The first mechanical spinning wheel was invented by a resident of an English city. This man had golden hands and a bright head. The spinners of this city, fearing that the new spinning wheel would make their work unnecessary, destroyed the spinning wheel, and the inventor himself was driven out of the city. But others took advantage of the poor man's invention and made the spinning wheel work using steam.

In Russia, we have long had wonderful clothiers. In Kyiv and Novgorod, there were cloth rows back in the 5th century. The sellers of this product behaved arrogantly.

Peter founded the first army cloth factory in Russia. The first spinning machines were called self-factors. They were periodic machines. They were then superseded by continuous ring spinning machines due to their complex operation and maintenance.

Currently, Italian companies have resumed the production of sulfactors based on electronics and automation, which allows us to hope for the possible operation of machines at our enterprises, since these machines produce high-quality and even yarn.

Continuous ring spinning machines are widely used. Rewinding of yarn into large packages is carried out on a rewinder machine.

Currently, double twisting machines are used to produce twisted yarn.

Weaving was invented by man in the Neolithic era - about 8 thousand years BC. Before the birth of weaving, primitive people dressed in animal skins, which were sewn with threads made from the veins of the same animals. Weaving is the production of fabrics from threads of animal or plant origin. The weaving process is preceded by the spinning process. Threads are spun from short wools or plant fibers by twisting the hairs or fibers together. Then the threads are intertwined. Weaving as a craft arose as a result of man's transition from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle, from gathering to the domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants.

In Ancient Rus', ordinary and artistic weaving has been known for a long time. Ancient Russian fabrics of the 11th-13th centuries. archaeologists have found in different areas. A handloom with a vertical warp appeared approximately 5-6 thousand years BC. e. His invention was one of the most important achievements of man at the first stage of his development. Over time, the design of the machine is improved, many options arise, including the horizontal machine, which has survived among the Russians and many other peoples to this day. On the outskirts of Voronezh, not far from Bald Mountain, archaeologists discovered and recovered from excavations tashi - sinkers made of baked clay for fishing gear, a spindle whorl for spindles, which eloquently speaks of the development of spinning, weaving and net-knitting crafts among our distant ancestors at that time.

Women provided their families with clothes made from hand-woven fabrics. The threads were obtained mostly from bast - the stems of wild hops that grew in great abundance in forest clearings. Its young shoots were eaten in early spring. From bast-rich hop stems, when processed, a long and strong fiber was obtained, from which threads were spun and linen was woven - canvas. Hop fruits - cones - were used to make greenish paint for dyeing canvas.

History of weaving in Rus'

For one of the most ancient crafts - weaving - in Rus' there were many varieties not only of execution techniques, but also of patterned weaving.

Hobby for housewives.

Weaving is one of the oldest crafts in human history, dating back to the Stone Age. Until the 20th century, it was the most common household activity for women in Rus'. Peasant women wove elegant sundresses for themselves, shirts with patterns for their husbands, scarves, head scarves, and all kinds of products for household needs, including for the “red corner” - the most important place in the hut. Huts were decorated with patterned fabrics during major holidays - for example, at a wedding, so that guests could appreciate the skill and hard work of the bride, as well as the wealth of the family.

Our ancestors passed on all the variety of beautiful patterns, various techniques for creating fabrics, love and respect for the weaving craft from generation to generation, carefully preserving and improving it.

Thanks to this, weaving crafts are still alive, although, undoubtedly, they already exist rather as a “cultural heritage”, because it is impossible for home handicrafts to compete with factory production.

Basics

Technologically, the process of hand weaving is as follows. Some threads running along the loom and called the warp must be stretched parallel to each other in a horizontal plane, other threads - “weft” - must be intertwined with the warp threads to form a fabric. These threads have a transverse direction.

To tension the warp and give it a horizontal position, the machine has a system of two rollers: on the first, the so-called “beam”, the warp threads must be wound like on a large spool. The finished fabric is wound onto the second, the “commodity roller”.

Khamovniki of the royal court.

The history of patterned weaving in Russia has its roots in the deep past. Among the remains of fabrics found during excavations of burial mounds in central Russia dating back to the 10th-13th centuries, there are locally made patterned fabrics. The most unexpected thing was that their patterns and techniques were close to the peasant patterned fabrics of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is also known that linen fabrics of Ancient Rus' in the 15th century. were exported to the East - to Samarkand, India, which indicates a high level of development of weaving art already in that period.

The raw materials for patterned weaving were flax, wool, and hemp, mined and processed on every peasant farm.

