Goddess Embroideries of the Balkan Lands and the Greek Islands [Paperback]

Mary B. Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

Linked by the Black and Aegean seas, the lands of Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece are also united by their strong ritual embroidery traditions. In a similar format to her earlier book, Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe,the author recounts Bulgarian women's folk rituals and links them to goddess motifs on their textiles. She displays nineteenth century Carpathian motifs and documents their survival today in mountain villages. Traveling south, she visits the Greek islands and mainland, studying survivals of pagan culture and the folk motifs on ritual cloths and clothing. Techniques, colors, designs, origins and rituals as well as interviews with the folk artists who created goddess textiles; this volume weaves all these elements into the story of women's age-old textile traditions in the Greek and Balkan world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this incredible new book, Mary B. Kelly...describes in fascinating detail many of the rituals in which the embroidered cloths are used and the meanings of the positions of the figures on the textiles...Kelly shows how the motifs, rituals and rites of passage remain in many of the modern customs. The designs have remained throughout the centuries, and Kelly provides actual drawings, descriptions and photographs to inspire both the needleworker and scholar.

This is a beautiful, well-researched, intensely interesting book that I highly recommend to all students of the history of the Goddess, a fitting companion piece to the books of Marija Gimbutas. It will be a joy, as well, for all craft and needlework historians. -- Carol Arnold in The Beltane Papers, May 1999

About the Author

For more than 25 years, artist and professor Mary B. Kelly has researched the motifs of the goddess figures on Eastern European textiles. Drawing on these experiences, she broadens her field of research to the south, documenting similar motifs in the Balkans and Gireece.

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and Syracuse University, she holds a M.F.A. degree and has lectured and exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. She writes for textile publications such as Threads, FiberArts and Piecework as well as professional journals. She is author of Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe (1989) as well as the series Embroidering the Goddesses of Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and the Greek Islands.Her writing is included in Russia-Women-Culture (1996) ed. B. Holmgren and H. Goscillo and Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility (1999) ed. L. Welters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: StudioBooks (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966892909
• ISBN-13: 978-0966892901
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,467,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Artist, Professor of Art and author, MARY B. KELLY has documented folk textiles in Europe, the Balkans, Greece and Scandinavia in her trilogy, Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe, (!989) Goddess Embroideries of the Balkan Lands and Greek Islands (1999) and Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands ( 2007). She served as guest curator for Sacred Symbols, Ceremonial Cloth, an exhibit at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah Ia, (2009). In 2011, she published a chapter "Berehinia" in the 3 volume set, ed. by Patricia Monaghan, Goddesses in World Culture, Praeger, (978-0-313-35465-6) and the text for Kaspaikka Muistiliina, Maahenki, Helsinki, Finland. (978-952-5870-02-2) Kelly has presented her findings in conferences at Oslo University, (2008) and research for this book as keynote speaker at the ASWM conference in Madison, WI and at the Ukrainian Museum, NYC (2011). A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, and Syracuse University, Kelly conducts classes, lectures and exhibits on Hilton Head, SC where she maintains a weaving and painting studio.