parna vintage linen and hemp

Matyo embroidery

2012-01-29T16:02:00.011+01:00

This distinctive Matyo embroidery , characterised by densely embroidered colourful flower designs on a black background, originate from a small area, the centre of which is Mezökövesd, a town in Northern Hungary. Usually in bold colours, often with long fringes, most commonly used as cushions, small table cloths. These antique embroideries date from 1910-1940s. The top image is a cover for a baby grand- absolutely stunning!

British Red Cross Christmas Fair

2011-11-15T12:56:00.002+01:00

We will be at the British Red Cross Fair
British Red Cross London Christmas Fair
on 16 & 17 November 2011
at Kensington Town Hall.
Tickets are now onsale at www.redcross.org.uk/fair

From rags to riches

2011-10-25T15:15:00.008+02:00

We have had a stock of rag rugs for a while now and have finally got round laundering them and deciding what to do with them .... cushions seemed a good idea and those pictured above are the first in the range.
The weaving of recycled cloth to make floor coverings was once common place in many parts of the world. Old, worn clothes amd textiles were torn or cut into thin strips and kept to make rugs, wall coverings and even table mats. The woman who uses the loom above weaves rugs using cuts offs from local garment factories
In Hungary traditional floor coverings include rag rugs and rush matting, both woven on a loom.

Fine cell work

2011-10-03T10:52:00.003+02:00

Fine Cell Work trains and pays prisoners in the UK to produce professional quality embroidery, tapestry and quilts. They do wonderful work in helping to rehabilitate prisoners, giving offenders a sense of purpose, building self esteem and self confidence and providing the incentive and financial means to stop re-offending .

The Textile Society's Antique Textile Fair

2011-09-28T09:32:00.004+02:00

This coming Sunday at Chelsea Town Hall, this is the second London fair organised by the Textile Society. With a host of dealers dealing in beautiful and exotic antique textiles from near and far it promises to be a wonderful event. We will have a selections of Hungarian and Romanian linen including Hungarian grain sacks, Vintage linen cushions and embroidery.

Selvedge Fair

2011-09-14T07:34:00.004+02:00

We are delighted to be exhibiting once again at the Selvedge Autumn Fair. Exhibitors are hand picked by the Selvedge team and it is a truly wonderful selection! This is a textile enthusiasts dream!

csango textiles

2011-08-26T21:28:00.011+02:00

These colourful textiles are typical of textiles woven by the Csango. The Csango are Hungarian speakers living in Eastern Romania. They have a strong folk culture and these are typical of their brightly coloured woven woollen textiles

Parna cushions in Period Living

2011-05-20T12:01:00.004+02:00

This months Period Living features some images of our vintag elinen cushions. Above; one of our bolster cushions . Below: two grain sack cushions and a cushion from a vintage monogrammed tea towel

Judith Brown

2011-05-15T12:29:00.012+02:00

Judith Brown makes exquisite jewellery from vintage haberdashery. Each piece is hand stitched with wire.

From top to bottom; vintage lace and crochet, Victorian mother of pearl button ( this one is mine!), vintage hooks and eyes, vintage crochet . There is more information about Judith and her work on her website

Landmark Contemporary Textile Fair

2011-03-17T11:23:00.003+01:00

The Landmark Contemporary textiles Fair takes place anually in Teddington, London . I happened to be in the area last weekend with a couple of hours to spare and what a wonderful fair it was. Lots of very talened textile artists/crafters, lots of beautiful, original and quirky textile related wares. Highly reommended!

parna cushions in World of Interiors

2011-03-07T18:39:00.005+01:00

This is the "snug" in a villa in the hills of Ibiza featured in Aprils World of Interiors. Lots of grain sack cushions.. our grainsack cushions are featured on the "inspiration" page..

Embroidered shoes

2011-02-21T20:46:00.004+01:00

Heels apart I love these shoes, embroidered using the traditional Kalotaszeg technique. This photograph was taken in the Ethnographic museum in Budapest just before christmas. Not a very good picture I am afraid as I wasnt able to loose the reflection from the glass display cabinet.
Jeremy at Tezla shoes has agreed to make some trainers from embroidered fabric. We're using a variation of traditional Kalotaszeg motifs hand embroidered on vintage linen. Watch this space!