In the 17th century in Moscow, the population of two settlements, Kadashevskaya and Tverskaya-Konstantinovskaya, also called Khamovniki (“khamovnik” means weaver), specialized in the production of high-quality, mainly patterned fabrics for the needs of the royal court. The same thing was done by the “sovereign boorish” villages near Yaroslavl - Breytovo and Cherkasovo, whose products were very highly valued.

Borrow or pawn?

In Russian folk weaving, various techniques have long been developed that constitute the peculiarity of one or another technique of execution.

Techniquemortgage weaving– one of the most ancient and one of the most labor-intensive. It consists in the fact that the weft threads are not laid across the entire width of the fabric, but in sections. According to the pattern, each section is made with a thread of a certain color. The pattern turns out to be double-sided, without a reverse side. The technique of embedded weaving allows you to create a wide variety of geometric patterns, from simple to the most complex, and the alternation of colors in the pattern can be anything.

Techniquesack weavingalso ancient - this is how they wove it back in pre-Mongol Rus'. Its peculiarity is the use of a flat board called a “branch”, which has one pointed end, with which the weaver sorts out the warp threads, leaving some on top, others on the bottom. The fabric, made using the bran technique, has a slightly embossed texture. It is characteristic that the wrong side of the fabric here is a “negative” reflection of the front.

The artistic possibilities of the brane technique are great: it allows you to create geometric patterns of any complexity.

However, the color scheme is limited: more than two colors (background color and pattern color) cannot be used in one horizontal stripe. In the case of a polychrome palette, the colors should be arranged in the form of stripes (one above the other). It was sack weaving that was most widespread in the 19th century.

Elective weavingcan be considered as a type of brane, since the same “branch” board is used to obtain the pattern. The difference is that here the patterned weft does not run throughout the entire fabric, but in sections, limited to the boundaries of one ornamental shape. Using the elective technique, you can make a wide variety of patterns with a multi-color color scheme.

Openwork weaving techniquewas very common in the Russian North - especially in Karelia, as well as in the Novgorod, Vologda, Moscow and other regions.

Openwork patterns were also made with the help of “branching” boards. Translucent areas were created on dense fabric, forming a geometric pattern.

The least labor-intensive in folk weaving is consideredheald patterned technique. There are many varieties of it in folk weaving. A two-weft fabric structure was often used, in which one weft was patterned and the other was background, plain. The texture of the fabric was very textured and expressive.

It would seem that the most active time of the ancient Russians was summer. However, even in the fall, our ancestors had a lot to do. Collect the harvest, prepare the land for winter crops, dry the grain, thresh it, prepare food for the cattle for the winter, insulate the house for the cold, store firewood... and much more! It is also necessary to celebrate the harvest festival, thank the Sun and bow to Mother Earth for the earthly fruits, meet Mother Osenina, and send the sun to its winter rest. Make protective protection against autumn colds and fevers, and make other amulets for your home, family, and livestock before the onset of the dark time.

Audio release of the program

http://sun-helps.myjino.ru/sop/20171011_sop.mp3

However, this is not all! During the winter, women had to weave enough linen to last the whole family until the next winter., since everyone wore clothes made with their own hands from homespun fabric. In every house, in every hut, women spun and weaved on autumn days. They learned this from early childhood, and by the age of sixteen the girl was a real master.

Craftswomen who knew how to weave beautiful patterned fabric were always held in high esteem and were often freed from everyday duties. In the north of Rus', they produced mainly linen, hemp and wool fabrics. The process of preparing threads from plant fiber was very labor-intensive. In the fall, when it was time to harvest, the flax was pulled and left in the field for a couple of weeks so that the fibers softened. Then the flax was dried and crushed in special wooden crushers, successively pressing the flax bundle along its entire length, while the solid component, the kernel, was separated. Then the flax was ruffled, holding a bunch of flax in one hand and hitting it from top to bottom with a wooden ruffle, separating the remaining flax fiber from the flax fiber. After this, the flax was brushed.

After shearing the sheep, the wool was also washed, crumpled, carded, and then spun into wool thread. Special brushes made of a wooden base with iron teeth hammered into several rows were also used for carding wool.

