Shawl "EMBROIDERESSES IN RED" wool 135x135

Ukrainian embroidery holds an important position among the variety of decorative and applied arts of Ukraine.  It represents perhaps the most common and favorite branch of folk art, telling a story of person’s thoughts and feelings, of the world of beauty and fantasy, of ancient mythology images and our ancestors’ customs and beliefs.

Throughout the ages, people have tried to decorate their daily life and make everyday chores more joyful. It wasn’t just about wearing a white shirt or using a piece of canvas as a towel. With the use of only needles and threads, people created wonderful embroidered patterns on a simple fabric, making the examples of high art.

Rushnyk (an embroidered towel) has always occupied a special space in the life of Ukrainian people. It is a symbol of Ukraine itself, a reflection of its cultural memory. Samples of old Rushnyks have preserved ancient magical signs, images of the tree of life, symbolic meanings of different colors. For centuries, people attributed to the Rushnyk an important figurative and symbolic value. It was an indispensable attribute of folk life, festive and wedding rituals, traditional housing decoration. Important events in people’s life have never gone without Rushnyk towels. Perhaps, in the whole decorative and applied art there is no other subject that would concentrate in itself so many different symbolic meanings.

Rushnyk towels accompanied a Ukrainian peasant throughout his life, both in joy and in sorrow. It has always been a symbol of hospitality; dear guests were welcomed by bread and salt served on a Rushnyk. A mother would give her son a Rushnyk for a long journey, as a reminder of home and a wish of good luck. Rushnyk towels were used at weddings, during the child’s birth, and at funerals. Ukrainians used Rushnyk towels in home decoration, in particular, hanging them on the walls.

The drawing of my new shawl, “Embroideresses”, is inspired by the embroidered Rushnyks of Kiev region of the 19th century. I have designed it with great reverence for the Ukrainian female art, for the ability of this people to see and feel the surrounding beauty and convey it in artistic images.