Brief history of embroidery. The history of cross stitch. When did people start to embroider

Russian embroidery has very deep roots. At the heart of this type of needlework, and in particular cross-stitch, are the customs and rituals of our people. The cross for a Russian person has always been a symbol of protection, able to protect from the effects of evil spirits, evil eye and other troubles. The pattern on the hem of the shirt, on the sleeves and the neck served as a talisman for a person.

With the advent of Christianity in Russia, embroidery acquires a new meaning. Now embroidered items were seen as a symbol of the Christian faith. Embroidered towels began to be used to decorate the iconostasis, mirrors, windows and doors of the dwelling.

When embroidery appeared in Russia, it was considered needlework of the upper class. This was explained high price materials used for embroidery. Nuns and representatives of the nobility performed their work on velvet and silk with silver and gold threads, pearls and precious stones.

The veil intended for the decoration of the royal throne, which was embroidered by one of the most skilled craftswomen of that time, the daughter of Tsar Boris Godunov, has survived to this day. Xenia embroidered the bedspread in 1601. The plot of the embroidery is the kneeling of the holy men Nikon and Sergei of Radonezh to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and John the Baptist.

Gradually, embroidery ceased to be a privilege of the nobility and became a common occupation of peasant girls. The materials used were cheaper.

The history of the preparation of linen for embroidery.
The embroidered towel began with the sowing of the field with linseed or hempseed. The grown hemp was threshed and separated into seeds and stems - poskan. The seeds were beaten for oil, and the frog was dried in a heated oven on a tripod (the front leg is small, the rear ones are larger). Then they squeezed it with their hands, swept away the dry leaves, and began to crush the poskan in a mortar or crushed it with a masher. Then the fox was put on a large comb and combed (mumbled) with a small comb, and only after that they began to spin. From good thread canvases were woven, and what was left of the “good” went to the tracks.

Woven canvases were taken to be bleached - it was no less laborious work: first they were washed in ashes, then they were steamed in a hot oven, bleached again and went to the pond to rinse. The canvases were dried on a sunny day, spreading them over mounds on green grass or in winter on a frosty day in the snow. The finished canvases were rolled up on a rock and, grabbing with a rubel, ironed, then cut into towels, and only then were they taken at gatherings or at home to “paint” patterns.

Embroidery and folk beliefs.
Ideal wrong side embroidered product - a requirement that has its roots in the depths of centuries. Our ancestors believed that the inside is the main indicator of the quality of work. If, turning the work to the wrong side, people saw a labyrinth of knots and tangled threads, the needlewoman was expected to be universally reprimanded. It was believed that a sloppy wrong side would anger the patrons of crafts and deprive her home of peace and protection. Fearing to anger the spirits, embroiderers came up with a lot of ways to hide the threads under the pattern on front side. Due to this, the wrong side of the products looked more like a tapestry made in an unusual technique.

“One day made” items had the highest value. It was believed that a towel embroidered in the period from dawn to dusk of one day acquires pristine purity. As a rule, several craftswomen performed such embroidery. With the first ray of the sun, they took needles in their hands, and the last stitch was made at the same time as the sun set over the horizon. If they managed to finish the work on time, the result of joint creativity was a talisman that could ward off a deadly disease, prevent a natural disaster, and protect against evil spirits.

Previously, for the wedding, as a dowry, the girl embroidered from 40 to 100 towels. They were intended for different cases life. For example, a newborn was wrapped in his towel-amulet, and he did not part with him until his death.

Patterns in Russian embroidery.
Embroidery was not only decorative element, it was a kind of symbol of the worldview, often preserved from pagan times. For example, two birds facing each other and the tree of life between them are the birds of happiness, personifying the morning and evening dawn.

In embroideries, images of leopards and bears, amulets of the house, are often found, and the image of a woman is always a symbol of a woman in childbirth. In towels there is often an image of a pair of women with lowered and raised hands - the Mother and the Virgin.

The mother turns to the earth, takes juices from it so that the harvest is good. Virgo asks for rain and sun - also for good harvest. Towels with an open sign of the Sun were usually given to women in labor to facilitate childbirth.

According to the materials of the online magazine "Sudarushka" http://handmade.sudarushka/?page_id=62

Embroidery as an art form has existed for generations of centuries, pleasing to the eye and giving fashionistas more opportunities to express themselves through clothing. After all, each hand-embroidered thing is truly unique. The history of embroidery is rooted deep in antiquity. Our ancestors, when sewing leather, noticed that this can be done not just with straight lines-stitches or wavy, but also with other types. For example, you can use cross stitch. History claims that in the ninth century AD, embroidery was so perfect that things created by craftswomen could compete with modern views embroideries made with the help of machines and careful miscalculations.

How did it all start?

Few people know that the history of the emergence of embroidery has a completely different meaning than it is given today. Now it is beautiful, stylish and unique, but in the old days, embroidery had a completely different meaning: it was a powerful amulet from negative forces, as well as a way to convey the information hidden in the symbols used to create the masterpiece. Moreover, things embroidered in a special way for ritual actions carried a message for those around them, because it was the clergy who had hidden, secret and incredible knowledge about the power of the symbols with which they decorated their clothes.