Selvedge Spring Fair

2011-02-21T20:36:00.002+01:00

Saturday 2nd April, Highgate, London. Click for more details

Pretty vintage

2011-02-06T19:58:00.004+01:00

This picture is from the Jan issue of the BBC Home and Antiques magazine. Lovely grey walls. The embroidered table cloth is one of ours, you can see more pictures of it on the website by clicking the title link

Traditional Hungarian Embroidery (2) Siogard

2010-11-30T20:23:00.000+01:00

Colourful folk costumes from Siogard in Hungary; fantastic socks, slipper shoes and brightly embroidered blouses , waistcoats and aprons with pleated skirts. Veronika Vargaine Kovacs, has written a book on the embrodiery of Siogard and the embroidery museum that has recently opened there. Typical of the embroidery from Siogard is cut work bordered by blue and purple embroidery.

Grain sack upholstery

2010-11-17T18:24:00.006+01:00

These two images are from the October issue of The World of Interiors in a feature Anna Wintours Long Island Home. The chairs upholstered in Grain Sack fabric are good example of how a mixture of fabric can be use to good effect

Rare Brand Market at Goodwood

2010-11-10T15:39:00.004+01:00

Parna will be a the Rare Brand Christmas market along with 80 or so other bijou brands . The market takes place ( indoors) at Goodwood Race Course 17 and 18 November with late night shoppping on Wednesday. Click on the title bar to take yiou to the Rare Brand website for more information.

Selvedge Christmas Fair

2010-11-04T19:11:00.004+01:00

We will be exhibiting at the Selvedge christmas fair December 4 in Highgate London. There will be 30 or so textile related stalls, handpicked by the Selvedge team. We are honoured to have been asked and it should be a fabulous day!

For those of you not faimilar with Selvedge ; they publish a fantastically beautiful magazine- a must have for textile lovers!

The Mary Dress

2010-09-25T11:19:00.005+02:00

This is the Mary dress created by Gemma Buxton from a vintage hemp sheet from parna and two beautifully appliqued and embroidered panels.

Gemmas work brings together an interest in the history of art of embroidery with concerns about how we interact with the physical world in the 21st century. She uses narrative from everyday life , in this case the struggle between pests and food production.

The Mary Dress was created for a woman who struggles with the nature and the environment to survive. The dress is made from home grown, spun and woven hemp, the same fabric that was worn by peasants working in the fields. and is adorned with the two finely panels and the piece as a whole represents the struggles and glories in a ordinary working life.

The dress is on display at weekends until the 17th October at St Marys in the Marsh , Kent and is part of the "Art in Romney Marsh" event 2010.

There is more about the dress and Gemmas other work on her blog
Contact Gemma for more information
http://www.gemmabuxton.com/
http://www.gemmassewntogether.blogspot.com/

Textile Society Fair this Sunday

2010-09-24T16:09:00.002+02:00

A reminder that the The Textile Society is holding its first London Fair at Kensington Hall on Sunday. There will be lots of very interesting antique and vintage textiles from many parts of the world. Parna will have a selection of Vintage Hungarian grain sacks, Transylvanian embrodiery, grain sack cushions amongst other things.

Doors open at 10.00 ( 9.30 for trade ) Admission is £7.50

Hungarian Embroidery (2) Kalotaszeg

2010-09-18T17:49:00.014+02:00

Kalotaszeg is a region in Transylvania which was once part Hungary. This area has retained many folk traditions and is famous for , amongst other things its embroidery.

The traditional embroidery from this area is called "written" embroidery, the designs were originally drawn in freehand by the writing woman of the area, who were skilled and memorised many designs. The embroidery was traditionally done on home loomed hemp and in one colour using wool or cotton thread, most commonly red or blue or white.

The second from top image is of one of our cushions, drawn by a writing woman on home loomed vintage hemp and embroidered in cotton. This is a traditional design but embroidered in a non- traditional coloured thread.

The other images are Kalotaszeg embroidery patterns . I was lucky enough to find a book containing hundreds of these, we will be trying some more out soon.

Traditional Hungarian Embroidery (1)

2010-09-11T19:34:00.006+02:00

Today one of the very talented and patient women who embroider for parna gave me a region by region lesson in the traditional embroidery of Hungary.

The images above come from a piece from the village of Buszak in west Hungary, a village first settled 500 years ago and now with a population of 1200 people or so. Buzsak has a rich folk heritage.

In Buzsak embrodiery patterns are geometric and embroidered in red and blue with small amounts of yellow and green. The colours have to be absolutely spot on , a shade or two out simply wont do!

Living Etc.

