Chenille Embroidery [1]
Chenille embroidery is basically embroidery done with a particular type of thread which has the appearance of velvet.
Chenille thread is a form of tufted yarn. The name derives from the French word chenille, for ‘caterpillar'. Its name is derived from the resemblance of the round fluffy thread to its namesake. During the 18th Century it was extremely fashionable in the French court and developed as a craze in England - many items of clothing, cushions and furnishings made at that time are held in major museums. This fad continued in the early 19th Century.
19th Century Metallic and Chenille Embroidered Pillow with Fringe (Detail View).
When intensely worked, the embroidery takes on the appearance of a painting on velvet. The design is traced onto the material and worked in the frame. The thread may be used like wool or silk and stitched or it could be laid over the surface and couched at intervals with the same colored silk.
Basket of Australian flowers. Chenille work, unknown provenance.
In the collection of D. Dowe.
Photograph courtesy of K. Atkinson.
Traditionally, chenille thread is made by weaving a fabric (chenille blanket) with the warp ends (usually four) placed in groups, with a gap in between each group and a weft in a much thicker yarn (or pile). The resulting woven fabric is then cut along the length between the groups of warp ends to make very long tufted strips that are used as yarns. By the end of the twentieth century, many chenille threads were made with a knitted rather than a woven warp.
Evening dress, made in Paris designed by Antonio Castillo for Lanvin. Silk with chenille embroidery and beads.
Courtesy Victoria & Albert Museum.
Chenille thread appeared in Australian embroidery from about 1850. It remained current throughout the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th Century; however the advent of machine-made "chenille" bedspreads meant that the technique and its image quickly fell out of vogue. Nevertheless, the chenille work which remains in both public and private collections is interesting and different.
Red gauze dress with chenille embroidery (1808) [1].
One beautiful piece by Miss A. Meyer is held in the collection of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria (Australia), is a brilliant and vibrant work showing the intensity of color achieved with this medium.
Chenille Embroidery by Miss A. Meyer, Melbourne (Australia).
Collection of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria (Australia).
Photograph courtesy of J. Millowick.
In the latter days of the 19th Century in Tasmania (Australia) a circle of women were making elegant silk and chenille embroideries using Tasmanian flora as motifs. One gifted artist, Elsie Maria Benjamin, the daughter of Joseph Benjamin and Mary Gale, was born in Perth, Tasmania (Australia), in 1848. Her father kept an inn where coaches changed their horses on the run from Hobart (south Tasmania) to Launceston (north Tasmania). At an early age she married an Irishman, Michael Markey, and had several children, two of whom died in infancy. Elsie was a highly skilled embroiderer and one particularly impressive piece is typical of the work done in Tasmania at this time. The date of the work is uncertain but, presuming it was done when she was a young adult, it would probably coincide with the period of Louisa Ann Meredith's Tasmanian wildflower drawings and paintings. Elsie Benjamin's work includes several wildflower motifs frequently found in Louisa Ann Meredith's work, including the blue-berried dianella species, ferns, a type of pink heath, the distinctive Tasmanian banksia, a yellow bottlebrush and the Tasmanian blue gum (eucalyptus globulus). The flowers are worked on a silk material, using both silk and chenille threads. The chenille has been used for the yellow bottlebrush and gum leaves, both of which have been couched in a shaded technique. The veins have been over stitched on the leaves. The heavy silk thread is worked in a simple satin stitch to form the pink heath and dianella berries. Wattle pompoms and the Tasmanian blue gum flowers are imaginatively worked in high relief, allowing the pieces of silk to act as tiny threads of blossom in full bloom [1].
Tasmanian wildflowers by Elsie Maria Benjamin, Perth, Tasmania, Australia ca. 1865.
The flowers were worked in heavy silk and chenille thread on silk material. They include the blue-berried Dianella species, Tasmanian banksia, yellow bottlebrush and Eucalyputs globulus (Tasmanian blue gum).
Photograph courtesy of K. Atkinson.
Chenille embroidered dresses are now very chic, fashionable and so sought after. Analogue embroidery dresses have a feel on your body that printed articles lack.
Simone Rocha, Chenille Embroidered Dress.
