Hardanger technique (embroidery)

Among all the variety of needlework, which are fond of modern masters, special place is occupied by embroidery - one of the most ancient directions of applied art.

The shortcut value

A long time ago, with the help of embroidery, the girls decorated their costumes, applied protective patterns on their shirts and belts to their beloved, and denoted their belonging to one or another genus.

Now this craft has lost its sacral value, but still men and women around the world decorate themselves and their home with handmade embroidery products.

Embroidery in the style of hardanger - one of the most ancient types of this art. About him and will be discussed in today's article.

A bit of history

Hardanger - embroidery with openwork patterns, originated in the time of ancient Egypt.

Such basic elements as a square, a cross and a rectangle are traditional signs that came from Syria and ancient Egypt.

The most popular sign, which became famous for the hardanger embroidery, is an eight-pointed star. It is one of the most important symbols embroidered by Indians.

The name of this direction is identified with the longest river of the same name in Norway. For these reasons, historians are still arguing about the country in which the hardanger originally originated.

It is known that the hardanger is embroidery, which from the 17th century decorated all national Norwegian wedding costumes, so many associate it with the Scandinavians.

In the 20th century, this elegant openwork embroidery spread throughout the world. The masters adorn her with not only clothes, tablecloths and towels, but also some interior items, for example, Christmas-tree toys.

The main principles that distinguish embroidery hardanger

The book "Embroidery hardanger" marks the main positions of this kind strictly ordered by the size and quantity of smoothing stitches.

To akin in meaning are such embroideries, as the Cypriot lefkaritika, Russian embroidery on the grill and hem.

Embroidery hardanger refers to countable types, but unlike, for example, the hem, it can fill the entire decorated product.

Here are the main positions of this style:

• The main condition that must be observed when embroidering a Hardanger style is that the fabric you choose must have a uniform weave, because the main element of this technique is a 4 by 4 square.
• All groups of glazed stitches of this technique consist of five stitches per four cells.
• Another condition: if you are embroidering one row with vertical stitches, the row following it should have horizontal stitches.
• Embroidery hardanger for beginners is quite complicated, so if you do not have experience, we advise you to spread the canvas.
• If necessary, move the thread, winding the needle under the stitches, then the underside will also look beautiful.
• In the event that you run out of thread, move the needle to the wrong side and thread it through the next three stitches, then thread it backwards through the two stitches, bypassing the one from which the thread emerged on the first pass, fasten the structure with a textile Adhesive.
• Remember that the hardanger is embroidery, which does not tolerate any knots!

Materials and tools you need

• A fabric that is suitable for the parameters described above (excellent for linen material), or canvas.
• Special needle for embroidery, with a rounded tip.
• The threads are thick enough to cover the segment of the smooth surface. Perfectly suitable pearl, iris, less suitable, but permissible - mulina (in this case do not separate strands of threads).
• Thin threads for the execution of openwork elements. For these purposes, you can take a mulina, dividing the strands into separate strands, or an ordinary sewing thread "10".
• Scissors of small size with sharply sharpened ends (you need them to cut openwork patterns). It can be a special scissors for embroidery, but in the absence of such you can use ordinary manicure, pre-treated with alcohol.
• Large, preferably wooden, embroidery frame.
• Tweezers (you can use the usual for eyebrows).
• Adhesive for textiles (it is needed not only for securing stitches, when the thread ends, but also for processing the edge of the product).

Preparation of tissue

Hardanger - embroidery is pretty whimsical, so if you are a beginner, we advise you to pre-prepare the material on which you are going to embroider.

Let's do all the stages of fabric preparation for beginners.

• To begin with, we advise you to print out the pattern you want to embroider in full size.
• From this printed picture, determine the size of the material you need.
• Cut out a piece of fabric that is larger than its printed prototype by 2 centimeters on each side.
• After stepping 2 centimeters from the edge of the cut piece, sew all the edges of the product with the "forward needle" seam , as follows: each stitch should occupy 4 cells and between the stitches there should also be a distance of 4 squares.
• Treat the edges of the product with textile glue (those 2 cm free all around the perimeter).

