The Dance of theNeedle: The Technology of Traditional Embroidery exhibition has opened in the Gomel Branch of the Vetka Craft Museum. Early sewing tools (including needles) and sewing machines (such as the Zinger brand) dating from the 19th and 20th centuries are on display with articles of traditional embroidery dating from the 19th century to the present: clothes, Belarusian traditional embroidered cloth — rushniks, household items with the ‘red-white’ cross-stitch, satin-stitched embroidery, ‘Old Belief’ embroidery using coloured silks, gold and beads and some items showing country needlework from the 1970-s.
The technology of needlework itself is also explored; museum staff explain that traditional Belarusian embroidery methods from the 19th century are not almost utterly lost. They are working hard to try and revive these old-fashioned methods. The exhibition will be open to the public until February 2006.
