Bed hangings

Last updated

Bed hangings or bed curtains are fabric panels that surround a bed; they were used from medieval times through to the 19th century. Bed hangings provided privacy when the master or great bed was in a public room, such as the parlor. They also kept warmth in, and were a way of showing one's wealth. When bedrooms became more common in the mid-1700s, the use of bed hangings diminished.

Contents

Bed hangings were made of various fabrics, depending on the place, time period, and wealth of the owner. Fabrics included wool, cotton, linen, fustian, and, for those who could afford it, silk or velvet. Stitches were worked in wool or, for the rich or the nobility, silk and gold. Decorations on bed hangings also varied based on geography and time period. French hangings during the Renaissance might depict embroidered scenes from the Bible, mythology, or allegory. Hangings from the UK used floral, leaf, chinoiserie, and animal themes at various times, and those from the American Colonies often followed suit, though with less dense stitching to preserve scarce crewel wool. Examples of bed hangings can be found in museums and historic homes.

Purpose

Colonial Williamsburg bed with a set of bed hangings Canopy Bed.jpg
Colonial Williamsburg bed with a set of bed hangings

Bed hangings, also known as bed "furniture," were used from medieval times [1] through the 19th century, though their popularity waned from the mid 1700s. Bed hangings proved useful for several reasons. The master bed was often located in the parlor, and the hangings provided privacy. Other beds may have occupied the hall and kitchen, as well as the upstairs bedrooms. [2]

Given the public locations of some beds, the decorated hangings also served as a show of wealth [3] and helped to keep warmth in. [4] Bed hangings in the second half of the 1600s through the first half of the 1700s were often embroidered with Jacobean motifs. Some hangings were embroidered with blue and green crewel wool on cream cotton and linen. Although many examples of crewel work survive, such curtains are rarely specified in inventories, and wealthier owners paid for embroidery in coloured silks and gold and silver thread. [5] By the mid-18th century, separate rooms for sleeping were becoming more common, and the need for bed hangings diminished. [3]

Categories of bed hangings

Some medieval bed canopies and curtains were suspended from ceiling beams. In English these canopies were known as a "hung celour". The fabric canopy concealed an iron frame with iron curtain rods.These beds can be seen in manuscript illuminations, paintings, and engravings, showing cords suspending the front of the canopy to the ceiling. Such beds could easily be dismantled and the rich fabric hangings carefully packed away. [6]

A complete set of bed furniture for a standing bed may include a coverlet (not technically a bed hanging), "a headcloth, three or four valences (depending on whether the bed was against the wall), side curtains, a tester cloth (canopy), and bases, attached to the bed rail." [7]

British bed curtain panel, wool thread on wool plain-weave fabric, early 18th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bed curtain panel, British, early 18th c.jpg
British bed curtain panel, wool thread on wool plain-weave fabric, early 18th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Allegory of Sight, by Abraham Bosse, instead of rails and rings, the fixed bed curtains have cords to tie them up Sight MET DP818007.jpg
Allegory of Sight, by Abraham Bosse, instead of rails and rings, the fixed bed curtains have cords to tie them up

Bed curtains were lined with a show fabric, often different to the outside. Some beds had inner valances concealing the curtain rods and rings. In England, after 1620, wooden beds with carved wooden headboards became less popular than a fashionable type known as a "French bed", a fabric box often depicted in paintings and engravings, especially by Abraham Bosse. These beds could have headcloths, embroidered with the owner's heraldry. The curtains at the sides and ends were sometimes fixed at the top and designed to be pulled up and tied. [15]

Materials

English bed curtains were often made of wool, though in the mid 1600s linen and cotton fabrics started to be used, particularly fustian, a heavy twill-woven cloth with a linen warp and a cotton weft. [16] Baptist Hicks sold watchet (blue) velvet for a valence and watchet taffeta sarcenet for curtains to the Earl of Northumberland in 1586, from his London shop at the sign of the White Bear. Matching watchet fringes were supplied by a silkman, Mr Bate. [17] Bess of Hardwick owned an opulent "Pearl bed" featuring the Cavendish heraldry, which she bequeathed to her daughter, the Countess of Shrewsbury. The valences were of black velvet embroidered with pearls and silver "sivines and woodbines" (wild raspberries and vines). The counterpane of black velvet was striped with silver and coiled silver purl. [18]

In the late 1600s those who could afford it might use silk and velvet fabrics. [19] Some wealthy householders had sets of summer and winter curtains. A woollen fabric called perpetuana was popular in the 17th century. [20] The warm woollen curtains could be as sumptuously decorated with embroidery and passementerie as the suites of silk curtains used in summer. [21]