2010-09-08T13:50:00.007+02:00

This is from Julys Living Etc. Spoons by Nic web, vintage linens by parna, Khadi linens by The Conran Shop , Glass bottles from Egg. Click on the images to enlarge and read the text

Textile Society London Fair

2010-09-06T09:07:00.002+02:00

I will be exhbiting at the Textile Society London Fair, September 26th. 10.30-16.30.

In Kensington town Hall the Fair promises to be a textile extravaganza with more than 60 dealers of antique textiles.

Admission is £7.50

For more information email me kath@parna.co.uk or click on the link above

Living etc.

2010-08-17T18:42:00.000+02:00

Hand embroidered sheepskin waistcoat

2010-07-26T17:05:00.005+02:00

I have seen a lot of these embroidered sheepskins recently. Some as long coats , some as jackets I think they are typical of the Paloc area in North Eastern Hungary. This one was on display at Skanzen.

textiles

2010-07-20T16:22:00.006+02:00

In the Pillis hills about 30 minutes drive from Budapest, Skanzen is a massive open air museum where traditional Hungarian villages have been re-located and re-created with enormous care and attention to detail, preserving the folk architecture, interior decoration and way of life from the mid 18th century to the mid 20th century. This is one of my favourite museums, walking from house to house and "village" to "village along grassy paths and open meadows one gets a sense of Hungarian peasant living in the mid 18th to 20 th century.

More photos on the parna facebook page here

New website!

2010-07-03T19:04:00.003+02:00

Its been a long time coming but the new parna website is now up and running. Still a few tweaks needed but I hope it clearer and easier to use...

Vintage Rag Rugs

2010-06-25T15:43:00.010+02:00

The weaving of recycled cloth to make floor coverings was once common place in many parts of the world. Old, worn clothes amd textiles were torn or cut into thin strips and kept to make rugs, wall coverings and even table mats.

In Hungary traditional floor coverings include rag rugs and rush matting, both woven on a loom.

The rags used in these rugs are much finer than those commonly seen. The designs feature vertical and horizontal stripes, the vertical stripes being formed by the use of different coloured warp threads.

Indigo resist dyeing

2010-06-07T17:27:00.014+02:00

Indigo dying first came to Hungary with German immigrants in the mid 1700s. There are a few workshops remaining. Janos, who dyes for us owns and works in one of these.

Janos works in the same studio, using the same traditional techniques with much of the same equipment as his father and his grandfather before him. One of the huge mangles was once operated by horses! With swathes of drying fabric in various shades of indigo , stone dyeing tubs, mangles and beautiful printing block its an awe- inspiring sight and the resulting fabric has an extraordinary depth of colour.

As well as the beautiful range of indigo shades Janos also uses traditional resist dyeing techniques. Patterns are applied using wax using blocks, the fabric is then hung and dipped repeatedly, the number of dips determining the final shade. The wax is then removed. Janos can resist dye 300 patterns, most are traditional, applied using wooden printing

Choosing vintage fabrics (2)

2010-06-03T12:20:00.008+02:00

These images show a mixture of vintage linen rolls, grain sacks, mattress covers and cart covers.

The linens pictured above were all hand woven in Hungary.

These toffee and caramel stripes were not as commonly woven as the red or blue stripes and as shown were sometimes woven with pinkish red or blue. They usually have a very light sand or cream ( rather than grey or stone stones) backgrounds and often mix and match well.

Cart covers and rolls can be used to upholster large pieces and mattress covers for chairs. Sacks can be used to make cushions, the red and caramel striped sack in the picture above is 150 cm long and could be used to make 3 small cushions.

For upholstery fabrics with close weave are more hard wearing. Generally thes fabric are very strong and hard wearing.

Choosing vintage fabrics (part1)

2010-05-22T15:28:00.001+02:00

It is sometimes difficult when choosing fabrics online to get a clear idea of the subtleties of weave, weight and tone. This can be especially tricky when considering which fabrics complement each other and/or colour schemes.

Most of our antique and vintage linen has either a stone/oatmeal or cream/wheat coloured base. We try our best to accurately describe tones. When choosing fabrics to be used together the background tone is probably the most important consideration and going for either the grey/stone/ porridge tones or the wheat/cream/yellow tones is a good starting point

Mixing striped linen with plain often works well and for larger projects using any combination of grain sacks, cart covers, mattress covers, sacks and sheets with the same tones can produce stunning results.

Over the next few weeks we will be presenting examples of combinations of vintage linen which could be used for interior projects. We will also be suggesting complementary Farrow and Ball paint colours as we aware that like us many of our customers use Farrow and Ball.

