At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s there was a phase in which Schwalm embroidery was colourful. Not in pastel tones, but in strong, sometimes even bright colours. At the time, Aenne Burda Verlag also made some suggestions for colorful Schwalm embroidery in several issues of its magazine Anna. The embroiderers were happy to take up these ideas. Own designs were also implemented in colour. The rustic style matched the furnishing style of the time.
Two shades of red as well as brown, green and golden yellow were chosen for the wall hanging seen here – embroidered by Irmgard Mengel.
The tightly, hand-woven linen made it possible to set the stitches precisely, as can be seen impressively not only with the leaves.
The high thread count of the linen allowed the effective embroidery of filling patterns,
which in this example were all worked with white thread.
The filling pattern embroidered into the tulip caught my attention. I will describe this pattern in the next blog post.
The edge was decorated with Four-Sided stitches and “Trachtenstich”-Costume stitch, and at the bottom with additional double Herringbone stitches.
With the changing taste of the time, these colourful embroidery mostly disappeared in cupboards and chests or were even completely disposed of. People found their way back to the nobler-looking, timeless and original whitework. Today, however, I’m noticing a slight trend towards a desire for subtle colourfulness.
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