Wooden spinning wheels were used to produce yarn. Spinning wheels were often decorated with carvings and paintings. The fiber for the yarn was secured to the spinning wheel blade using a rope. The spinner sat on the bottom of the spinning wheel and worked with the tow with her left hand, and with the spindle with her right hand.
Tow thread was obtained by twisting the fibers using a wooden spindle. The spindle was twisted by hand like a top, then the finished thread was wound onto the middle part of the spindle. On the lower part of the spindle, a thickening was often made in the form of a ball or disk to give the spindle stability during rotation and greater twisting force.
The spinner twisted the beginning of the thread with her left hand, trying to take it out of the tow as evenly as possible; the quality of the thread depended on this. Then the threads were wound onto a tyurik, which is the name of a wooden spool. In this form, the weaving thread was convenient to use in the future.

Having obtained a sufficient number of threads by spinning, they were used to make fabric on a handloom. In the old days, every peasant family had a “weaving mill”. In the past, craftswomen mastered many techniques and types of weaving. Work on the weaving mill proceeded as follows: the weaver sat on a bench in front of the first “beam”, pressed the footrest, the “thread” connected to this footboard went down, dragging along one of the two rows of “warp threads”. A “shuttle with a weft thread” was thrown into the resulting “pharynx.” Then the woman pressed the second step, the warp threads alternated: the upper threads went down, the lower ones went up. A shuttle was passed into the resulting “pharynx”, and then the threads were nailed with a “reed”.

The fabric produced was boiled in Russian stoves in large cast iron with lye from the ash. They rinsed it in an ice hole, then spread it over the snow crust, leaving the canvases overnight so that not only the snow and sun, but also the frost would bleach the canvas. Women wove not only fabric from fine threads, suitable for linen, tablecloths and towels, but also coarser, which was used for bags and footcloths. Peasant women often dyed fabrics in different colors. Since ancient times, the favorite color in Rus' was white - a symbol of purity, red - a symbol of the sun and black - a symbol of earth. Natural materials were used for painting: leaves, bark, stones.

well and the next stage in the creation of clothing and household items was sewing and embroidery. These are already topics for future programs. Currently, the craft of spinning and weaving is practically disappearing into oblivion; only through the power of enthusiasts does the revival of old traditions begin. The strength of the roots of our ancestors cannot disappear without a trace in our people, which is why many are so drawn to ancient crafts. We would like our people to also be drawn to nature and reverence for the Sun and the natural forces of the Earth, because this is the only way to achieve the former harmony of existence.

Spinning and weaving

Spinning wheels were especially revered by the peasant. Spinning and weaving were one of the main occupations of Russian women. It was necessary to weave fabrics to dress your large family, to decorate the house with towels and tablecloths. It is no coincidence that the spinning wheel was a traditional gift from the peasants; they were lovingly kept and passed on by inheritance. According to the old custom, a guy, having wooed a girl, gave her a spinning wheel of his own making. The more elegant the spinning wheel, the more skillfully carved and painted, the more honor the groom has. On long winter evenings, girls gathered for gatherings, brought spinning wheels, worked and showed off their groom's gifts.

Dwellings

When laying the corners of a new house: they put a piece of wool, a handful of grain, wax, and sometimes a horse’s head as amulets. Inside the house, the main talisman was the Russian stove. Oaths were taken at the stove, and children's baby teeth were hidden in the stoves. The second sacred place in the hut was matitsa. The “wheel of the family” was carved on it in the form of a circle with six rays and on its sides there were ideograms of a plowed field. The red corner was hung with ritual towels with the figures of Mokosh, Lada and Lelya embroidered on them. Since the introduction of Christianity in Rus', a shrine with an icon and a lamp under it was built in the red corner.

On the eve of moving into a newly built hut, a red rooster was brought into it so that the hut would not burn down. The next day, a white cat, a posten (cockroach) and a mizgir (spider) were allowed into the hut before the owners entered it. They were supposed to bring prosperity and prosperity with them. It was forbidden to offend a white cat, and it was forbidden to crush spiders and cockroaches. This could bring bad luck. Black cats promised bad luck to a person going about business if they crossed his path, because they “know the devil.”

The townspeople had other dwellings. Half-dugouts were almost never encountered. These were often two-story houses consisting of several rooms. The living quarters of princes, boyars, warriors and clergy were significantly different. Large areas of land were also allocated for estates; outbuildings and log cabins for servants and artisans were built. Boyar and princely mansions were palaces. There were also stone princely palaces. Houses were decorated with carpets and expensive Greek fabrics. In the palaces and rich boyar mansions there was a life of its own - warriors and servants were located here.

