Monday, May 19, 2014

Russian Punch Needle Embroidery


This week, our Stitching Around The World month brings us to Russia! Or specifically, to punch needle embroidery. I'd never even heard of this type of embroidery before this week, but my stitching fingers are absolutely itching to try it out now!

Corazones 1
by Rous

Russian Punch needle embroidery is somewhat like an odd cross between embroidery and rug making. Working from the back of your fabric with a special 'punch needle', this type of embroidery creates teeny little loops along the front of your fabric, almost like the texture of a thick terrycloth towel. What a wonderful way to create texture in your embroidery! (The back of your stitches, which you see in front of you as you work, look almost like a simple backstitch.)

Below, Flickr user Fran Bustamante has used Russian punch needle embroidery to wonderful effect, playing with the different textures the front and back of these stitches create.

Bordado Ruso / Russian or punch needle embroidery


Isn't that wonderful?! If you'd like to know more about how this special embroidery is done, visit Nordic Needle's overview of the technique. And if you've ever done any Russian punch needle embroidery, tell us about it - I'm definitely intrigued!

What are you stitching? Please share in the &Stitches Flickr group. We'd love to see it!

8 comments:

  1. How cool that you posted about needle punch. I have a blog friend that does magnificent needle punch and has encouraged me to try it. I just took a class about a week ago and know I will continue with this craft and will incorporate it into future projects as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks like so much fun! I'm definitely going to have to try it out sometime!

      Delete
  2. I have done some needlepunch, I really enjoyed it. I had no idea it was Russian though. it's usually just called needle punch or punch needle, without the "Russian" in front of it. You can see my attempt here:
    http://thecraftersapprentice.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/punch%20needle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting! As I said, I've never seen it before this week, but I did see references to it as Russian Punch Needle, plain Punch Needle as you said, as well as "Igolochkoy" as it seems to be called in Russian - and other names as it is called in other countries. I couldn't find much about the history at all, but it seems like it's a very old technique!

      Delete
  3. I love the effect this gives, am very tempted to try this technique!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That looks really, really interesting. I've been on such a french knot kick, but this looks like it would be really nice to try out to add texture in a different way.
    I've seen the tool at the craft store but never knew how it worked. Now I want to look into it more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello! I know a brazilian girl who practice this technique in towels. The result is fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Funny that you wrote about this needle. I just recently found out about it and find it amazingly funny. There is a lot of possibilities. BTW: Here you find a HOWto Video for using the needle http://youtu.be/uX8pO-Kt4c4

    ReplyDelete

Hi there, thank you for stopping by &Stitches. The blog is no longer updated, but you can still explore the archive of posts. Because the blog is no longer active, new comments have been disabled. Thank you for understanding. :-)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.