Master classes of embroidery hardanger

As it was said before, hardanger is embroidery by counting smoothness, which is performed by certain blocks. In its appearance, the finished work, executed in this style, resembles a picture from the ancient world.

Embroidery in the hardanger technique includes a number of classical elements peculiar only to it. However, modern masters will diversify this trend with stylized patterns from other varieties of embroidery.

If you want to learn and understand the style, which is covered in this article, you will have to learn a few basic seams. This we now and will.

Langetal seam

This seam has a second name - loop. Most likely, he received this name because it seems that the outer edge of the outer stitch is tied with a loop.

It is executed as follows:

• Stick the needle from the wrong side in the place where the element you are going to embroider begins with, and stretch the thread from the outside, leaving a small tail on the underside, which it is desirable to fix with a drop of textile glue. This will be the beginning of the bar.
• Mentally from the hole in which you stuck a needle, count up 4 holes, at level 4 holes back to the right one more hole and stick a needle there.
• Count 4 holes from the insertion point of the needle and insert the thread into the third hole, passing it into the formed loop.
• Repeat these stitches as many times as necessary.

When making this seam, place the stitches as close as possible to each other.

Blocks made by smoothness

Hardanger - embroidery, which necessarily assumes the presence in the pattern of glade blocks.

This is done as follows.

• Make a vertical stitch of 4 squares.
• Perform only 5 such stitches in one block. Each stitch must be 4 squares long.
• After making the last stitch, insert a needle into the next cage and make a horizontal stitch with a length of 4 squares.
• Reproduce a total of 5 such stitches.
• Continue to carry out the iron blocks on the same principle.

Remember that the threads that connect the parts of the embroidery must be strictly under the blocks, otherwise you will ruin the whole work by making openwork slits.

Pattern "Eye"

This element has this name because of the similarity with the human eye with long fluffy eyelashes. By pulling the thread, you "open" the eye.

• In your mind, designate a square of 5 for 5 cells.
• When threading the 3 squares of each side of the square and removing it in the middle of the middle, embroider the plus (+).
• Then, sewing the diagonally angled corners and returning from each corner in the middle in the middle of the cage, embroider X (x) over the plus.
• Embroider on a stitch from each free cell, located on the sides of the square, returning each time to 3 cells of the center.

Eyes should be sewn with thin threads. This element can have 6 to 16 beams.

How to cut the thread correctly, so as not to spoil the work?

To make your product more unusual and reward it with a charm peculiar only to the style described in this article, after embroidering all the elements you will need to make openwork slits on the fabric. The lessons of the hardanger embroidery in this article include a detailed description of the technique of cutting openwork openings.

• Make cuts in places that are free from embroidery, close to the glade blocks, leaving entire threads in between the blocks. Use for this purpose thin scissors. An example of a well-cut hole can be seen in the photo below.

• Lubricate the ends of the cut threads with a small amount of textile glue.
• You can leave whole threads between the cut out windows in such a way or for greater expressiveness of braiding them with a thin thread.
• Cut the thread with tweezers.

If you do everything right, you will receive a product of simply unreal beauty, which, without any doubt, will be the highlight of your interior or an excellent gift for people who are dear to you.

Embroidery hardanger. The book of ideas for the whole year

While you do not ideally master hardhander's technique, it will be difficult for you to come up with patterns for your work yourself. Fortunately, in our time there is a huge number of books with embroidery schemes in this style. Therefore, we recommend that you purchase several such print publications in order to stock up ideas for inspiration for a long time.

Until you do this, we suggest that you look at a couple of pictures of the depicting products, light in performance even for beginners.

As you can see, this product includes such elements as glade blocks and eyes, the execution of these details we considered with you earlier.

The work below is more complicated, since in addition to the "eyes" and "glade blocks" we studied earlier, it includes a hardanger-style element, stylized as a flower, called the "eight-pointed star". If you look closely, you will understand that such a star is simply a collection of smooth horizontal stitches of different sizes.

From this article you learned about such technique as hardanger, followed its history, understood what tools you need to get to work with it, learned the basic elements and disassembled how to properly make openwork slits.

We hope this article will be the first step in your endeavors regarding such craft as hardanger embroidery.