Colonial American bed hangings were often made of home-grown linen or from local wool. These would be spun, dyed and woven, though finer fabrics were available for purchase. [22]

Passementerie, lace, and fringes

Bed hanging fabrics were decorated and edged with fringes and borders of lace and passementerie. These were carefully described in the inventories of aristocrats and the wealthy. "Passamayne", a variety of bobbin woven lace was made of silver and gold Venice thread to trim the beds of Henry VIII and James V of Scotland. [23] Bess of Hardwick had a canopy bed with six curtains, "striped" with gold and silver, and "layde with gold lace about the edges, and a gold twist downe the seams and fringed about with golde fringe". [24] The curtains of a bed owned by Anne of Denmark in the first decade of the 17th century were made of fabric in panes of alternating colour, the seams covered with lace of green silk with gold and silver thread. [24] In Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1643, Elizabeth Glover owned 11 beds, one with curtains of "Cheney" glazed worsted wool with "a deep silke silk fring[e] on the vallance, & a smaller on the curtaines", and the counterpane was embellished with strips of green lace. [25]

Aristocrats like Elizabeth Preston, Countess of Desmond of Kilkenny Castle, bought stocks of gold and silver thread for passementerie, which may have been made up to their specification by specialist weavers. [26] After 1660, the words "galloon" or "loom lace" for woven lace applied to bed curtains replaced the older term "passamayne". Curtains were also decorated with tapes and ribbons. [27]

Needlework decorations

Continental bed hangings

Embroidery was used to decorate bed hangings, with some of the finest embroidery produced in Caen, in France. Elaborately decorated bed hangings were known in medieval and renaissance France as courtepointerie, a term now associated with quilts. These sumptuous bed hangings were purchased by the nobility and royalty. [28] In 1662, during the reign of Louis XIV, the royal Gobelins workshops were established. Although better known for their tapestries, there and at Versailles, professional embroiderers worked on royal commissions of bed hangings based on the designs of painters. [29] During the Renaissance in France, bed valences were embroidered with scenes from the Bible, mythology, and allegory. [30] Many bed hangings were made from velvet or satin and had applique interlacing and scroll designs. These motifs full of movement, as well as others that were delicate and refined in the 16th century were followed in the next by a more monumental style produced by professionals. Those of the highest quality were made by professionals. [31] Bed hangings were highly valued possessions, and records from the Middle Ages through the 1700s indicate that they were their owners' most prized possessions. [32]

Queen's bedroom, Chateau de Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France Loire Cher Blois2 tango7174.jpg
Queen's bedroom, Château de Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France

In Italy, embroidered bed hangings had been made in Palermo since the 12th century. [28] Professional workers embroidered padded gold threads on velvet or satin, used braid-outlined appliqué, sometimes with silk embroidery for use as furnishings such as valences. [33] In the second half of the 17th century, lighter domestic embroidered work became more colorful, freer, and naturalistic. [34]

In 1512, Bona Sforza of Aragon married King Zygmunt I of Poland. As part of her trousseau, she brought a four poster marriage bed with 23 hangings attached to the canopy. One of the most expensive "was made of silver material with a gold border, woven with the stylized inflorescence of artichokes." [35]

English and Colonial American bed hangings

In England, Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII, employed an embroiderer called Robynet to work on her "riche bedde" and other works in 1502. [36] Robynet had a team of four men and three female embroiderers who were paid wages and board money to lodge in Richmond Palace for seven weeks. The account mentions black crewel wool used to "purfulle" or purfle around the roses, and tawny thread used to lay embroidered work on red satin edges. Making the shapes of roses and clouds involved the use of searing candles. Robynet also used round and flat gold thread. [37]

The most economical bed hangings were plain or mechanically decorated. Crewel embroidery with wool was used to decorate bed hangings in England and the colonial US from the mid 1600s to the mid 1700s. [38]

American crewel valence, possibly from Connecticut, 1760-1770, Metropolitan Museum of Art American crewel valance.jpg
American crewel valence, possibly from Connecticut, 1760–1770, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The designs used in England were more dense than the open designs found in colonial America, and many used a wider range of stitches. Thread was hard to get in Colonial America, and so it was not used where it would not show. Colonial bed hangings used stitches where most of the wool is visible on the front, and not wasted on the back. Such stitches include economy (Romanian) stitch, [39] flat stitch, herringbone, buttonhole, running (outline), and French and bullion knot stitches. Regardless, the work involved a great deal of time and effort, as it required decorating large expanses of fabric. [22]