(Farrow and Ball is an English company producing environmentally friendly paints with a fantastic range of neutral (and other) colours. They go particularly well with our vintage fabrics.

Period Living

2010-05-13T08:27:00.004+02:00

Featured in Junes issue of Period living (UK). This shows one of our cushions from grain sack fabric ( not a chunky hemp cushion as it says in the caption!)

Bespoke cross stitch embroidery

2010-05-10T20:09:00.008+02:00

Our bespoke, hand embroidered cross stitch pictures are featured in this weeks Country and Town House magazine ( bottom right in the image above)

Kalocsa Embroidery

2010-05-07T10:12:00.016+02:00

Kalocsa , 88 miles South of Budapest is a small town famous for its paprika and its folk art.

Colourful motifs including flowers and paprika were traditionally painted on walls, furniture, eggs and embroidered to make clothes and home furnishings

This style of embroidery using bright colours was popular at the beginning of the 20th century. Before that the embroidery of this area was generally done with white thread on white cloth.

The examples above are all vintage and embroidered on home woven cloth.

Vegetable dyed yarns by Renaissance dyeing

2010-04-23T15:47:00.007+02:00

I first came across Andie of Renaissance dyeing sometime ago when I was seeking advice on dyeing vintage linen with vegetable dyes.

Andie is passionate about using plants to create the most wonderful coloured yarns

Andie and her Dutch husband Adrian have settled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, enabling Andie to indulge her life long passion for natural vegetable dyeing and colour.

Her atelier in is packed full of plants, wool and lots and lots of wonderful colour. Blues from woad and indigo, reds from madder, cochineal and brazilwood, yellows from weld, fustic and onion skins. Add oak bark, oak galls and logwood and you have a palette that produces over 150 different naturally dyed shades.

The dye-house and winding machinery are housed in a converted barn in an ancient hilltop village. In this traditional textile area amid wild dye plants and newly cultivated woad fields.

Stenciled vintage grain sacks

2010-04-20T19:07:00.008+02:00

Stenciled vintage sacks. Home woven. Twill weaves. These come from villages in Southern Hungary. Some have the name, town and house number stenciled on them. Others just the owners name. As you can see some of the names are German. During the rule of the Habsburg empire Germans were encouraged to settle in Hungary and to work the land. 800 villages were founded in Hungary between 1711 and 1750 ( some of these are now outside the border of Hungary)

Using vintage linen and grain sacks for upholstery projects

2010-04-01T16:04:00.012+02:00

I am frequently asked about using these lovely vintage fabrics for upholstery. Their strong close close weave and distinctive look makes them fantastic for making original pieces of furniture

These fabrics were loomed on narrow home looms, widths vary but are rarely greater than 60cm a panel. Cart covers, sheets, mattress covers have all been made by sewing panels together, they are often beautifully hand sewn with hemp thread.

Cart covers are ideal for larger pieces and easier than fabrics from roll because the lengths are already hand sewn together.

These two pieces by Dan Marty design, the sofa is covered using what looks like a cart cover

The patchwork effect is also popular and often uses a mixture of grain sacks, of different colours with varying stripes and the odd monogram thrown in. This one is from Antiquted

and this one here from Hossack and Gray, this sofa is upholstered in a ix of striped and hand dyed vintage fabrics

and here is one, also from Hossack and Gray upholstered with indigo dyed vintage linen

Chunky Romanian Hemp

2010-03-28T14:06:00.004+02:00

Chunky, thickly spun hand woven hemp from Romania.

The striped comes from Moldavia, an area in East Romania. It was woven to make bags- typically worn by the csango, a minority group living on this area who speak an ancient form of Hungarian and have a very strong tradition of folk culture including music , dance and textiles.

Moldavia is one of the most beautiful areas of Romania, dramatic mountainous landscape and small villages, lots of traditional wood houses, many with ornately carved wooden tiles.

The plain hemp is a very unusual, decorative weave, it may also have been woven for bags but more likely for use in the home.

Vintage Linen Hearts

2010-03-26T12:01:00.003+01:00

Blinds from vintage linen

2010-03-21T12:42:00.004+01:00

Look at this brilliantly simple blind made by a length of vintage linen by Constanca. More pictures on her lovely blog here:

http://saidosdaconcha.blogspot.com/

Sampler style embroidered cushion

2010-03-17T16:12:00.004+01:00

This cushion was embroidered using fine cross stitch, by a master embroiderer in Hungary. We were asked to make it to feature in an exhibition in Buckingham palace Victoria and Albert: Art and Love

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/7228202/Queen-Victorias-passion-for-nudity-goes-on-display-in-new-art-exhibition.html

Bespoke initials on vintage linen cushions

2010-03-11T14:45:00.002+01:00

Its taken a while but parna now offers bespoke embroidered initials on vintage linen grain sack cushions.

