Deruta ancient embrodery

In Deruta embroidery tradition is still showing in all their dazzling beauty. Thanks largely to research by Anna Lisa Piccioni and the collaboration of talented embroiderers, Maria Rita Squarta Mereu and Anna Rita, was recovered Punto Deruta which had almost lost memory. The ancient technique has re-emerged, almost like an archaeological dig around the collection of artifacts, drawings, rare publications and testimonies period. In 2004, he founded the Academy Pigeons Point Deruta. And the noble tradition is lived. A precious heritage, which is now passed through training courses, publications in scientific journals, and international competitions and exhibitions industry.

In the town of ceramics, embroidery has developed in parallel to the famous majolica, to imitate and enhance the unique décor. As early as the thirteenth century, as recalled ancient documents unearthed by the scholar Italo Ciaurro, Deruta was famous for its graceful textures. Tradition has it that the embroidery Deruta, a special technique counted thread, is born from a fragment found in the beautiful church of San Francesco. And just in Deruta embroidering still the point Caterina de ‘Medici, or point Madama, the rage in the early sixteenth century, so named because the queen imported it to the French court when she married King Henry II. The textile industry, for centuries carried on only in convents, emerged in the early twentieth century thanks to the sisters of the Order of the Most Precious Blood of Christ. The nuns taught their art in the School Feminine Works Deruta. In the same period, the sisters Corcioni founded and directed the School of Embroidery Umbria: a history of art, passion and spirit of enterprise. The activity became so prosperous that in 1929 for the company Deruta worked at least 150 women. And the artifacts were sold together with tableware, especially in America.

Embroidery Deruta became a symbol of style and elegance, as evidenced by many publications on the spread at the beginning of the last century. In that fateful 1929 the magazine Hands Fairy Embroidery Deruta he devoted to his first album. Almost a swan song: the severe economic crisis that deflagrated early thirties imposed the closure of schools and laboratories. Today the tradition of elegance and beauty continues with the Academy. For Embroidery Deruta Antique, counted thread, it follows a pattern on graph paper. It uses a scrim cloth, flax or hemp, plain regular, in cream or oil of different weights: thin gauze or cheesecloth thick type. The thread used for embroidery (once called “yarn”) may be of the same fabric or linen. However, the same color and thickness of fabric texture, so as to fit perfectly in the interwoven texture. To make identical the reverse and the right. The Polychrome Embroidery is made on linen Umbrian with cotton yarn, imitating the color and decoration of tiles, in particular the Raffaellesco, Ricco Deruta and Arabesque. For the execution using the classic points. And the artifacts are combined with the services ceramic coffee, tea or table.

Extract by  ”Umbria delle mie Trame. Tessuti, merletti e ricami: gli itinerari dell’alto artigianato artistico”

edit  by Promocamera (Perugia Chamber of commerce special agency).

written by Federico Fioravanti.