SV Coromandel Textiles 2011 |
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La Maison de la Broderie, Cilaos The embroidery of Cilaos was started by Angèle Mac Auliff in the early 19th century. She was the daughter of the doctor in the village, and took up embroidery herself to while away the time. Later she taught the art to a group of local women in an effort to supplement their incomes. The result is a combination of Richelieu, drawn thread and needleweaving. The traditional colours are white-on-white, but with the advent of colourfast threads, designs are now executed in shaded coton perlé or coton à broder. The finest work is done on organza, at least 100 threads per inch, but fine linen is also used. It was a joy to watch the women undertaking this work and seeing the best examples display - tablecloths, doilies, coasters, christening robes, blouses, table napkins etc. I bought two small coasters, one white, one multi-coloured, but would have loved a proper doily! Although they seem expensive - a doily was €30 - in reality I worked out that the women were getting about €1 per hour for their work, hardly a fortune. Many of the motifs are named after flowers - dahlia, chrysanthemum, daisy - and others after things like the Maltese Cross, The Wheel, L'Escargot. A variety of embroidery threads are used, such as Fils à Dentelles, Coton à Broder and Coton Perlé. The fabric is marked by pulling a thread to denote the edges of the area to be embroidered, and is then cut before the raw edges are secured using a fine buttonhole stitch. Sometimes threads are left for interweaving later. The basic "spiderweb" is then sewn, before the design is woven into the web. Edges have either a decorated hemstitch with drawn threads, or are edged using buttonhole stitch, occasionally with picots. |
Butterfly using Coton Perlé
White on Écru |
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