Some of the original sacks have initials, originally monograms were embroidered to indicate to the mill owner the owner of the sack. Our monogrammed sacks and cushions have always been very popular.

Facebook | parna antique and vintage linen

2010-02-09T21:15:00.000+01:00

Facebook parna antique and vintage linen

Indigo dyed vintage linen and hemp

2010-01-19T08:24:00.004+01:00

Indigo dyed in vats uing traditional methods. The vintage linen hemp sheets and sacks Dipped in dye baths up to 30 times to produce this extraordinary depth of colour.

Resist dyeimng is a traditional craft in Hungary. Patterns are stamped onto the fabric in wax, some using very old stamp blocks others using newer designs. We are awaitng delivery of our first batch of resist dyed indigo fabric.

parna vintage linen and hemp: Parna in the Media

2009-11-23T10:42:00.000+01:00

parna vintage linen and hemp: Parna in the Media

Parna in the Media

2009-11-23T09:42:00.004+01:00

Delicious magazine borrowed some of the embroidered Transylvanian pieces for their "Christmas Lunch" shoot. They showed a long wallhanging with a pomegranate design a a table runner and a lovely red and white piece, woven uing a kelim technique, as a table cloth

BBCs DIY SOS bought some grain sacks for a house they were renovating in Anglessey, Wales. I think it was screened this weekend but I am away from the UK so missed it.

Coast Magazine feature a vintage linen sheet which they had embroidered and is now hanging in a shop window in Brighton!

Hand cut felt

2009-11-01T14:33:00.005+01:00

These pieces are made by a master craftswomen who has been practising this applique technique for 45 years! It is a traditional Hungarian technique originally used for making beautiful felt coats ( suzrs) worn by Hungarian Herdsmen since the middle ages

Appliqued cushions

2009-10-18T10:23:00.004+02:00

What a lot of work but how lovely! Painstakingly appliqued onto the "home made" linen backing. Each millimetre of fabic is hand sewn onto the backing linen. These cushions are about 70 years old

Parna features in this months edition of my green lifestyle

2009-09-27T18:44:00.003+02:00

Parna featue in this months " my green lifestyle magazine. It is a beautifully put together, stylish on online magazine featuring lots of lovely eco products as well as great features.

Coming up Coast magazine, Delicious, BBC Homes and Antiques

Vintage Romanian Hemp Covers

2009-09-22T19:33:00.006+02:00

I call the fabric made from this very distinctive Romanian weave "chunky hemp". These pieces werer traditionally used for curtains dividing rooms or perhaps sometime a bed covers. They tend to be quite heavy. They make good bed covers though not usually big enough for a double bed. The paleness is testament to their age as hemp lightens and oftens with washing. Even some of these much washed pieces still have woody bits of hemp. As is the case with many of the textile from these parts the colour are most often red or blue or a combination of the two. Recently I have come across some more unusual colours, red and deep charcoal grey for example. Quite common in these pieces is this rather lovely , I think crochet, joining the panels as in this piece here:

Cushions from vintage embroidery " folk style"

2009-09-06T09:51:00.006+02:00

I often come across embroidery in this style but not with such bold colours and on "home made" cloth. more here

Kalotosezeg embroidery

2009-09-01T22:03:00.008+02:00

Kalotoszeg is an area in Transylvania, Romania, most of which was at one time Hungarian. Folk traditions in this area are still abundant. I have been commissioning and sellling cushions embroidered in the traditional " writing stitch" for some time now and they are lovely. This type is called "writing stitch" , as the design is first drawn onto the fabric by the "Writing-Woman." These women drew hundreds of patterns free hand from memory for half their village. I am lucky enough to have found a few experts. Traditionally the pattern was first drawn onto the fabric with a goose feather dipped in water mixed with Soot. Now they use pens! Traditionally embroidered in red ( for marriage gifts) blue or black ( for funerals).

This evening I visited an embroiderer, originally from the Kalotoszeg region, I saw many things woven and embroidered by her mother and grandmother. It was explained to me, that under Cecescau the electricity went out at 20.00 in the evening and they wove and embroidered by candle light as recently as 20 years ago!