Pagan fashion of Ancient Rus'

And different sections of society dressed differently. Peasants and artisans - men and women - wore shirts (for women they were longer) made of homespun linen. Men wore pants in addition to shirts, and women wore skirts. Both men and women wore scrolls as outerwear. They also wore different cloaks. In winter they wore ordinary fur coats. The clothing of the nobility was similar in shape to that of the peasants, but the quality, of course, was different: clothes were made from expensive fabrics, cloaks were often made from expensive oriental fabrics, brocade, embroidered with gold. The cloaks were fastened at one shoulder with gold clasps. Winter coats were made from expensive furs. The shoes of townspeople, peasants and nobility were also different. Peasant bast shoes survived into the 20th century, townspeople more often wore boots or pistons (shoes), princes wore boots often decorated with inlay.

Today we will meet with the “fashionistas” of Ancient Rus', who lived in golden-domed Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir and Suzdal. The festive festivities for Easter and Maslenitsa were a kind of fashion parade. What about annual fairs? They prepared for such “shows” in advance; they spent several weeks bending over the craftswoman’s work in the light of a torch. Archaeological finds and ancient chronicles help us reconstruct what fabrics clothes were made from, how and with what they were decorated. Let's see what the loud-voiced "peddlers" laid out on their counters in the villages and villages of Kyiv merchants. But here's what - flax and wool of various qualities, coarse canvas, homespun and Armenian, fine cloth and thin linen, bleached or colored - dyed, expensive imported fabrics: damask and taffeta (silk patterned fabrics), red velvet (with an embossed pattern) , looped and gold (embroidered with gold), aksamite brocade (embroidered with gold patterns) - they all bore the general name of pavoloki. But they had their own furs, expensive and cheap. The most expensive are ermine and beaver, marten and sable, the cheapest are lynx and leopard, fox and squirrel, the cheapest are sheepskin and bear, wolf and hare. The merchants also had precious stones in store: diamonds and emeralds, yachts and sapphires, rainbow glasses, multi-colored beads, small river and large Gurmyzh (Iranian) pearls, necklaces, beads and piercings. What did the wardrobe of the ancient Russians consist of? First of all, clothing was strictly divided into casual and festive. It differed in both the quality of the material and the color scheme. It is interesting that men's and women's clothing had a certain commonality in their design and compositional features.

The main types of clothing were a shirt and ports, and among the nobility it was underwear, among the people it was the main one. The richer the person, the more layered his suit was. We can say that a shirt is the oldest of clothes, for its name goes back to the ancient word “rub”, i.e. "the rudest" The length of the shirt, the material from which it was made, and the nature of the ornaments were determined by social class and age. Long shirts were worn by noble and elderly people, shorter ones by other classes, since, unlike the measured and leisurely life of princes and boyars, the everyday life of the working people was filled with hard work and clothing should not hinder movements. A shirt was worn for graduation and always with a belt (if a person did not put on a belt, they said that he had loosened his belt). The fabrics were woven narrow (30-40 cm), and therefore shirts were made with one-piece sleeves or a rectangular armhole. For ease of movement, gussets were inserted; for strength, they were placed on a lining made of another fabric - the background (this is what it means to “know the background of the matter”). Festive shirts for the nobility were made from expensive thin linens or silks in bright colors and decorated with embroidery. Despite the conventionality of the pattern of the ornament, many of its elements were of a symbolic nature; they seemed to protect a person from other evil eyes and misfortunes. The decorations were “hanging” - removable: collars - necklaces and sleeves - cuffs, richly embroidered with gold, precious stones and pearls.

Portas, narrowed at the ankle, were made of canvas; noble men wore another one on top - silk or cloth. They were fastened at the waist with a cord - a cup (hence the expression “keep something in a stash”). The ports were tucked into boots made of colored leather, often embroidered with patterns or wrapped with onuchi (pieces of linen 2.5 meters long), and bast shoes were put on them, with strings pulled through the ears - frills, and the onuchi were wrapped with them. In our minds, all bast shoes are the same. But that's not true. The bast shoes were thick and thin. Dark and light, simple and woven with patterns, there were also elegant ones - made of tinted multi-colored bast.

Outerwear was a retinue, caftan and fur coat. Vita was put on over the head. It was made of cloth, with narrow long sleeves, the knees were necessarily covered, and girded with a wide belt. Caftans were of various types and purposes: everyday, for riding, festive - sewn from expensive fabrics, intricately decorated. A mandatory part of a man's costume was a headdress, in summer - a leather strap, and in winter - a wide variety of hats - leather, felt, fur. Portas, narrowed at the ankle, were made of canvas; noble men wore another one on top - silk or cloth. They were fastened at the waist with a cord - a cup (hence the expression “keep something in a stash”). The ports were tucked into boots made of colored leather, often embroidered with patterns or wrapped with onuchi (pieces of linen 2.5 meters long), and bast shoes were put on them, with strings pulled through the ears - frills, and the onuchi were wrapped with them. In our minds, all bast shoes are the same. But that's not true. The bast shoes were thick and thin. Dark and light, simple and woven with patterns, there were also elegant ones - made of tinted multi-colored bast.

