Five questions about Vologda lace. Vologda lace: the basics of amazing art What is Vologda lace

Vologda lace - a special phenomenon in the folk art of the Russian North. Wealth and variety of patterns, purity of lines, dimensional rhythms of ornaments, high skill - such is his artistic originality. Poems and songs have been written about Vologda lace, and films have been made. Known all over the world, it embodies the glory of Russian lace.

The word "lace" comes from "to surround", to decorate the edges of clothes and other items made of fabrics with an elegant finish. Lace weaving has been known in Rus' for a long time. It was practiced by women of all classes. The dress of kings, princes and boyars was decorated with lace made of gold, silver and silk threads; lace made from linen yarn was used in folk clothes, and from the end of the 19th century - from cotton threads.

The artistic features of Vologda lace were already formed in the 17th – 18th centuries. Until the 19th century, lace-making had the character of a domestic art craft. In the 20s of the 19th century, a lace factory was founded in the vicinity of Vologda, where dozens of serf lace-makers worked. In the middle of the 19th century, lace-making on the Vologda land turned into a craft, which was practiced by thousands of craftswomen in different counties. Especially this craft was developed on the territory of the Vologda, Kadnikovsky and Gryazovets districts. Each of them has developed local features of patterns and weaving techniques, its own circle lace products, but only a fine connoisseur of this art can distinguish them. Lace craft in the Vologda province flourished in the second half of the 19th century. If in 1893 four thousand craftswomen were engaged in weaving, then in 1912 there were almost forty thousand of them. The fame of Vologda lace has crossed the borders of the country. Fashion for him swept many countries of Europe.

A distinctive feature of the traditional Vologda paired lace is a clear division of the “structure” of lace into a pattern and a background. As a result, the large and smooth forms of the ornament are very expressively distinguished by a continuous line, even in width along the entire length of the pattern. In the early Vologda lace, stylized images of birds, the tree of life and other ancient motifs, characteristic of more ancient embroidery, varied as the leading ornament. Today, Vologda lace is distinguished by a variety of ornaments, monumentality of forms and the predominance of floral motifs.

The Vologda fishery has received wide recognition both in Russia and abroad. The talent and skill of Vologda artists and lacemakers have been repeatedly noted at many international and domestic exhibitions. In 1937, at the international exhibition in Paris, the Vologda Lace Union for the novelty and artistic performance of lace products was awarded the highest award - the Grand Prix, at the Brussels Exhibition in 1958, Vologda lace was awarded a gold medal. And in 1968, the leading artists of the production association "Snezhinka" were awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after I.E. Repin. A lot of imagination, creative work, high skill were put into their work by the oldest lace maker K.V. Isakov, famous masters of their work E. Ya. Khumala, V. V. Sibirtseva, Honored Artists of the RSFSR V. D. Veselova and V. N. Elfina. Many of their works are kept in the largest museums of the country.

Features common to all Vologda lace in the work of each master acquire an individual color. So, the works of K. V. Isakova develop a chamber lyrical direction. Tenderness and warmth of images distinguish her panel "Deers", created in 1968. It depicts firs and galloping deer. Dimensional repetitions of the figures, their arrangement in rows, a clear pattern with a relief contour against the background of a light through lattice, like flying snowflakes and the white color of linen threads - all this gives rise to the image of a winter forest immersed in silence.

The work of VD Veselova is diverse. A hereditary lace maker, she perfectly knows all the secrets of lace making, which allows her to create both small household items and decorative panels at an equally high artistic level. One of Veselova's unique works is the Ladya tablecloth. It combines all the best features of the artist's work: the poetry of images, the nobility of the drawing, the richness of developments in details, the refinement of the technical execution of lace, its indispensable conditionality by the content and nature of the ornament.

The work of another outstanding lace maker, V. N. Elfina, gravitates toward monumental compositions and large forms of ornamentation. In 1978, Elfina executed the Singing Tree panel. It symbolizes spring and the flowering of nature associated with its arrival, the awakening of life, the many-voiced singing of birds. The magnificent Tree of Life is dotted with flowers and birds sitting on it. The dense pattern is opposed light openwork background. The combination of harsh and white threads gives the panel a silvery hue.

In 2010, the Lace Museum was opened in Vologda. It is housed in a two-story stone building, an architectural monument of federal significance from the early 19th century. On the first floor of the museum there are exhibition halls, a lace cafe, an art salon-shop, decorated in a modern style, as well as a classroom where a lace-making studio operates. The main exposition of the museum, built in chronological order, is located on the second floor and occupies eight halls.

