Hand Embroidery

In the late 1960's households in Italy started purchasing washing machines.

With that, they also needed to buy laundry soap. That became a competitive market.

Some companies put "prizes" in their boxes to encourage shoppers to select their product.

The oval shaped boxes were made of cardboard. A company put hand-embroidered linen towels in their boxes. My friend's mom collected all 4 designs.

The difference was in the border colours; some were yellow, some blue, some pink, some light green. The flowers were exactly the same.

The  embroidery is hand done. The appliqué is super tiny and looks hand done but I think it maybe machine appliqué. Made in China.

The other embroidery sample I have for you is this one.

It was made about 100 years ago by a friend's friend.

It was originally the front of a parasol cover and had a kind of felted back but by the time my friend got it the back was ruined so she recycled it into a bag.

All hand done.

The underside was gorgeous and so neat! (forgot to take a picture)

Tutto , 1987

Artist: Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994)

This is one of the textile pieces I saw at Centre Pompidou in Paris this summer.

Tutto, 1987
embroidery floss on linen

In the 1980s, Boetti started a series, of which Tutto is part, and had the embroidery done by Afghani women who arrived in Pakistan as refugees after the Soviet invasion. 

Tutto, detail

There are 84 colours in this piece and every colour is used in the same amount.

You can see the embroidery stitching. It's very fine.

The following three images show Afghanistan embroidered squares that were integrated in textile art works as part of a European initiative to help Afghanistan women affected by the Afghan war.

Lemon Trees in Town
by Italian artist Daniela Cassani
(Afghanistan embroidered square: lemon tree, left)

Rosso Ciliegia (Red Cherry)
by Italian artist Maria Teresa Sansotta
(Afghanistan embroidered square: center top)

Farida's Garden
by me!
(Afghanistan embroidered square: seed, far right)

To see more about the Afghanistan embroidered squares, click here.