Basket weaving

2009-08-29T20:16:00.005+02:00

I have long admired rush matting for its simple and natural look but, until last weekend had given little thought to its making and I was very suprised to find rush being woven on a loom with a warp ( or is it weft) of hemp string. I was lucky enough to be able to chat at length to the curator and guide to an exhibition of basket making- all fascinating, There is a long long tradition of basket weaving in Hungary and it is thought that the craft was bought to Hungary by the Mongols many years ago. Rush , reed and willow are the most common materials for bakset making in Hungary. The rush matting shown above was traditionally used on mud floors in peasant houses or as wall hangings, placed on the wall alongside the bed . The bags like those shown above are woven on a loom and then beautifully seamed.

Matyo roses

2009-08-28T14:00:00.008+02:00

This colourful, dense embroidery comes from the Matyo region, a small area in Northern Hungary. The most famous Matyo motives are the Matyo roses which initially gained popularity in the 1890s and continue to do so today. Recently I visited the "memorial house of a hundred roses" of Kisjanko Bori, who was a famous "rose writer" she drew roses onto cloth to be embroidered. These rose motives were also painted onto furniture and walls. These pictures show tradional Matyo costumes incorporating the wonderful matyo embroidery

Vintage costumes

2009-08-24T13:47:00.010+02:00

These hand made, vintage waistcoats and jackets, complete with porcelain buttons come from Slovakia. Lots of bright colours, silver and gold thread.

The last two pictures show a hand embroidered childs waistcoat, lots of work went into this. More information coming soon

Embroidered bonnets

2009-08-19T17:30:00.009+02:00

I bought these really pretty bonnets yesterday. I am trying to find out a little more about them, I think that they come from Slovakia and are about 100 years old. They are beautifully made and rather delicate.

Cross stitch embroidery

2009-08-11T15:00:00.002+02:00

Well it was worth the long trip to the Ukraine border to meet Erszike and to see her amazing embroidery for which she has won the prestigious Kis Janos Bóri prize. Beautiful work and we are now working together to develop some designs using slightly different colours and designs than the the very bold traditional Hungarian red!

Weaving hemp

2009-08-10T11:55:00.007+02:00

Oh dear its been a long time since I last posted!. Been mad busy with big orders and the summer , nearly at an end, has sped by. This weekend however I did manage to take some time to visit amongst other things, a small village near the Ukraine border which was holding their annual "hemp" festival. This village is incredibly rich in folk craft heritage. My primary purpose was to meet Erszike who is a master embroiderer , I hope that we will be doing some work together in the future. It was a bonus to see the preperation, spinning and weaving of hemp. It just went to remind me what a time consuming process it all is! They still weave in this village, though mostly a hemp and cotton mix. Here are some pictures;

Hemp drying. After the hemp is picked it is soaked in the river of lake for 4- 6 weeks and then dried

The stalks are bashed to releas teh fibres which are then combed

spinning the fibres.....
and finally weaving the cloth, this chap was having a go and finding it very difficult!

Hand crafted dining and kitchen ware

2009-06-10T11:35:00.003+02:00

Spent a lovely weekend near Lake Balaton picking cherries and cooking on a fire in the garden. So many cherries, tiny wild strawberries and redcurrants.

One of the lovely things about Hungary is the strong tradition of folk craft and using what one has to hand.... I recently met a master craftsman who fashions bowls and kitchen implements out of wood from his garden. With a choice of cherry, walnut, yew, ash, beech , plum and apple. They will be on the webiste soon but here is a sneak preview, they are entirely natural and finished with linseed oil or beeswax .

Elizabeth Baer Textiles

2009-06-03T11:17:00.003+02:00

Elizabeth Baer was at Petworth dispalying her wonderful antique and vintage French textiles and sharing her wealth of knowledge. Here is a picture of a very pretty boudoir chair covered in toile de jouy. My camera skills werent up to much that day, it is not the best picture but you can see more on her website and blog.

fish swimming through the roof

2009-06-02T22:38:00.006+02:00

The only obvious advantage of having left my internet stick in the UK is working in a wifi cafe with a shoal of shimmering fish swimming in throuh the roof.

Parna is featured in the Daily Mail today -Cloth Cult

2009-06-01T11:19:00.004+02:00

Parna is featured in the Daily Mail today.

French textiles at Petworth House textile fair

2009-05-30T19:50:00.004+02:00

Above are pictures form Linda Clifts stall at Petworth. Linda specialises in lovely vintage /antique patchwork quilts, paisley shawls and French linens.