Interest in lace craft and the only Museum of Lace in Russia is constantly growing. Vologda has already hosted the guests of the Vita Lace International Lace Festival twice already. Thanks to the festival, Vologda unites needlewomen, artists, researchers and connoisseurs of the Vologda lace craft, the most massive lace craft in Russia.

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Russian lace is original, diverse in terms of subjects and execution techniques. But there are some of them that are special. More often, it is the products of Vologda lacemakers that we strongly associate with the word "lace". And this is no accident - the history of this craft in the Vologda region is rooted in the distant past and has been striking us with its elegance for several centuries. So - let's get acquainted: Vologda lace!

And Vologda lace production began at the end of the 18th century, when Russian lace-making centers formed and began to develop in various regions of Russia: Galich, Rostov, Balakhna, Kalyazin, Torzhok, Ryazan. And - Vologda!

The first lace factory here was established in 1820 by the landowner V.A. Zasetskaya in the village of Kovyrino near Vologda, from where in the second half of the 19th century. lace-making quickly spread throughout all the central districts of the Vologda province. And this was facilitated by ... the abolition of serfdom: peasant women became more free in choosing their occupation, more engaged in needlework and weaving lace for sale. This production brought additional income to the peasant family. Moreover, lace-making does not require any special investments: both threads for lace and equipment were inexpensive and anyone could buy or make them. There was no need for a special room - in the summer, lace was woven right on the street. Yes, and you can engage in this craft in fits and starts, in your free time on earth.

Gradually, lace-making became very popular: in 1893, 4 thousand lace-makers were engaged in lace-making in the Vologda province, and in 1912 - already about 40 thousand. According to the statistics of those years, a significant part of them were teenage girls. They usually started learning the craft at the age of 5-7 and by the age of 12-14 they became very experienced craftswomen. But often men also wove lace.

But how highly valued Vologda lace in the capital's stores! Cunning merchants at first passed them off as foreign in order to increase their profits. But this was unnecessary - in terms of their characteristics, the products of the Vologda craftswomen were not at all inferior to European ones. In 1876, Vologda lace deservedly received high praise at the international exhibition in Philadelphia. They were demonstrated with no less success in 1893 in Chicago.

The October Revolution undermined the lace trade. But very soon, in 1920, the handicraft section of the Northern Union was founded in Vologda, the purpose of which was to develop the crafts of the peoples of the North in the new socialist conditions. All lacemakers, and by that time there were already about 70 thousand of them, were united in artels, a vocational school was founded, which trained craftswomen and lace instructors. It was in those years that many new patterns and weaving techniques were developed, plots for lace products were created, which embodied the dreams of a new country.

At exhibitions in Paris (1925) and Brussels (1958), Vologda laces were awarded gold medals. The highest award, the Grand Prix, was awarded to them at the Paris Exhibition in 1937.

What is the secret of the success of Vologda lace? From time immemorial, lace-makers wove it by hand, using wooden bobbins, a chip with a pattern and a special pillow on a stand. Skolok (the scheme by which the pattern is woven) is the embodiment of the skill of a lace maker.

According to the technique of execution, modern Vologda lace belongs to "coupling" lace. In this type of lace, the main elements of the pattern are woven with a long braid, and then interconnected with special "couplings" and "lattices", performed separately, using a crochet hook. This technique is used in the manufacture of scarves, collars, capes, tablecloths, bedspreads, curtains, panels.

But there were also craftswomen - "mernitsa" who wove the so-called. "paired" or "measured" lace, in which the pattern was woven simultaneously with the background, which made it possible to obtain arbitrarily long strips of lace, from which cuts of the required length were measured (hence the name).

It is clear that the patterns in the coupling lace are more diverse than in the double lace. This may also be geometric figures, and motifs of the plant and animal world (Christmas trees, flowers, fish, birds, deer, lions, peacocks), and fantastic creatures (Sirin birds, unicorns), and natural phenomena (Northern Lights), and human figures (ladies, gentlemen, horsemen , peasant women in kokoshniks and sundresses), and architectural structures (churches, towers, bridges, pavilions, palaces), and technological achievements (tower cranes, aircraft, spacecraft). Yes, yes, there were even tractors and airplanes on the products of the Vologda lacemakers of the 1930s - after all, just like their great-grandmothers, they wanted to embody the world that surrounded them in lace.