Just looking at the embroidered robes, a person could significantly change his internal state, train of thought and motivating inner desires. Over time, this knowledge was gradually replaced, distorted unconsciously, due to a limited mind, or specifically for reasons known only to the initiates.

Cross-stitch

History and research argue that this is one of the most common techniques for creating amulets in the form of clothes, because its symbol - the cross - was a symbolic image of a person, depending on which form ( geometric figure, drawing) was lined up from small stitches, one could understand what the embroiderer wanted for the one to whom the embroidered item was intended. Scientists cannot give an approximate date for the emergence of this type of needlework, but the ancient remains of clothing found dating back to the 9th-10th centuries prove that cross-stitch was already on high level.

At the same time, researchers in the history of cross-stitching claim that this art was considered an occupation for aristocrats or people with unique abilities, and only primitive stitches and thick canvases with threads were available to ordinary people, from which you cannot create a masterpiece. One of the most skillful embroiderers of the Middle Ages was considered Xenia, the daughter of Boris Godunov. Her work was known not only in Russia, but also abroad: she skillfully embroidered canvases for the church, tablecloths and clothes for members of the royal blood.

Embroidery as a sign of attention

In the course of history, cross-stitch is closer to XVIII century becomes accessible to almost everyone, while it gradually loses its main semantic load and sacred meaning and becomes more decorative. Craftswomen decorated not only clothes and interior items, but in this way they could show their sympathy to the guy they liked by embroidering a shirt, belt or tobacco pouch for him.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the popularity of embroidery in Russia briefly fell due to the dominance of newfangled things from the West, but in the past few years, the craving for this painstaking creativity is gaining momentum again. It is safe to say that the history of embroidery is not over yet.

When did people start to embroider?

It is officially considered that the history of embroidery began in China, it was there that the first garments made of silk, decorated with small stitches of gold and silver threads, were discovered. The finds are dated to the 5th century BC. e. and have survived to this day, which speaks of high quality material and labor input. It was Chinese embroidery that had a significant impact on the formation of this type of needlework in Japan, Byzantium and later in other European countries.

In Russia, namely, in Altai, items of clothing were found, embroidered with stones and beads dated to the first century BC. This suggests that the development of embroidery in history took place in parallel in different corners the globe. Some sources claim that during the time of Vladimir Monomakh, the first school of embroiderers was already created on the basis of the Andreevsky Monastery.

Mstera embroidery

This type of satin stitch embroidery left a small trace in history, as it originated recently, in the 18th century. In Russia, in Vladimir region, in the town of Mstera, the nuns of the local monastery laid the foundation unique style embroidery, which was soon divided into two types: for wealthy people and the clergy, as well as for simple peasants. The difference was that the first embroidered with gold thread on satin fabric or velvet, and poorer people - with simple white threads on a thin linen fabric or cambric.

The 19th century and the beginning of the 20th is the peak of demand for delicate cambric shirts embroidered with white threads, which were in almost every family. Also embroidered tablecloths, bow and neckerchiefs, kerchiefs and thin petticoats, and at the end of the 40s of the 20th century, Mstera embroidery was recognized even abroad. Over time, fashion knitted clothes and linen has practically supplanted this wonderful art form.

Another view of the Russian surface

In the 20th century, this style of embroidery became the basis for another subspecies - the Vladimir smooth surface, which differs somewhat in stitches from the classic embroidery in that the threads pass in a thick layer, creating convex plant patterns: flowers, leaves with tendrils. In Vladimir satin stitch embroidery, history highlights the color red, but sometimes small additions were used in the form of yellow and of blue color, less often - green.

Over time, outlandish birds, trees and bushes began to be “weaved” into the ornaments, while maintaining the tradition of unity with nature. In the 70s of the last century, this style of embroidery reached its peak of popularity, but then gradually subsided, only in the hinterland of the country is the skill that is inherited still alive.

Needlework with ribbons

Ribbon embroidery also takes place in history, because it originates from more ancient times, when Leather Products embroidered with thin strips of leather and cords. V Ancient Egypt clothes began to be embroidered with thinner strips of fabric, braid, and the resourceful Byzantines and Jews transferred this type of needlework to Europe.

The next leap in the history of ribbon embroidery took place thanks to Louis the Prudent: he brought machines for making ribbons from satin into the country, and that's when the boom in silk ribbons began. In 1560, 50 thousand craftsmen were already working in Lyon. They worked day and night, making miles of ribbons that needlewomen used to embroider gentlemen's clothes. Mass hysteria grew and in the 17th century they began to embroider not only women's, but also men's clothing: people began to resemble flowerbeds. The hobby spread all over the world, even in Australia, ribbon embroidery was used more often than simple (thread) embroidery, since there was a tax on threads, but not on ribbons. Fortunately, since 1800, the hobby gradually subsided and took the form decorative arts: paintings, tapestries and small interior items began to be embroidered.

