CREWEL WORK

"CREWEL" means "a ball of thread", from the Anglo-Saxon word "CLEOW". Originally the word ‘crewel’ meant a worsted yarn of two threads and crewel embroidery, that which was sewn with crewel wool.

CHARACERISTICS
• Thread - wool yarn.
• Fabric - linen twill (a material with diagonal parallel ridges making it very strong) or woollen fabric.
• Designs - from nature – flowers & leaves. Not geometrical.
• Careful selection of graded colours.
• Stitches – great variety - predominantly long and short.

HISTORY
In the 16th century, the invention of the steel needle made sewing much easier. At this time in England, embroidery turned from the Church to home. It was a period of great opulence - furniture and clothing were richly decorated. Houses and manors were cold and draughty so embroidered hangings, curtains, valences and bed hangings helped to make them more cosy.

During the reign of Elizabeth 1, the opening up of trade routes between Europe and the East and advancement in the fields of art and science, resulted in a rich exchange of decorative styles, materials and techniques. Designs on porcelain goods, patterned chintz fabrics and palampores (printed or painted calico wall hangings in polychrome designs) brought to Europe by the East India Company (founded in 1601) were adapted into charming and intricate patterns for embroidery. Later these embroideries were exported to India, where they inspired a type of embroidery featuring swirling lines of coloured chain stitch. Indian craftsmen, unfamiliar with the English plants, improvised and in so doing turned them into exotic creations.

Most of the earliest pieces of work were in shades of one colour - green brown, blue (indigo), yellow (buff), mulberry and mauve from iris and rose and red.

The 17thC & 18thC crewel work was influenced by the great interest in natural sciences and botany. Needle painting with ‘crewels’ became popular and pretty, romantic, naturalistic designs, with smaller delicate motifs were set around the gently undulating line of the rococo.

JACOBEAN EMBROIDERY
Today, the terms ‘crewel’ and ‘Jacobean’ work are often incorrectly used, synonymously or interchanged.
In the reign of the first English Stuart King, James 1, (1603-1625), the word Jacobean was associated with crewel embroidery and remains a major influence in modern crewel work.
Jacobean work is distinguished by its design of 3 main pattern arrangements.

1. The Tree of Life design, which originated in Persia and had great religious significance. Invading armies took the designs back to their own countries, often in the form of pillaged clothing and the religious design lost its meaning. The designs in England appear to have been influenced by the East Indian palampores and interpreted in many ways.

The Tree Of Life had a thick trunk or stem, springing from a rounded mound. Twirling branches were filled large flowing leaves and an array of exotic fruits and flowers, wild birds and animals, of some far away imaginary land and having little regard for realism. Later the Englishwoman adapted these designs and substituted English deer, strawberry plants, the oak tree and acorns.

2. Elizabethan scroll design which consisted of an overall pattern of sweeping stems worked on a large scale, which curved around and almost enclosed the different flowers of leaves within them.

3. A Wavy Border. This pattern came later, and consisted of a wavy border enclosed with straighter
lines. This framed an area containing small motifs regularly sprigged within it.

The early vegetable dyes faded and so today many of the soft colours associated with Jacobean work are not necessarily those of original designers.

In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution brought roller printing and cheap woven fabric. Thus the need for decoration by embroidery faded and crewel and Jacobean work became a lost art.

The crewel fashion lasted longer in America and developed along its own lines. This was partly due to the fact that wool was difficult to obtain and so the embroiderer developed an economy of stitch not so prevalent in England. Designs were light, leaving much plain ground fabric, and stitches chosen with maximum on the surface but minimum underneath. As well, indigo grows wild in America and so emerged DEERFIELD embroidery in shades of blue.