In learning about marketing and blogging online to help a business I have also learned a person should share some of their interest and talents. I would love to learn and master some lost arts that our grandmothers and great grandmothers did. Needlework is a lost art. Before one can really talk about these skills a person needs to know more about what the art is and where it came from.
“Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. The definition may expand to include related textile crafts such as a crochet hook or tatting shuttles.
Similar abilities often transfer well between different varieties of needlework, such as fine motor skill and a knowledge of textile fibers. Some of the same tools may be used in several different varieties of needlework. For instance, a needle threader is useful in nearly all needle crafts. Types of needlework: *Quilting * Applique * Embroidery * Crochet * Knitting * Tatting * Lucet * Braiding and Tassel making * Tapestry”. Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia History.
Granted knitting, embroidery and crochet are still around but not by much. Quilting has gain some popularity but you must really look for other types of needlework to find someone who does it or even knows what your talking about. Tatting however is very hard to find someone who knows what it is and how to do it. I am going to give a brief history about four of the above arts.
The Information below is from the: From the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1) “Crochet evolved from traditional practices in Arabia, South America, or China in the 1800’s. Fashions in crochet changed with the end of the Victorian era in the 1890s. Crocheted laces in the new Edwardian era, peaking between 1910 and 1920, became even more elaborate in texture and complicated stitching. From the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2) Embroidery: The origins of embroidery are lost in time, but examples survive from ancient Egypt, Iron Age Northern Europe and Zhou Dynasty China. It has many roots all around the world and is being done in many different ways because of their cultures….
Elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, and household items have been a mark of wealth and status in many cultures including ancient Persia, India, Byzantium, medieval England (Opus Anglicanum or “English work”), and Baroque Europe.
3) Knitting: One of the earliest known examples of knitting was finely decorated cotton socks found in Egypt in the end of the first millennium AD. The first knitting trade guild was started in Paris in 1527. With the invention of the knitting machine, however, knitting “by hand” became a useful but non-essential craft. Similar to quilting, spinning, and needlepoint, knitting became a social activity.
Hand-knitting has gone into and out of fashion many times in the last two centuries, and at the turn of the 21st century it is enjoying a revival. According to the industry group Craft Yarn Council of America, the number of women knitters in the United States age 25–35 increased 150% in the two years between 2002 and 2004.
4) Tatting: Some believe that tatting may have developed from netting and decorative ropework as sailors and fishers would put together motifs for girlfriends and wives at home. Decorative ropework employed on ships includes techniques (esp. coxcombing) that show striking similarity with tatting. A good description of this can be found in Knots, Splices and Fancywork.
Some believe tatting originated over 200 years ago, often citing shuttles seen in eighteenth century paintings of women such as Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Madame Adelaide (daughter of Louis XV of France), and Anne, Countess of Albemarle. A close inspection of those paintings shows that the shuttles in question are too large to be tatting shuttles, and that they are actually knotting shuttles. There is no documentation, nor any examples of tatted lace, that date prior to 1800. All of the available evidence shows that tatting originated in the early 19th century.” Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia History.
Today some of these arts are done by machine such as Embroidery and Knitting. Many of these arts have different variation or types such as Knitting has knitting fabrics, making lace looking articles as well as enhancing clothes. Crochet has some variations also such as Cro-tatting that combines both crochet and tatting in one piece. Embroidery has many different types of stitches and knots to make up a design on material. All of these skills takes time. That is another reason I am so glad to be able to buy out the time since I help my husband work from home. Being a United First Financial Agent is a great way to be able to do and learn different skills. So one of my goals is to learn the art of Tatting. I have done Embroidery and crochet but would love to be able to master tatting.