Cutwork Lace Adventure Part 1: Learning Richelieu Embroidery 🌱

Researching for a new studio project I’m cooking up, I discovered a new connection between my Polish and Mexican sides: papel picado + lace.

Some Personal Background ✦

My mom’s side of the family is from Mexico, my dad’s side is from Poland. I have an essay in the works that deep dives into more of my thoughts around creating work that connects you to your cultural roots. For now, just know that I am deeply inspired by all the corners of where I come from.

Essentially, I’m always finding new connections between these two sides of my culture that delight me. This week, I put some connections together that are inspiring a new project for the studio.

Zakopane Folk Costumes ✦

Niche, I know. Deep in the Tatra Mountains, there is still a strong culture of preserving old highlander ways. There are festivals, performances, and even weddings where people don folk costumes that were once traditional to everyday wear.

Part of the women’s costumes is a white blouse worn under their embellished corsets. These blouses are full of hand stitched cutwork lace that I believe is either Richelieu or Broderie Anglaise. The closest Polish-specific version I could find similar to this lacework is Snutka Golińska, but I don’t believe the Zakopane blouses are exactly that.

Papel Picado ✦

Papel Picado is a traditional Mexican punched paper craft that dates back to pre-columbian times. During the 1800s, tissue paper (papel de china) was adopted as the primary paper medium. The intricately chiseled designs paired with colorful delicate tissue paper, created a lace-like effect that mimics real lace.

Merging the Two Crafts ✦

All this to say, I want to create a piece that combines these crafts, their histories, and my own personal history to create a unique textile personal to me. The project vision is to hand stitch a delicate papel picado, Richelieu/Snutka Golińska cutwork lace-inspired curtain set for my studio space. Either two full-size curtain panels or two cafe curtain panels— still undecided at the moment.

But first things first, learning the techniques.

Diving into Three Cutwork Lace Styles ✦

Here is a recap of the cutwork lace I’ve identified to be the techniques I need to work on this project:

RICHELIEU:

A type of whitework embroidery made of buttonhole stitches. Sections of the design are cut away while “brides” or “bars” (with or without picots) provide support to the surrounding stitch work. There are many examples of how this technique could manifest, one that inspires me is Madeira Lace.

BRODERIE ANGLAISE:

A type of whitework embroidery made predominantly of round and teardrop eyelets. Made with overcast or buttonhole stitches, and sometimes padded satin stitched sections.

Snutka Golińska:

A type of whitework embroidery made of special designs traditional to the region of Goliń. It’s made by basting the entire design on a piece with a running stitch, before threading junctions of supporting strings across the piece in small triangles to create the “spider legs.” The design is then covered in buttonhole stitches before cutting away the rest.

You can watch embroiderer Zofia work in real time here.

Learning by Doing ✦

All of these forms of cutwork embroidery are so similar, so I’m starting out by teaching myself Richelieu. There aren’t a ton of resources out there for this rare technique, but one Polish artist, Joanna Jakuszewska, is keeping the craft alive by offering Richelieu lace kits. I purchased this digital butterfly kit from Inspirations Studios, and I’m on my way!

Update: this project inspired me to add it to my October Favorites 🫘.

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