Embroidered and Hand-Woven Articles (Part 4) As it becomes more refined technically and at the same time more poetic in its imagery, today’s guipure, like other types of Gorodets embroidery, is pleasing to persons of the most exacting taste. The festive table-cloth, napkins, curtains and souvenir towels fit gracefully into modern interiors. The last decade has been a fortunate one for Gorky Region in the establishment of yet another industrial enterprise, the Shakhunya Art Factory. Its main task has been the production of articles made of hand-woven, patterned fabrics. In 1969 two members of the Moscow Research Institute of Art and Industrial Design, Tamara Klimova and Nina Dzagurova, undertook an expedition to Shakhunya District in search for women skilled in hand-weaving and possessing hand looms. At the request of the members of the expedition, the villagers Antonina Lebedeva and Agrippina Kuznetsova made samples of weaving with ornaments which had been woven in the past in practically every home. A specialist in hand-weaving, Larisa Kozhevnikova, aided in setting up the production of patterned fabrics in Shakhunya. She also made the drawings of sample articles for this handicraft. In recent years the weavers, under the direction of the head artist Tamara Perminova, have mastered a number of types of articles, such as covers for arm-chairs and sofas, curtains, table-cloths and -runners, napkins and towels. In general, Shakhunya hand-weaving testifies to the high level of development of Russian geometric ornamentation. There are certain stable features in Shakhunya articles—the tiered structure of the clearly marked bands of the pattern, the symmetry and balance of the ornament, the repetition of a set of alternating decorative figures, such as squares, various lozenges, zigzags, polygons and chequers. At the same time, however, they reveal a striking variety of design, achieved by minute alterations in the details and proportions of the pattern, the type of interlacing individual elements, their rhythmic organization and colour harmony. Today, work on perfecting the ornament and colouration of Shakhunya hand-woven articles is proceeding in two directions. One involves a large pattern filling the woven surface evenly in lush bright tones, such as red with green, yellow with brown or intense lilac with white and blue. A black cotton thread, usually accompanying them as a base, lends the colour scheme depth and saturation, setting off its bright tones. This original style, reflecting the local traditional folk perception of colour, is characteristic of Shakhunya weavers, who have not received special education (Rufina Smirnova, Faina Smirnova, Maria Ukhabova, Galina Sokolova and others). This style is especially effective in large pieces, for instance, bed-spreads. The decoration of smaller items—towels, table-runners and napkins—proceeds otherwise: broad border designs alternate with narrow bands and strips of smooth weaving. The ornament is much smaller, more carefully elaborated in details; the design is woven in red, black and grey tones on a white background, and the white thread, here the basic fabric, gives the pattern a certain translucence. These compositions, suggested by Larisa Kozhevnikova and other professional artists, show the desire to bring Shakhunya weaving closer to the art of neighbouring northern regions of Russia. This explains why Shakhunya towel designs have narrative representations, so characteristic of northern weaving. These might be motifs of heraldic birds and horse riders at the tree of life (as in Nadezhda Kuzhim’s towel Horses, and in Tamara Perminova’s towel Birds). Perminova, however, is also fond of using the local tradition of “many colours”, enriching the chromatic range of the towels and table-runners by introducing additional ochre, golden, brownish and yellow tones. Not long ago an interesting experiment was undertaken of using Shakhunya hand-woven fabrics in contemporary clothing. A charming air of originality distinguishes Olga Bakshayeva’s women’s folk costumes, in which the patterned fabric is tastefully trimmed with embroidery in matching tones. The vivid, colourful art of Shakhunya weavers, embodying the best traditions of Russian jacquard weaving, has found its prominent place among the modern handicraft industries of the Volga region. (Aurora Art, 1988)
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 11:14:42 +0000