Embroidery of the Hutsul Region, Part 5, Verkhovyna

 

Hello all, 

Today I will take a closer look at the embroidery of the Verkhovyno Region of Hutsulshchyna. This means mostly nyzynka. Nyzynka is darning stitch with the white areas filled in with different colors. While darning stitch is very common from Norway to Thailand, noone else fills it in with different colors. This example above from my personal collection shows the typical composition of this region: a main motif in the center, with toothed edge designs on one or both sides, and rows of braid stitch between, alternating between solid lines and those with alternating colors, light and dark, warm and cool.

While many people think of Hutsul embroidery as embodying warm tones, cool tone compositions such as the one above are common, especially higher in the mountains. Here are a couple of examples from Yavoriw. 

 
While the above examples show the most common format, a black background filled with colors, it is not the only one. Here are two examples from the village of Dovhopillia. 

The first has a red background which is then filled in. 

This second example uses red and black alternately, a style which is much more common further east, in Podillia, although it is also known among the Boikos, which use red and blue. 

In Yavoriw, which is close to Kosmach, somewhat similar cross stitch can be found, but using fewer colors. This is done only on the ustawka, and the sleeve is gathered. 

An entirely different style of embroidery although uncommon, can be found in many villages in this region. 

Yavoriw

Bystrets'

Kryvorivna

Holovy

"Probina" - I can find no village by this name, but there is a stream "Probijna", which is a left hand tributary to the White Cheremosh.

While a couple look like they are intermediate with nyzynka. 

Dowhopillia

Bystrets'

Originally the nyzynka designs were limited to the ustawka, and strictly geometric, but during the course of the 20th cent. the designs were enlarged to cover more of the sleeve, often down to the elbow, and floral and curvilinear designs were introduced, still using nyzynka. 

It became customary to add cross stitch motifs under the embroidery of a man's shirt, clearly taken from western design books, and even adding initials, which is common in 
West Europe but very rare in Ukraine. 

Another thing that is sometimes seen is reforming nyzynka designs into cross stitch, although this is less common than in non Hutsul areas

The rest of this article will be presentations of embroidery designs, some graphed. These will be thanks to Iryna Svyontek, and Evdokia Sorokhaniuk. 

I will close with a selection of the older style designs collected by Evdokia Sorokhaniuk

 

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative, and perhaps inspired you to make some Hutsul embroidery for yourself. 

Roman K. 

email rkozakand@aol.com