The Revival of Redwork...La renaissance du Redwork...Terugkeer van Redwork.....

Two sources for this Article...I.(brief quotations)..Source pour cet article (brèves citations)...

First  Source :This book recounts the colorful history of cochineal; a legendary red dye that was one of the world's most precious commodities.Treasured by the ancient Mexicans,cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces,where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation,producing the brightness, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune......Did it come from a worm, a berry, a seed? Could it be stolen from Mexico and transplanted? Pirates, explorers,alchemists,scientists and spies...all joined in the chase for the cochineal, a chase that lasted for more than three centuries for the most desirable color on earth....

Few colors mean as much to us as red ......we roll out the red carpet...,catch crooks red handed,dread getting caught in red tape,we stop at red lights,ignore red herrings, and celebrate red letter days,we wave the red flag and when we are angry we say we see red

La renaissance du Redwork

1. Ce livre relate l’histoire colorée de la cochenille : une teinture rouge légendaire qui étaitl’une des plus pratique au monde. Trésor des anciens mexicains, la cochenille a été vendue sur les magnifiques marchés Aztec, où elle a attiré l’oeil des conquistadors espagnols en1519. Amenée par bateau en Europe, la teinture a fait sensation, produisant le plus brillant etle plus stable rouge que le monde n’avait jamais vu. Bientôt, le monopole espagnol sur la cochenille valait une fortune. Cette teinture vient-elle d’un vers, une baie, une graine ? Aurait elle été volée à Mexico et transplantée ? Pirates, explorateurs, alchimistes, scientifiques et espions, tous se joignirent à la chasse à la cochenille, une chasse qui dure depuis trois siècles, pour la couleurs la plus désirable sur Terre.

Merci Sam pour ta traduction offerte spontanément

2nd Source :My friend Margreet Beemsterboer has written an article in "Inspirations"

an australian needlework magazine..... ....

Mon amie Margreet Beemsterboer a écrit un article dans "Inspirations" une revue australienne....

Mijn vriendin Margreet Beemsterboer schrijft  in "Inspirations" een australische uitgave...   

Now after years of apparent absence, redwork is back in the 21st century!

Redwork thanks to the dye being made colorfast in Turkey

Embroidery with red yarn on cotton or linen has been done for many many years but the embroidery that we know as redwork

became popular after the red dye could be made colorfast somewhere around 1850 in Turkey and that is  how this beautiful

color was named Turkish Red.

Sometimes it is said that the origins of this type of embroidery are in Germany, but France and mainly Alsace, the Balkans

The Scandinavian countries also produced it. It became so popluar that it seemed to fly all over the world. It is plausible that the first emigrants to America brought this kind of embroidery with them.

And after the International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, the american ladies became so impressed by what

they saw, that they started to produce redwork on an impressive scale

For people from The Netherlands it might be rather astounding to learn that often little Dutch figures were embroidered wearing wooden shoes (clogs) and

the national costume  They were often stitched in blue probably because of the Delft pottery for whi ch Holland is famous Frouke Schouwstra who wrote an article concerning this,said she found a lot of these Dutch embroideries in Hungary. So there is a kind of Redwork embroidered in blue!!

!

and here is a little dowloaded pattern of two elves with the kind permission of the designer

Hillary Lang

Voici un patron de deux lutins offerts avec la permission de la créatrice Hillary Lang

http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/store/stitchette.html

thankyou Hillary

       .

Comments

[desiree]

heya I am Dutch and I remember a lot of red images like the one yu are showing from my childhood, I don't really remember to have seen blue ones... and we don't care abouot the wooden shes, haha worse is that everyone thinks we are all smoking drugs all the time haha
greetings from a dutchie!

[nadia]

Merci Gigi,
j'ai retrouvé photographié ici une broderie qu'il fait partie de ma collection depuis beaucoup de temps.... Je vous remercie beaucoup pour l'article magnifique et intéressant
Je gardera cette broderie ancre plus jalousement
Merci
Nadia

[argone]

merci pour ce bel article and thank you Hilary for this cute pattern :-)
hugs

[roxane]

Merci Gigi et Hillary, on ne s'en lasse pas de cette broderie rouge et tes commentaires sont très intéressants.

[Paulette]

Adorables ces petits personnages, je crois qu'ils vont venir orner un oreiller.
Merci Hillary et Merci Gigi