For a long time, paired lace prevailed in Vologda, it accounted for approximately 2/3 of the total output. A great contribution to the development of coupling lace was made by the masters of the lace school (VKSh) that opened in Vologda in 1928. So in the 1930s, the artist Anna Alexandrovna Perova-Nikitina and the industrial training instructor Kapitolina Vasilievna Isakova developed more than 100 lattices for coupling lace. This invention changed the appearance of the coupling lace: it became openwork, since the lattice could now play a leading role in the pattern. In addition, it was in this way that it was possible to create products combined with fabric, large large objects sewn from many parts.

In 1936, under the "Volkruzhevosoyuz" (there was such an organization!) an art laboratory was created, where numerous lace makers and artists worked on the assortment, quality, and technology of weaving lace products. Techniques common to all Vologda lace acquire an individual coloring in the work of each master. So, the work of K.V. Isakova develop a chamber lyrical direction. Tenderness and warmth of images distinguish her panel "Deer", created in 1968.

A.A. Korableva, an employee of the Research Institute of Art Industry (NIIKhP), made a great contribution to the development of the craft. She created large stitched works that became a milestone in the development of the industry: the panel "House in Gori" (1949, on the anniversary of I.V. Stalin), the curtain "Jubilee" (1954, on the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine and Russia ), curtain "Russian motives" (1958, at the World Exhibition in Brussels, he rightfully received the highest award "Grand Prix"), panel "Sputnik" (1959), panel "Aurora" (1970), panel "Buildings of Moscow" (1970), etc.

Another well-known name in Vologda is V.D. Veselova, who was born into a family of hereditary lacemakers. Her mother, and grandmother, and great-grandmother, and, possibly, distant ancestors were engaged in this craft. A family tradition has been preserved that Vera Dmitrievna's grandmother wove stockings and umbrellas for the royal court by special order. And the most famous work of the granddaughter is the tablecloth "Rook", in which the craftswoman embodied both the poetry of the image, the completeness of the drawing and her skill as a lace-maker.

But the most famous product of the Vologda lacemakers is undoubtedly the "Snowflake" tablecloth (author V.N. Elfina), which has become the hallmark of the entire lace craft. And it is no coincidence that the Snezhinka lace association, founded in Vologda in 1964 and remaining the center of lace production to this day, owes its name to it. Now hundreds of lacemakers work here, continuing to create exquisite lace patterns from the finest threads. After all, lace, even in our computer age, is still in demand.

The works of these craftswomen, as well as dozens of others, are presented in the Lace Museum that has opened in Vologda. If you are lucky enough to visit these parts - be sure to look there. You will not regret. After all, Vologda can rightly be called the lacy capital of Russia.

In preparation, photographic materials of the site "Vologda folk crafts" were used.

"Bride of the North" 2010 Authors A.N. Rakcheeva, Yu.E. Zakharova, E.E. Marochko.

- an ancient type of decorative and applied art. The data of the history of art and writing suggest that lace-making was known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century, it became widespread in Europe. Italy for a long time occupied the first place in this industry, but after some time it had to concede the leadership of France and Flanders.

In Russia, the first information about lace belong to the 13th century. The Ipatiev Chronicle tells how in 1252 Prince Daniel of Galicia received foreign ambassadors in rich clothes with amazing trimming resembling lace. But they became a noticeable phenomenon in the daily life of Russia in the 17th century. And lace products were distributed both at the royal court, and among the merchants, and among the peasants. Only their quality, of course, was different.

The earliest examples of Russian lace weaving, preserved in museum collections, date back to the 17th century. These are the so-called "golden" laces made of gold and silver threads. They were sold by weight, taking into account, first of all, the value of precious metals. and not the craftsmanship. These laces used For decoration outfits made of dense expensive fabrics - brocade, velvet, patterned silk. They were also used to decorate church utensils.

During the reign of PeterI lace-makers were sent to Russia from abroad. The history of the appearance and development of lace is full of mysteries and contradictions. There is a legend that in 1725 Peter I ordered from the Brabant monasteries - 250 lacemakers, for teaching lace weaving to orphans in the Novodevichy Convent. How long this teaching existed in the monastery is unknown. But what is interesting, in the samples of lace, preserved in different parts of Russia, and in the names of these laces, many old lace-makers pointed to the “draban (ie Brabant) thread”.

Lace (detail)

The fashion for this craft has led to the fact that many wives of Russian nobles began to learn how to work with bobbins, and organized workshops in their estates, where serfs weaved lace. Women's monasteries also became famous for their skill in this matter.. By the end of the XVIII century. artistic features of the centers of Russian lace-making were formed. Vologda, Rostov, Galich, Kalyazin, Torzhok, Balakhna, Ryazan became such centers.

Vologda lace - a type of Russian lace, woven on bobbins(wooden sticks), common in the Vologda region.