This sleeveless Simone Rocha dress is rendered in floral chenille embroidery and features a high round neck, a fitted bodice and a midi length straight skirt with ruffled trim draped throughout.
Reference:
[1] J. Isaacs, The Gentle Arts, Ure Smith Press, Sydney (1991).
Chenille embroidery is basically embroidery done with a particular type of thread which has the appearance of velvet.
Chenille thread is a form of tufted yarn. The name derives from the French word chenille, for ‘caterpillar'. Its name is derived from the resemblance of the round fluffy thread to its namesake. During the 18th Century it was extremely fashionable in the French court and developed as a craze in England - many items of clothing, cushions and furnishings made at that time are held in major museums. This fad continued in the early 19th Century.
When intensely worked, the embroidery takes on the appearance of a painting on velvet. The design is traced onto the material and worked in the frame. The thread may be used like wool or silk and stitched or it could be laid over the surface and couched at intervals with the same colored silk.
In the collection of D. Dowe.
Photograph courtesy of K. Atkinson.
Traditionally, chenille thread is made by weaving a fabric (chenille blanket) with the warp ends (usually four) placed in groups, with a gap in between each group and a weft in a much thicker yarn (or pile). The resulting woven fabric is then cut along the length between the groups of warp ends to make very long tufted strips that are used as yarns. By the end of the twentieth century, many chenille threads were made with a knitted rather than a woven warp.
Courtesy Victoria & Albert Museum.
Chenille thread appeared in Australian embroidery from about 1850. It remained current throughout the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th Century; however the advent of machine-made "chenille" bedspreads meant that the technique and its image quickly fell out of vogue. Nevertheless, the chenille work which remains in both public and private collections is interesting and different.
One beautiful piece by Miss A. Meyer is held in the collection of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria (Australia), is a brilliant and vibrant work showing the intensity of color achieved with this medium.
Collection of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria (Australia).
Photograph courtesy of J. Millowick.
In the latter days of the 19th Century in Tasmania (Australia) a circle of women were making elegant silk and chenille embroideries using Tasmanian flora as motifs. One gifted artist, Elsie Maria Benjamin, the daughter of Joseph Benjamin and Mary Gale, was born in Perth, Tasmania (Australia), in 1848. Her father kept an inn where coaches changed their horses on the run from Hobart (south Tasmania) to Launceston (north Tasmania). At an early age she married an Irishman, Michael Markey, and had several children, two of whom died in infancy. Elsie was a highly skilled embroiderer and one particularly impressive piece is typical of the work done in Tasmania at this time. The date of the work is uncertain but, presuming it was done when she was a young adult, it would probably coincide with the period of Louisa Ann Meredith's Tasmanian wildflower drawings and paintings. Elsie Benjamin's work includes several wildflower motifs frequently found in Louisa Ann Meredith's work, including the blue-berried dianella species, ferns, a type of pink heath, the distinctive Tasmanian banksia, a yellow bottlebrush and the Tasmanian blue gum (eucalyptus globulus). The flowers are worked on a silk material, using both silk and chenille threads. The chenille has been used for the yellow bottlebrush and gum leaves, both of which have been couched in a shaded technique. The veins have been over stitched on the leaves. The heavy silk thread is worked in a simple satin stitch to form the pink heath and dianella berries. Wattle pompoms and the Tasmanian blue gum flowers are imaginatively worked in high relief, allowing the pieces of silk to act as tiny threads of blossom in full bloom [1].
The flowers were worked in heavy silk and chenille thread on silk material. They include the blue-berried Dianella species, Tasmanian banksia, yellow bottlebrush and Eucalyputs globulus (Tasmanian blue gum).
Photograph courtesy of K. Atkinson.
Chenille embroidered dresses are now very chic, fashionable and so sought after. Analogue embroidery dresses have a feel on your body that printed articles lack.
This sleeveless Simone Rocha dress is rendered in floral chenille embroidery and features a high round neck, a fitted bodice and a midi length straight skirt with ruffled trim draped throughout.
Reference:
[1] J. Isaacs, The Gentle Arts, Ure Smith Press, Sydney (1991).
1 comment:
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