Finally

About the occurrence different styles embroideries in the history of the world can be told for a long time, since there are really a lot of them: delicate cutwork, stunning Scandinavian handarger embroidery, Italian assisi - a technique that combines a cross and a Holbein stitch, amazing bargello - Florentine embroidery, which is still very popular. Everyone can find something of their own in any kind of interaction of colored thread, needle and fabric and create their own masterpiece.

Today, cross-stitch is one of the most popular hobbies among women. Cross-stitch is one of the most original and sought-after art forms, which attracts so many needlewomen. Since ancient times, cross-stitch has been used to decorate homes, shoes, and clothes. Over time, the art of cross-stitching has improved more and more. Now cross-stitching implies the art of decorating various fabrics and finished products with beautiful ornaments and beautiful plot patterns. Embroidery can be done not only by hand, but there is also machine embroidery. The surviving embroidery helps to feel the entire transmitted atmosphere of the past and fully appreciate its value for every nation.

Beautiful cross stitch: the history of creation

Among many craftswomen, cross-stitch is in great demand, however, not everyone knows what the history of the creation of embroidery is. At all times, cross-stitch is in great demand, as it allows you to express your individuality in an interesting way. Embroidery motifs have changed over time and improved more and more.

Before decorating various products embroidery, it is necessary to study the history of the creation of the ornament, because patterns often have their own special sacred meaning

Initially, embroidery was used for products that served as amulets, the motive for which was:

• natural patterns;
• Motives taken from everyday life;
• Original ornaments.

As embroidery developed, more original and modern motifs, each of which has its own notation. The surviving motifs of the works allow us to appreciate the beauty and unusual old embroidery for which expensive materials were used, as well as to have a complete picture of the life of our ancestors.

Important! Before embarking on embroidery, you must first carefully study the history of its occurrence, as well as the peculiarity of each of the ornaments.

How did the history of cross-stitching in Russia begin?

Initially, embroidery in Russia was an occupation exclusively for the elite, which included only representatives of the nobility and monks.

If earlier embroidery was the privilege of the nobility, now various tools, threads and ornaments for embroidery are available to all needlewomen

The material for the work was expensive fabrics, namely silk or velvet, as well as:

• Silver and gold threads;
• Pearl;
• Gems.

Starting from the 18th century, cross-stitch ceased to be the privilege of noble people and became available to ordinary peasant girls. From that moment on, the history of Russian embroidery goes completely to new level, and completely new original patterns appear.

Russian embroidery was very strongly influenced by Byzantium, so the interweaving of different styles can be seen in the works of craftswomen. Now cross-stitch is moving to a whole new level and is in great demand.

Historical information about cross-stitch: features and motives

The historical reference of ancient cross-stitching did not retain accurate information about the emergence of this type of art and the craftswoman who first began cross-stitching. It is only known that women have been engaged in embroidery since antiquity.

Embroidery is a great opportunity to get acquainted with the history and culture of different peoples.

Embroidery, like absolutely any other art, is characterized by the fact that it:

• Displays the culture of a certain country;
• National traditions;
• Features of the region.

The historical background of cross-stitching briefly tells about the national characteristics of each people. Cross-stitch embroidery was distinguished by colors and patterns, which were widely used by craftswomen in their work. In those days, they were decorated with embroidery linens, curtains, clothes, towels and many other things. Embroidery was often used for decoration wedding dress bride.

The most real works of art were embroidered by craftswomen in the East, using the most original and bizarre patterns for this, which still fascinate with their extraordinary beauty.

Hand-stitched cross-stitch is now very highly valued and equates to value. precious stones and gold.

Cross stitch stories: how it all began

For many, cross-stitch is not only very interesting and an exciting activity but also the opportunity to decorate your home beautiful products. A lot of time has passed since the appearance of this art, however, it does not lose its relevance even now.

Cross-stitch has long served not only as a home decoration, but also as a powerful family talisman.

Pictures for embroidery in different times differed greatly, because at different times they were popular:

• Biblical motifs and patterns;
• Floral ornaments;
• Original images of various animals and birds.

Each pattern has its own symbolic meaning and embroidered in a strictly defined color. There are many options for cross stitch, however, the most popular and in demand is a simple one-sided full cross. With such embroidery, both the front and the wrong side turn out to be very neat. Observing simple rules embroidery can be done ready product very nice and neat.

What is the history of cross stitch (video)

Everyone's favorite cross-stitch has its own enough interesting story origin of this art form. In addition, each pattern and ornament used for embroidery has its own own history occurrence and designation.

Cross-stitch is the most ancient type of needlework. After all, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers also embroidered with a cross. In many homes, you can find an antique embroidered towel or pillow. What makes a person take the thread and start embroidering? Maybe someone will say that he is very passionate about the creation of beauty, when her birth takes place before your eyes. Others will talk about the feeling of joy that comes after finishing hard work. After all, joy is an inner feeling of satisfaction, happiness and pleasure!