For the manufacture of Vologda lace, you need: a cushion-roller; bobbin; juniper or birch; pins; chip. A typical material for Vologda lace is linen, bleached or harsh.

In the 17th century, lacemakers mastered the technique of weaving lace using silver and gold threads made from drawn wire or from a silk thread-core entwined with a metal thread.

The beginning of the trade dates back to 1820, when near Vologda, on the estates of landowners, serfs began to weave trimmings for dresses and linen, imitating Western European ones.

Lace Museum (Vologda). Exposition of the 20th century. Lace “Mausoleum”

During the time of serfdom, all significant landlord estates of the province had lace "factories" that supplied lace products to St. Petersburg and Moscow. One of these factories was founded by the landowner Zasetskaya three versts from Vologda in the village of Kovyrino no later than the 20s of the 19th century. There, the serfs wove the finest lace for trimming dresses and underwear, imitating Western European patterns.

Lace Museum (Vologda). Exposition of the 20th century. Lace “Star”

Over time, lace weaving moved from the landowner's workshops to the folk environment and became one of the types of folk art that reflected the needs and tastes of the broad circles of the local population.

This was facilitated by several circumstances: after serfdom was abolished, the peasants had a freer choice of occupation, and the demand for lace increased.

Their production brought additional income to peasant families.

It turned out to be very important that the materials needed for weaving lace were inexpensive.. Craftswomen do not need a specially equipped room. Lacemakers could practice this craft in their free time on the ground.

In 1893, 4,000 craftswomen were engaged in lacemaking in the Vologda province, and 40,000 in 1912. In 1928, a vocational school of lacemakers was established in Vologda. In 1930, the Vologda Lace Union was created. In 1935 - an art laboratory at the Vologda Lace Union.

In the 30s of the 20th century, images appeared in lace that reflected Soviet reality. Until the 40s. In the 20th century, measured lace for finishing linen prevailed, later piece products became the main ones - paths, napkins, elegant removable details women's clothing - collars, jabots, capes, scarves, ties, gloves etc.

In 1960, the Vologda lace association "Snezhinka" was organized. Manufactured yatsya dimensional lace, bedspreads, napkins, curtains, as well as unique exhibition samples based on the sketches of artists (A. A. Korableva, M. A. Guseva, etc.).

Lace “Lukomorye” (detail)

Vologda lace has repeatedly received the highest awards at exhibitions:

- at an exhibition in Brussels in 1958 they were awarded gold medal lacy Vologda curtain "Russian motifs";

- in 1925 received gold medal at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris;

- in 1937 at the Paris Exhibition they were awarded an award The Grand Prix.

In 1964 in Vologda they created lace association "Snowflake". It got its name from the famous tablecloth "Snowflake" by V.N. Elfina. However, similar motifs were widely used in lace products before.

November 3, 2010 in Vologda, in the building of the former State Bank on Kremlin Square, 12, Lace Museum opened. The main exposition presents more than 500 items that tell about the foundation and development of this traditional artistic craft of the Vologda region.

You can get acquainted with copies of Vologda lace in the Vologda Museum-Reserve, the Vologda Museum of Lace, the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, as well as in the museum of the Snezhinka lace company.

An article about the Museum of Lace in Vologda is located

Vologda lace is one of the most recognizable Russian brands. How to distinguish it from the rest, what is happening with the once popular craft and who wears lace in our time - we tell in five points.

1. How did fishing originate in Russia?

Where and when exactly the fishery came to Vologda is not exactly known. In museums, you can find old samples of the 17th century. These products were very expensive: they were made from linen threads, which were previously wrapped around threads of gold or silver, thin as hair, - gimps (this is where the modern word "gimp" comes from, reflecting the laboriousness of the process).

At the end of the 18th century, Vologda lacemakers got acquainted with foreign lace, which was made from simple linen, cotton and silk threads and was more affordable. It was then that the popularity and production of lace began to grow.

The first small factory was founded by the landowner V.A. Zasetskaya in the village of Kovyrino near Vologda in 1820. Serf girls wove lace trims for dresses, shirts and shirts. Gradually, lace-making spread throughout the Vologda province. And 50 years later, in 1876, Vologda lace was already highly appreciated at the international exhibition in Philadelphia.

2. How is Vologda lace different from the rest?

Initially, Vologda laces were woven according to foreign samples, but over time they completely ceased to look like European products of that time. A special weaving technique with a smoothly curving pattern line - "Vologda style" - was developed by lace maker Anfiya Bryantseva in the 1840s.