My next post will feature some French textiles from Elizabeth Baer

Petworth House Textile Fair

2009-05-26T22:47:00.006+02:00

The above is part of a stunning hand embroidered bed cover by Sophie Pattinson

http://www.sophiepattinson.co.uk/ . Sophie works with groups of disadvantaged women in Bangladesh to make these stunning pieces.

Sophie was one of the exhibitors at the Textile Fair at Petworth House. The pleasure gardens of Petworth House were a wondeful setting for the textile fair over the bank holiday weekend. We were blessed with beautiful weather. There was a wondeful mixture of textiles old and new and I will be featuring some of these in more detail over the coming weeks.

Hungarian embroidery

2009-05-14T08:49:00.004+02:00

As I helped a friend move into a new flat the other day I spotted this sampler on the kitchen wall. Embroidered in 1934 on fine, hand woven linen it shows the embroidery styles /techniques. Most originate from a particular region- more on this later

Decorated brandy bottles

2009-05-09T17:18:00.004+02:00

These colourful bottles ares home decorated brandy bottles. Most decorated with discarded electrical wire casing. They are not particulalry old, but I think they are an interesting example of folk craft/art -which traditionally uses available ( cheap or free) materials for the decoration of everyday objects to enhance the look of the home or surroundings .

Brandy is commonly home brewed in Hungary, usually from plums. In the village I stay in in Transylvania there is a village distillery, in the middle of a field on the outskirts of the village. The villagers bring prepared fruit harvested from their gardens and it is distilled into a powerful 52% alcohol brandy.

Textile Fair at Petworth House

2009-05-04T11:48:00.002+02:00

Petworth House is a magnificent House and Park in West Sussex. Petworth House Costume & Textiles Fair will be a visual and sensual extravaganza. Textiles, costumes, demonstrators, artists and designers are all being brought together to provide a memorable experience. Renowned dealers in Antique textiles will show furnishing textiles and costumes from around the world. Over the weekend event visitors can also see magnificent textiles in the Petworth House collection. Admission to the fair is £5.

Chelsea Flower show

2009-04-29T15:45:00.003+02:00

Parna vintage linen will be feautured on the Hartley Botanic stand at the Chelsea Flower show. Vintage linen and hemp is fantastic for upholstery and soft furnishings and blends well with both contemporary and antique textiles and interiors. Parna was asked to supply fabric to upholster a small chair and for curtains which will feature on the stand.

Hartley Botanic, in association with their media partners, Period Living, have worked with Philip Hooper, of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, to create an integrated garden and interior, planned to appeal to gardeners and decorators alike. Internally, the main glasshouse reflects a loose interpretation of late eighteenth century style, with a nod to the gothic and Mughal architecture and decoration so popular the time, to tie in with the external theme.

The horticultural theme is inspired by the bi-centenary of Thomas Andrew Knight, a fruit grower and gentleman botanist, who moved to Elton Hall in Cambridgeshire, (rebuilt in romantic gothic style about 1760), when he married in 1791. (information courtersy of Hartley Botanic)

More photos of antique textiles

2009-04-27T16:22:00.003+02:00

I am now using flikr to show some of the antique and vintage linen not on the website

http://www.flickr.com/photos/parnalinen/

Hemp sheets

2009-04-26T14:26:00.003+02:00

I now use vintage hemp sheets for bedding and towels, it all started when I was staying with one of my suppliers in Transylvania and they were explaining to me the benefits of hemp sheets so I thought that I just had to try! The advantage of sleeping on these sheets apart from the fact that they are beautiful and entirely natural is that hemp fabric acts acts as a tempertaure regulator. Hemp is a fibrous cloth, with hollw stems and because of this absorbs moisture. Hemp sheets also make brilliant towels-swaddling yourself in these 100-200 year old hand woven fabric is wonderful , I now take them to the Turkish baths , wrapping myself in one of these sheets and lying on the rest beds for 10 minutes makes a perfect end to the bathing experience!

Transylvanian textiles

2009-04-07T16:17:00.002+02:00

Before 1920 and the treat of Trianon the area of Romania known as Transylvania used to belong to Hungary. The tradition of Hungarian folk crafts and culture is still very much alive in parts of Transylvania. It is still possible to find women weavimg and embroidering textiles. Zsu zsu, having spent her life in a very traditional village has spent years dealing in antique textiles. Recently she has worked at trying to reproduce the textiles of the past, harnessing the skills of women weavers she has developed a range of typical Transylvanian textiles. Each is made of hand woven fabric and trimmed with hand made crochet.

