Slavic heritage

While I was preparing materails on the semantics of Russian folk embroidery I got so fascinated by the poetics of Slavic motifs and ornaments that I could not help designing my own patterns inspired by the original Russian embroideries.

Russian folk embroideries

And I'm thinking about working out a whole series of 3-4 designs dedicated to and based on the traditional Northern Russian embroidery motifs that will be called "Slavic Heritage".

Surviving pieces of double horse headed boat embroideries,
2nd half of the XIX century.

Original folk embroidery motifs of female slavic
spirits of procreation 

As soon as these desings are finished I will comment in details the meaning of each element of these patterns. And I  plan to post soon an article about the semantics of traditional Russian embroidery motifs that will as well highlighten the motifs that are in use here.

Fashion hats of the 20ies

One of our designers is passionate for retro fashion. And due to her passion we got this spectacular vintage collection Retro chic, featuring fashion hats of the 20ies.

In this designs we tried to preservу the air of the old-time fashion magazines and stitched the models on the natural colored Aida using brown embroidery threads.

The whole collection will be released in summer 2012 and these designs will be available as chart-only.

As we haven't named these ladies, I invite you to participate in the process - write us your suggesions, we'll be gdad to learn your view :)

Napping cat 3

We've finally finished the cat on the pillows and as today I completed the cover for the kit I'm glad to post the pictures here!

This pattern has several features:

• It combines 3 techniques - cross-stitch, blackwork and assisi. The cat is mostly performed by outlines and is empty inside exept for the ear and the snout, and highlighted by the dense fill-in patterns of the pillows.
• Fill-ins of the pillows are worked out in brown cottons and golden metallic filament, which on the one hand gives the pillows luxerious look, but on the other hand makes the stitching processe a bit more complicated. If you don't feel like fiddling around the metallized filament you can either choose the second variant of the cat - on colored pillows (the model is under stitching now) or replace the metallic with golden shade stranded cotton.
• To create 3D effect I introduced applique tassels and sequins of brown and golden shades topped with amber beads.
• And again the frame - I don't know why but I like patterns to be framed with stitched frames :)

This Cat will be available at Etsy next week as I finish all technical details.
Hope it finds its fanciers!

Happy sitiching!

A day of good news

Today I got pictures of stitching progress of 2 different projects!
The first is the sitiching report of an icon of Russian Saints Peter and Fevroinia of Murom who are considered to be patrons of marriage, life long love and fidelity.

The story of love and fidelity of these two persons dates back to the 13 century.
The Duke Peter defeated a guileful snake who was causing much trouble to the people of his lands, ruled by Peter's brother Paul. But while fighting the snake Peter had got several drops of the snake's blood on him and his body covered with awful scabs. No doctor could help him then. But one day a wise man told him about a devout young peasant maiden, who lived in the most remote part of his lands and healed the incurables and who agreed to heal him. As a reward Peter promised to marry Fevronia when she succeded in healing him, but once healed, he didn't keep his promise and instead sent rich gifts to the maiden. However, soon Peter's body started to get covered with scabs again. Fevronia healed him again and this time they get married.
Peter's brother Paul soon died and Peter was to become to ruler of Murom. But the nobles - the boyars - were huffish and unwilling to have a peasant woman for princess, and they asked Fevronia to leave the city taking with her whatever riches she wants. Wise Fevronia agreed, asking them to let her choose but one most precious fro her item. The boyars readily let her do that, but soon found out that this most precios item was her husband, and Peter together with Fevronia left Murom. The city remained without a prince, and after a short while the boyars started to struggle for the power over the city, and the city of Murom plunged into chaos. So finally Peter and Fevronia were asked to get back and rule the city.
They reigned wisely and happily until their last days,and spent the end of their life in monasteries. They knew they would die on the same day and asked to be buried in the same grave. Though the Russian Orthodox tradition does not allow for a monk and a nun to be buried together, their bodies were twice found to disappear from the original coffins and finally remained in the common grave forever.
Thus Peter and Feveronia became the Russian Orthodox patrons of marriage, love and marital fidelity.
This icon is one from a quaint collection "The Russian Orthodox Icons"

Our icons are based on the canonical images of well known and honored persons of the Russian Orthodox religion and performed in the Blackwork technique.

We plan to finish stitching the modles of this collection be the end of this year, so the release of the whole collection will take place in 2013.


And one more progress report is my humble Napping cat. 
A friend of mine picked it up for a speedy stitching as she adores cats. Now the most of the job is done and it is only the matter of stitching golden thread and attaching beads, sequins and tassels in place!

 How I love these days when I get such good news! It is so thrilling to see the projects that were designed by myself to become the real pieces of embroidery!

Napping cat 2

I finished my pattern Napping cat. 
And I'll stitch it in 2 colorways - in brown with gold and in polychrome.

Hope to start it in the end of March as soon as I finish my Wedding sampler.
Here is Weddind Day present condition:

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When I'm bored or Napping cat

When I'm tired of routine (correcting existing patterns, designing kits' cover, writing instruction and endless stitching of model works), I entertain myself by the drawing patterns, that were in my mind for a long time.
Since long ago I've dreamed of a Pet series - dogs, cats, fish, parrots, may be, in Blackwork. And finally as I got tired of stitching Wedding sampler and Easter routine I've started a project I called "Napping cat".
The inspiration for this projest I found in the endless pictures of sleeping cats and incredible postures they choose for that important part of their life :)))

So, here is my latest draft. Still lots to do, but anyway it already gives some idea of the future result.

It will definetly be in colors, with a bit of beads and may be sequins.
I hope to finish it by the end of March, and in April I'll may be stitch the model.

Easter Bunny

I did it!
I've finished my Easter Bunny!
Here he comes!

In couple of days it will be available as an embroidery kit at my Etsy web-store.

And here you can see the process of designing this pattern How we create our designs.
Happy stitching!

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Discover the world of contemporary Black embroidery together with Russian Blackwork!

Visit my Etsy web-store or E-bay listings and join my Facebook page for news and other interesting information about us, our projects and plans.