For bed hangings decorated at home, the colors of the embroidery depended on what was available for use, or what could be dyed. Those who had access to a full range of colors could embroider realistic floral designs, while others would select or be limited to a monochromatic color scheme. Blue and rose and blue and white were popular in the American colonies, with the blue dye coming from the household's indigo pot. [40] The designs used varied with the country and the time period. Elizabethan designs had scrolling vines and animal patterns, Jacobean designs might be predominantly leaves. About the turn of the 17th century, chinoiserie design elements became popular. By the mid 1700s, designs were more natural and included pictorial elements, such as animals. [41]

Bed hanging worked with crewel embroidery, Auckland Museum Bed hanging (AM 517163-14).jpg
Bed hanging worked with crewel embroidery, Auckland Museum

Artifacts

According to Hedlund, it is possible that few pieces of 17th century crewel bed hangings survive because women did not have the leisure time to work on them. [4] More have survived from the 18th century. Few full sets of bed hangings were passed down intact, because their worth often meant they were divided amongst surviving heirs. [42] In the New England in the US, the great bed and its hangings went to the eldest son, but if the bed hangings were embroidered, the bed might go to the eldest son and the hangings would be divided amongst the other children. [43] Some pieces that still exist may never have been part of a full set. Later in the Colonial period some sets of hangings were smaller, including only side curtains at the head of the bed and valances. [44]

Examples

Embroidered silk bed hangings, China, c. 1760-1770, Rijksmuseum Geel zijden bedgarnituur, BK-1980-770.jpg
Embroidered silk bed hangings, China, c. 1760–1770, Rijksmuseum

In Great Britain, an embroidered valance made for Colin Campbell of Glenorchy and Katherine Ruthven including their initials and depicting Adam and Eve, is now at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. They married in 1550 and the valance was used at Balloch. It was worked with silk threads on linen canvas, probably by a professional embroiderer in Scotland. [45] [46] The Oxburgh Hangings, hanging in Oxburgh Hall, were embroidered by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick between 1570 and approximately 1585. [47]

In 1597 the German traveller Paul Hentzner was shown a tester at Hampton Court which Anne Boleyn had embroidered as a gift for Henry VIII, this is not known to have survived. [48] [49] The Burrell Collection has a cream silk taffeta valance decorated with black velvet cutwork including the initials of Henry and Anne Boleyn, and their emblems of acorns and honeysuckle. [50] [51] The Tudor valance was preserved at Kimberly Hall by the Wodehouse family, who were relations of Anne Boleyn. [52] A silk fabric-hung bed for Mary of Guise in a style of 1540 was recreated from inventory evidence in 2010 for display at Stirling Castle. [53]

In the United States, the only complete set of embroidered bed hangings are those made by Mary Bulman, most likely in the 1730s, which are housed in the Old Gaol Museum in York, Maine. [54] This set includes "four curtains, a coverlet, a headcloth, tester, outer valences, and inner valences." [55] These inner valences contained an embroidered poem by Isaac Watts, "Meditation in a Grove." These valences would hang inside the bed curtains, where they could be read while in bed. When Mary's husband died in 1745, his probate inventory listed the value of the bed hangings as 20 pounds, which was the same amount as a 10-acre piece of land also in the inventory. [55]

A set of bed hangings donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Samuel Bradstreet, a descendant of the early American poet Anne Bradstreet, were worked in crewel in a pattern of large floral designs, and were likely made in the second quarter of the 1700s. [56]

The New Elizabethan Embroidery Project created a new set of bed hangings in the Elizabethan style for the 16th century bed in the Grand Tudor chamber in Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Completed in 2007 by stitchers in both the US and the UK, the designs were inspired by motifs and symbols found elsewhere in the house. [57]

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has an almost complete set of 18th-century Chinese silk embroidered bed hangings, missing only the tester and the headboard. The designs include peacocks, flowering vines, foliage, butterflies, and vases of flowers. Created for the export trade, the set is extremely luxurious and was designed for a state bed, one meant to be seen. [58]

