THE GILLAN EMBROIDERY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 46, 18 November 1893, Page 430

THE GILLAN EMBROIDERY.

Nowadays we are practical in everything, and embroidery comes under this general category. To be successful in any department of stitchery we must exhibit at all national, international, and local exhibitions ; we must have agents to dispose of our work, and every means which leads to publicity must be availed of. With all the various schools of needlework and societies formed for the encouragement of this department of woman’s work n England, there is naturally a great impulse given to every branch of it. Competition is keen, and to acquire any degree of perfection in needlework it is necessary to strike out in some special style of it. This has been the case with the originators and sole workers of the Gillan embroidery ; some very handsome and effective work in a variety of stitches, and a multiplicity of designs. Everything connected with it is original, or, at any rate, a reproduction of Oriental patterns. It is done on a frame, and the material on which it is worked is home made linen from Windermere, from the Island of Harris, and lons, Cockermouth. The silks are Pearsall’s, but so beautiful and varied are the shades used in the work that they have to be especially dyed for it. Many of the stitches were discovered by Miss Gillan herself from old pieces of Oriental embroidery, and, as they are most intricate, the time required for producing a piece of the embroidery is considerable. This, of course, together with the quality of the materials necessary, makes the ouvrage somewhat costly. Sometimes the designs are gathered from Turkish brocades, and the effect obtained by the stitchery is wonderful. The stitches are so even that it is almost impossible to believe that it is done by hand and not by loom, which can produce such varied forms and colourings as we see in brocades and other figured materials. In copying the Turkish brocades of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the {disses Gillan use what they call

the * Turkish stitch.’ The colours in this include a beautifully bright yet mellow blue, brown, and a rich terra-cotta. Some of the original designs, in conventional styles, show an Algerian stitch. Here there is a bluish mauve and a deep (almost golden) yellow, thrown into greater relief by an outline of black ; in another there is cerise and sagegreen. A beautiful piece of work is founded on a design of oranges, their blossoms, and their leaves. Here, again, comes in the Turkish stitch. Very original is the * custard apple ’ design, with its softly toned red flowers and blue fruit of a dark peacock tint, split, and showing the seeds in pink and white knots. Very ambitious is a large piece of embroidery in blue and red, done in a sort of basket stitch known as the ‘ caught down,’ and intended as a piece of drapery for a sofa or a screen. In design this is a reproduction of an old Arab camel saddle cloth. This took six weeks to accomplish, nine or ten hours a day being given up to it by one worker ; it has been valued by an expert at £22 10s. An exquisite piece of colouring is to be found in a piece adapted from some Indian brocade worked on a white ground and introducing some beautiful open stitchery, and some pale shades of green, lemon, and mauve. The handkerchief sachets are backed and lined with English silk corresponding with the most dominant colour in the work. The Gillan embroidery has gained several awards and prizes at recent ex hibitions. — Exchange.