Any bobbin lace, whether it be Vologda, Vyatka or Yelets, is made from the same elements: braids, welts, nets, linen. The difference is in their combination and pattern, in the preference for a certain material of threads and colors. Vologda lace is distinguished by its density, a clear division into the background and pattern, large expressive forms, and a sinuous contour. The pattern forms a continuous and non-intersecting smooth line of woven braid (vilyushka) against the background of a thin openwork lattice.

At the time of the origin of the craft, ornaments more typical for embroidery were found in Vologda lace, for example, stylized images of birds, the tree of life. Later in the patterns appeared floral motifs and geometric shapes. IN Soviet time craftswomen even used the achievements of technology in their work: on the lace of that time you can see tower cranes, airplanes, spacecraft.

3. Who is now engaged in this trade?

After the revolution, cooperative lace artels began to appear in the Vologda province. In 1920, all local lacemakers, and there were already about 70 thousand of them, were united in artels. In 1960, by merging all the lace artels of the region, five factories were created, on the basis of which, four years later, the Vologda lace association "Snezhinka" appeared.

Perestroika caused much more damage to the traditional Vologda industry than the revolution. In the 1990s, Snezhinka lost almost 80% of its employees. However, the company managed to survive difficult times and maintain production. Now the company employs about 100 people and the same number work freelance. Workers are engaged in sewing and lace production, and lace is made by hand and machine.

In addition, hundreds of craftsmen work in the country, preserving the traditions of craft and passing on knowledge to their students. Since 2006, in Vologda, with the support of Valentin Yudashkin, all-Russian competition for masters "Silver bobbin". In the same place, the International Lace Festival "Vita Lace" is held every three years.

4. How are Vologda laces made?

For 300 years, the equipment of lacemakers has not changed much. The product is woven on a tightly stuffed cylindrical pillow. It is placed on a hoop - a wooden stand. A chip is pinned to the pillow - a drawing of a pattern on cardboard. On it, dots indicate the places where the pins were stuck when the threads crossed.

Lace is woven with the help of bobbins - sticks turned from wood, on which there is a recess for winding threads. The lace maker can use up to 300 pairs of bobbins at the same time, interlacing them or weaving them together in a certain sequence, repeating the pattern over the splinter.

According to the technique of execution, modern Vologda lace belongs to the "coupling" lace. The main elements of the pattern are woven with a long braid, and then interconnected with special "couplings" and "lattices" using a crochet hook. They also make "paired" or "dimensional" lace, in which the pattern is woven simultaneously with the background. This is how long lace stripes are obtained for finishing garments.

5. Who wears them nowadays?

Now Vologda lace is not as popular as it was before the revolution, but it still remains one of the main Russian brands known abroad. Large state orders are executed by the firm "Snezhinka". Thus, the masters of the enterprise created linen tablecloths with lace inserts for receptions in the Kremlin and as a gift to Michelle Obama.

love this stuff and Russian designers, such as Valentin Yudashkin and Ulyana Sergeenko. Singer Beyoncé, supermodel Natalya Vodianova, actresses Kate Hudson, Kerry Washington and Emilia Clarke appeared in Ulyana Sergeenko Couture brand dresses made of Yelets and Vologda lace.

Nowadays, the ancient craft is developing, preserving traditions. Now you can find such items of clothing that have already gone into the past as lace mantles and capes made of synthetic materials or embellished with Swarovski crystals. The only discrepancy between the material of our time is that it is very expensive and laborious. But real lace guarantees that your item is one of a kind.

Anna Bryzgalova

At exhibitions in Paris (1925) and Brussels (1958), Vologda laces were awarded gold medals. The highest award, the Grand Prix, was awarded to them at the Paris Exhibition in 1937.

It is clear that the patterns in the coupling lace are more diverse than in the double lace. These can be geometric shapes, and motifs of the plant and animal world (Christmas trees, flowers, fish, birds, deer, lions, peacocks), and fantastic creatures (Sirin birds, unicorns), and natural phenomena (Northern Lights), and human figures (ladies, gentlemen, horsemen, peasant women in kokoshniks and sundresses), and architectural structures (churches, towers, bridges, gazebos, palaces), and technological achievements (tower cranes, aircraft, spacecraft). Yes, yes, there were even tractors and airplanes on the products of the Vologda lacemakers of the 1930s - after all, just like their great-grandmothers, they wanted to embody the world that surrounded them in lace.

In preparation, photographic materials of the site "Vologda folk crafts" were used.

"Bride of the North" 2010 Authors A.N. Rakcheeva, Yu.E. Zakharova, E.E. Marochko.