We are the inheritors of the knowledge and skill of all the daughters of Eve in all that concerns its use since the beginning of time. ”

“ In figure work, which, though ambitious, is one of the most interesting kinds of embroidery, the figures, like all other things, must be treated with a certain amount of simplicity; very little attempt must be made to obtain flesh tones, roundness of form, perspective, or foreshortening. The work should be just sufficiently near to nature to be a good embroidery rendering of it. However, without overstepping the limits there is a great deal that may be expressed, such things as character, gesture, grace, colour, and so on, matters which are after all of first importance. ”