Hemp

2009-03-22T21:52:00.003+01:00

Vintage, home loomed linen and hemp is lovely but one day there will be no more left to source. I have been on the look out for altenatives for ages and have found a small co-opertive who grow, harvest and hand weave their own hemp to make tea towels. More on this coming soon I hope.

Vintage hemp

2009-03-21T19:20:00.005+01:00

More lovely, strong, eco friendly vintage linen and hemp rolls. Fantastic for bench cushions.

Perfect for table runners, soft furnishings, window dressings and upholstery

Most commonly available in a variety of neutral backgounds with red or blue stripes. I have also got some more unsuual colours: green, caramel, blue and red- email me kath@parna.co.uk for details.

Vintage embrodiered pieces

2009-03-16T18:40:00.010+01:00

Wall hangings, kitchen linen, clothes, sheets and even sacks were beautifully hand embroidered. Sometimes for the dowry chest, sometimes, as in the case of vintage grain sacks, for functional purposes and sometimes to decorate the home. Wallhangings, often with a slogan would be hung in the kitchen, on the wall alongside the bed to add warmth and in the best room for decorative purposes.

vintage linen grain sacks

2009-03-13T12:39:00.006+01:00

More lovely antique grain sacks. Hungarian grain sacks were woven from home grown, hand spun hemp. usually plain or with red or blue stripes, the stripes indicated to the mill from where the grain came. Some also have hand embrodiered initials.

Vintage Romanian grain sacks tend to be a different weave, some are very heavy indeed. We have a few of these with a caramel stripe, the caramel colour was obtained by using elder berries.. picture coming soon

beautiful fabrics

2009-03-01T20:33:00.003+01:00

It has been a long cold winter here in Hungary. Heavy snow in the mountains in Transylvania has meant that our supply of bespoke embrodiery has been a bit slow. Apologies to any of you waiting for a cushion, they should be with you soon .

We have recently taken delivery of some really beautiful and unsual fabrics and in roll of uo to 30 meters in length. Check the website for details

trade show

2009-01-02T13:37:00.003+01:00

Parna will be exhibiting at Top Drawer Spring. Top Drawer is a design led home and gift trade fair held in the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London. We are excited to be introducing some more embroidery designs and other items in our "from vintage" range. A sneak preview will be available on this blog soon.

There is an amazing 20% off everything in teh parna shop until the 5 th January.

Top Drawer

2008-12-14T23:36:00.002+01:00

parna will be exhibiting at Top Drawer Spring 18-20 Jan at Earls Court Olympia.

Transylvania

2008-10-25T15:33:00.006+02:00

I have just arrived back from Transylvania. Here are some pictures of the house I stay in in the village. This is the "best "room and shows the traditional decorative bed, this is a particularly splendid one with lots of cross stitch embroidrey. The traditional pillows are piled high with the decorative part facing outwards. There are two mattress covers stuffed with straw, you can just about see the ends poking out , they are covered with two decorative covers.

Eco home and garden

2008-10-03T16:24:00.003+02:00

With lots of lovely pictures eco home and garden is an engaging online eco magazine. The October issue is just out and features parna bags and cushions

Home spun vintage hemp hanks

2008-10-03T16:16:00.005+02:00

I have just come across hanks of this......vintage home spun hemp.. hard to believe that from this (and of course hours of weaving work) came the beautiful cloth that was made into sacks!

best seller

2008-09-12T22:39:00.002+02:00

Last months best seller was our hand embroidered on vintage linen "heart cushion" beautifully embroidered in taupe or dove grey on hand woven vintage linen.

Bouf

2008-09-08T15:26:00.002+02:00

Bouf (pronounced “Boof”) is a boutique marketplace where you can buy distinctive homeware, art, gifts and design. They have just relaunched and approached us to have our products included on their site, of course we said "yes" !

Rolls and rolls of vinatge hemp

2008-09-08T15:11:00.007+02:00

I have just had a Just had a large delivery of lovely fabrics, here are some of them. Its hard to believe that these are all home made. from the growing of the hemp to the harvesting, retting, spinning and finally the weaving of the cloth

hand embroidered cushions

2008-09-06T12:30:00.004+02:00

Welcome to my first ever blog! I am very pleased that this month parna products have featured in Easy Living magazine in an article on bespoke gifts. Hand embrodiered on vintage linen they make lovely special gifts.

Designed to incorporate traditional embroidery techniques , these cushions are hand embroidered by women in villages in Transylvania