Embroidery

Though conventional machine-made embroidery is pretty in many regards, it is the traditional embroidery techniques done by hand that continues to fascinate us because of it's uniqueness and the fact that it is an alluring human creation. Each piece radiates something of the embroiderer whose fingers had created them, their thoughts and experiences, interwoven with the colors of the threads on the surface of fabrics, embodying deep meaning into each hand-embroidered piece.  As a result each piece is a work of art in it's own right, each piece with it's own distinctive character.

Embroidery is as old as recorded history and was believed to have originated from the East. It quickly spread throughout the rest of the world and has evolved into it's many forms to fit the the needs and requirements of the different cultures. With the advent of modern printing and then later machine embroidery, the art of hand stitching and embroidery has fallen by the wayside. It is now rapidly becoming one of the lost arts that is rarely practiced in modern western civilizations. Fortunately, there are still many countries, mostly in the East, Far and Middle East that still value and treasure works of traditional embroidery and such civilizations still encourage the practice and training of these skills. Lineva's craftspersons' hail from all over the world. Many are culturally trained from young for such delicate and detail oriented work. Many bring their rich historical, social and often French, Italian, British, Persian and Chinese colonial influences to their craft, creating very special and one-of-a-kind works.  Today's embroidery is truly a fusion of East and West, of Old and New techniques.

Machine vs Hand Embroidery
Machine embroidery began in the 1800's when Joshua Heilman worked on a design for a hand embroidery machine. The industrial revolution quickly gave rise to the proliferation of equipment designed to mass produce fabric embellishments.  Many modern advancements have brought incredible sophistication to the capabilities of these machines to the point that many of the resulting products rival in quality to those created by manual means. Despite these advancements, machine embroidery cannot attain the subtle qualities embodied within a piece that is done by traditional hand embroidery techniques. 

Such subtleties include the ability to match the directional blending and flow of threads within a piece to create textures and gradients. Hand techniques allow for much thinner and more fragile threads such as silk to be used. Only an experienced human hand can dynamically vary the tension of a thread to impart such fine variations in texture and detail. Machine embroidered works therefore tend to be fairly 'regular' and 'characterless'.

Techniques Lineva Uses
Our embroiderers hail from many different countries and backgrounds but they all have one thing in common - they use multiple techniques learnt from years of training. Bullions wrapped with detached chain stitch, Reticella and Pullthread borders for our Jeweled Flowered linens (see left picture insert), center blended French knots and Pullthread borders for our White Daisy Motifs (see above picture insert), Wing Needlework, Cutwork, Satin Stitches and Shadow Appliqués are just some of the many techniques used in combination for our varied motifs and products.

Materials
Most of our linens utilize a pure 100% cotton 68 warp, 56 weft Calicot linen fabric. This dense TPI (Threads Per Inch) allows for finer and more detailed embellishments to be incorporated into the fabric. The silk we use vary from the very best Shantung, Danang or Thai Silk (depending on application requirements). Typically of 98 warp and 68 weft, which is extremely fine.

It took us many years to locate and train our craftspersons, organizing their work flows, designing pieces that fully utilize the skills of these various regional craftspersons and stringent on-site quality control to ensure that only the finest works are made available to our discerning customers.

An important note is that we at Lineva do not condone or utilize the use of children or underage persons in the creation of any of our products.

For more specific information about the techniques and materials used for any of our products please do not hesitate to get in touch with any of of experienced store sales staff or contact us at: info@lineva.com