Parna features in this months edition of my green lifestyle

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

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"

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

Kalotosezeg embroidery

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

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

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

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