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Portuguese embroidery
Embroidery is the handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Therefore embroidery can be seen as an art. Linen and cotton are the most used supporting materials for Portuguese embroidery. There is embroidery work that from being so rich they hide completely the supporting material. Although in Portugal embroidery has been not an exclusive work of women, traditionally young women use to do an embroidery outfit for their wedding.
This embroidery outfit was a set of cloths, usually in linen, embroidered by the young women with a technique that was taught by her mothers. In this way the embroidery tradition in Portugal was going from generation to generation.
Portuguese embroidery has a strong regional influence. Although the art of embroidery has been done across all country there are regions which are known by the quality and quantity of their embroidery: Castelo Branco, Arraiolos, Nisa, ilha de S. Miguel (Açores), Madeira, Tibaldinho e Alcafache, Lixa, Guimarães and Viana do Castelo. The north littoral of Portugal, known as Minho, is probably the richest area for these embroidery regions. There are several factors that might explain this richness such as the history, geography, culture and economy of Minho. As António Teixeira de Sousa said about these factors: “the landscape and climate, the large amount of manors, the marked Church presence which were a great sink of embroidery work for the clerical costumes. In addition the great number of convents where from the XVII and XVIII centuries the women would go to learn embroidery techniques”.
Tags: Crafts, Made in Portugal