Today I found a very nice site. Basically they do what I also do here: preserve and share with the world the beautiful treasures of Romanian folk motifs. Take a look, it is indeed a beautiful collection.
This kitchen towel was embellished with a heart shape based motif. I remember that my grandmother used this one to cover the basket with food that she took to the men working in the field. It was back then a question of pride to have nicely decorated things that made life more beautiful. Kinda like a woman's worth measure :) Notice the choice of colors for this motif: red and black. These colors are quite the classics of Romanian folklore and they will show up in many other motifs that I will publish here. This particular motif was used on a decorative towel. In the traditional Romanian houses these decorative towels were used on the walls around a rich pained plate. To have an idea of how such a decoration would look like, here is an illustration. I found this motif on an unfinished tablecloth in my grandmother's closet. It is made in cross-stitch and in this case was used as an edging for the piece. It would be really nice for an autumn theme design :) Being away from my native land it occurred to me how few traditional folk motives are actually available online. In my eyes this is such a shame because the craftsmanship of Romanian folk artists is worthy to be known and to be preserved as an inspiration for future generations. My own grandmother who taught me so much from what I know was very talented and had so many wonderful things, some made by her, some made by her mother or other relatives. Animated by these thoughts I decided to do something and make visible the beauty of Romanian folk craftsmanship. This summer, during my visit to Romania, I went through all the things left from my grandmother. And I found so many! Some I took with me, some I left behind in my mother's care. But I also took pictures and it is my intention to share with the world the beautiful needlework motifs I discovered in my grandmother's closet. Today I will share with you a very old motif found on a wall-towel (i.e., a towel used to decorate walls of course :P ). It was made in the beginning of the 20th century, being received by my grandmother. The towel is not in a very good shape, but still holding on. The material was probably woven in house. If you like it and it inspired you to use it, please let me know, I would love to see this old motif brought back to life :) |