See also

Notes

  1. Bishop & Coblentz 1979, p. 27.
  2. Cummings 1961, p. 2.
  3. 1 2 Needle arts 1990, p. 57.
  4. 1 2 Hedlund 1967, p. 9.
  5. Thornton 1978, p. 176-7.
  6. Penelope Eames, 'The Making of a Hung Celour', Furniture History, 33 (1997), pp. 35-42.
  7. Needle arts 1990, p. 64.
  8. Cummings 1961, p. 51-52.
  9. Cummings 1961, p. 54-55.
  10. 1 2 Cummings 1961, p. 52.
  11. Townsend 1942, p. 112.
  12. Hughes 1961, p. 121.
  13. Peter Thornton, Seventeenth Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (Yale, 1978), p. 165.
  14. Peter Thornton, Seventeenth Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (Yale, 1978), p. 177.
  15. Thornton 1978, p. 160-1, 174-6.
  16. Rowe 1973, p. 105.
  17. Batho 1962, p. 57–58.
  18. Alison Wiggins, Bess of Hardwick's Letters (Routledge, 2017), 185.
  19. Bridgeman & Drury 1978, p. 87.
  20. Batho 1962, p. 118.
  21. Thornton 1978, p. 106, 177.
  22. 1 2 Hedlund 1967, p. 11.
  23. Westman 2019, p. 15.
  24. 1 2 Westman 2019, p. 22.
  25. Westman 2019, p. 23.
  26. Westman 2019, p. 26.
  27. Westman 2019, p. 63.
  28. 1 2 Campbell 2003.
  29. Parker et al. 1989, p. 27.
  30. Bridgeman & Drury 1978, p. 92.
  31. Bridgeman & Drury 1978, p. 100-101.
  32. Synge 1982, p. 25.
  33. Bridgeman & Drury 1978, p. 137.
  34. Bridgeman & Drury 1978, p. 139.
  35. Morka 2008, p. 72.
  36. Eleri Lynn, Tudor Textiles (Yale, 2020), p. 87.
  37. Nichols Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (London: William Pickering, 1830), pp. 55, 82-83.
  38. Rowe 1973.
  39. Bath 1979, p. 91.
  40. Davis 1969, p. 38,56.
  41. Rowe 1973, p. 105-111.
  42. Parmal 2012, p. 47.
  43. Bogdonoff 1975, p. 82.
  44. Rowe 1973, p. 104.
  45. Deborah Howard, Scottish Architecture: From the Reformation to the Restoration, 1560-1660 (Edinburgh, 1995), p. 94.
  46. Glenorchy valance, Burrell Collection 29.181
  47. Michael Bath, Emblems for a Queen (London, 2008), pp. 5-6.
  48. Hughes 1961, p. 120.
  49. Robert Naunton, Travels in England During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth by Paul Hentzner (London: Cassell, 1894), p. 75.
  50. Eleri Lynn,Tudor Textiles (Yale, 2020), p. 88.
  51. Tudor valance with the cipher of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Burrell Collection, 29.178.a
  52. Zillah Dovey, An Elizabethan Progress: The Queen's Journey Into East Anglia (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1996), p. 96.
  53. John G. Harrison, Rebirth of a Palace: The Royal Court at Stirling Castle (Edinburgh, 2011).
  54. McDermott, Deborah. "Bulman bed hangings back at Old York". seacoastonline.com. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  55. 1 2 Parmal 2012, p. 61.
  56. Parmal 2012, p. 58.
  57. "Sulgrave Manor: Ancestral home of First US President George Washington". Discover Britain. 2015-01-30. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  58. Hartkamp-Jonxis 2013.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embroidery</span> Art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn

Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to stitch thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, shoes, handbags and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crewel embroidery</span> Type of embroidery using wool

Crewel embroidery, or crewelwork, is a type of surface embroidery using wool. A wide variety of different embroidery stitches are used to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.

Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chain stitch</span> Type of embroidery stitch

Chain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch is an ancient craft – examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated to the Warring States period. Handmade chain stitch embroidery does not require that the needle pass through more than one layer of fabric. For this reason the stitch is an effective surface embellishment near seams on finished fabric. Because chain stitches can form flowing, curved lines, they are used in many surface embroidery styles that mimic "drawing" in thread.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacobean embroidery</span> Embroidery style popular in early 17th century England

Jacobean embroidery refers to embroidery styles that flourished in the reign of King James I of England in first quarter of the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stumpwork</span> Embroidery technique

Stumpwork or raised work is a style of embroidery in which the stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to form a 3-dimensional effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian needlelace</span>

Armenian needlelace is a pure form of needle lace made using only a needle, thread and pair of scissors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitework embroidery</span> Creative works made with a needle using white thread on a white ground

Whitework embroidery is any embroidery technique in which the stitching is the same color as the foundation fabric. Styles of whitework embroidery include most drawn thread work, broderie anglaise, Hardanger embroidery, Hedebo embroidery, Mountmellick embroidery, reticella and Schwalm. Whitework embroidery is one of the techniques employed in heirloom sewing for blouses, christening gowns, baby bonnets, and other small articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embroidery of India</span> Any of the various styles of embroidery indigenous to India

Embroidery in India includes dozens of embroidery styles that vary by region and clothing styles. Designs in Indian embroidery are formed on the basis of the texture and the design of the fabric and the stitch. The dot and the alternate dot, the circle, the square, the triangle, and permutations and combinations of these constitute the design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cutwork</span> Needlework technique

Cutwork or cut work, also known as punto tagliato in Italian, is a needlework technique in which portions of a textile, typically cotton or linen, are cut away and the resulting "hole" is reinforced and filled with embroidery or needle lace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embroidery thread</span> Any of several types of thread designed for use in embroidery and related crafts

Embroidery thread is yarn that is manufactured or hand-spun specifically for embroidery and other forms of needlework. Embroidery thread often differs widely, coming in many different fiber types, colors and weights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shisha (embroidery)</span> Type of embroidery

Shisheh, Kawan jo kam or abhla bharat embroidery, or mirror-work, is a type of embroidery which attaches small pieces of mirrors or reflective metal to fabric. Mirror embroidery is common throughout Asia, and today can be found in the traditional embroidery of the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, China, and Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plainweave</span> Category of woven fabrics

In embroidery, plainweave is a technical category of woven base fabrics that are suitable for working certain varieties of embroidery. Plainweave fabrics have a tight weave and individual threads are not readily visible. Surface embroidery may be performed on plainweave, such as crewel work, goldwork, stumpwork, cutwork, and candlewicking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slip (needlework)</span>

In needlework, a slip is a design representing a cutting or specimen of a plant, usually with flowers or fruit and leaves on a stem. Most often, slip refers to a plant design stitched in canvaswork (pettipoint), cut out, and applied to a woven background fabric. By extension, slip may also mean any embroidered or canvaswork motif, floral or not, mounted to fabric in this way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English embroidery</span> Embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad

English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxburgh Hangings</span>

The Oxburgh Hangings are needlework bed hangings that are held in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, England, made by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick, during the period of Mary's captivity in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic embroidery</span> Embroidery styles of the Islamic world

Embroidery was an important art in the Islamic world from the beginning of Islam until the Industrial Revolution disrupted traditional ways of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kutch Embroidery</span> Handicraft and textile art tradition of Kutch, Gujarat, India

The Kutch Embroidery is a handicraft and textile signature art tradition of the tribal community of Kutch District in Gujarat, India. This embroidery with its rich designs has made a notable contribution to the Indian embroidery traditions. The embroidery, practiced normally by women is generally done on fabrics of cotton, in the form of a net using cotton or silk threads. In certain patterns, it is also crafted over silk and satin. The types of stitches adopted are “square chain, double buttonhole, pattern darning, running stitch, satin and straight stitches”. The signature effect of the colorful embroidery sparkles when small mirrors called abhla are sewn over the geometrically shaped designs. Depending on the tribal sub groups of Rabari, Garasia Jat, and Mutava involved with this craft work many hand embroidered ethnic styles have evolved. These six styles: Suf, khaarek, paako, Rabari, Garasia Jat, and Mutava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework</span> American arts and crafts society, 1896-1926

The Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework was founded in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1896 by Margaret C. Whiting and Ellen Miller. They formed the society in 1896 as a way to help residents boost the town's economy by reviving American needlework from the 1700s. It was inspired by the crewel embroidery of 18th-century women who had lived in the Deerfield, Massachusetts, area. Members of the Blue and White Society initially used the patterns and stitches from these earlier works, but because these new embroideries were not meant to replicate the earlier works, the embroidery soon deviated from the original versions with new patterns and stitches, and even the use of linen, rather than wool, thread. The society disbanded in 1926 for several reasons. Ellen Miller was in declining health; the trained stitchers were getting old and could not continue; Margaret C. Whiting's sight was fading; and, the design and quality of commercially produced items was increasing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colcha embroidery</span> Form of surface embroidery found in the southwest United States

Colcha embroidery from the southwest United States is a form of surface embroidery that uses wool threads on cotton or linen fabric. During the Spanish Colonial period, the word colcha referred to a densely embroidered wool coverlet. In time, the word also came to refer to the embroidery stitch that was used for these coverlets, and then began to be used on other surfaces. The colcha stitch is self-couched, with threads applied at a 45-degree angle to tie down the stitch. Originally, the wool threads were dyed naturally, using plants or insects, such as cochineal. Both materials used and design motifs have varied over time.

References