In Rus', women always covered their heads with a warrior; tearing off a headdress was considered a terrible insult (to lose your hair means to disgrace yourself). Girls braided their hair or wore it loose, secured with a ribbon, braid or hoop made of leather, birch bark, covered with multi-colored fabric. And the daughters of Yaroslav the Wise, depicted on the fresco of the St. Sophia Cathedral, who were probably fashionistas, wore cone-shaped hats, and under them a ubrus - a white or colored scarf folded into a triangle. It was pinned under the chin, and its ends, embroidered with gold patterns with pearls and precious stones, fell onto the chest.

The formation of the composition, cut, and ornamentation features of the Russian folk costume was influenced by the geographical environment and climatic conditions, the economic structure and the level of development of the productive forces.

Russian costume is extremely diverse. This is understandable. Many ethnic groups differed from each other not only in their dialect, the way they built and decorated their homes, customs, rituals, songs, but also in clothing. Moreover, residents of not only each province, district, volost or village, but also each village had their own differences in clothing. Therefore, it is simply impossible to talk about Russian costume “in general.”

The most ancient and most diverse “Southern Great Russian” costume, which existed in the Ryazan, Voronezh, Tambov, Tula and Oryol provinces. In each of these provinces it differed in color, variations in ornament and decoration of individual parts. The wide variety of folk clothing in the southern regions is explained by the frequent movement of the population: either under the onslaught of nomads, or after the formation of the Moscow state. As a result, ancient customs and skills of numerous Slavic and nomadic tribes were closely intertwined - that is why the clothes of women from the southern Russian regions are so rich in bright, rich colors, intricate embroidery and decorations.

Since time immemorial in Rus', the centuries-old way of life of the village has determined what to wear and when. A festive suit was made for Sundays and patronal feasts, an everyday suit for work at home, in the field and in the forest; Ritual ones were divided into pre-wedding, wedding and funeral - “miserable”. In addition, clothing differed according to age and marital status: girlish and for a young woman (before the birth of her first child), for a mature woman and an old woman. They also dressed smartly on labor holidays: the day of the first furrow, the day of pasture of livestock, the day of the beginning of haymaking and stubble.

One of the most characteristic features of Russian folk clothing is multi-layering, which gave the female figure a sculptural monumentality. The clothes seemed to be molded from several simple volumes, and each of its types was partially covered by another, standing out with different-scale ornaments; from under the wide sleeves of the shushpan (bib), ending with a patterned woven border with a large pattern, sleeves with a smaller pattern were visible, then an apron with a frieze pattern, and from under the apron and shushpan - a shirt with a richly ornamented lower edge, and all together these individual parts made up a single harmonious ensemble. The plasticity of the volumes is further emphasized by the texture and color of the material - bleached canvas and homespun cloth.

In general, canvas plays a very important role not only in the clothing itself, but also in numerous rituals that accompany the life of a peasant from birth to death. So, at the christening, the baby’s mother gave the midwife three arshins of canvas “to cover the porridge,” and the young wife, at the beginning of the harvest, threw the canvases on the first sheaf of her mother-in-law, and she, in turn, gave her chintz for a fur coat. Embroidered canvas towels are necessary accessories for any ritual holiday, and, in addition, they were a precious, welcome gift. They began to weave canvas from November every day throughout the winter from early morning until late at night. Girls aged 11-12 years also worked together with adults.

Since ancient times, the basis of any Russian costume has been a long, tunic-like shirt with wide sleeves. It was cut from rectangular pieces of canvas, and colored "polkas" - rectangular or wedge-shaped inserts - were sewn onto the shoulders. When preparing the fabric, the craftswoman took into account the shape of the future item and the place for embroidery, she skillfully distributed transverse strips of "weaving" on the canvas: first wide and frequent, then narrower and rarer and, finally, they turned into a white field of fabric at the top.

In the old days, bright, elegant embroideries played the role of a talisman, so their locations were clearly defined: “stitching” on the collar and wrists, the shoulder and bottom of the shirt, and the field of the sleeves. Intensively embroidered, these places seemed to protect a person from evil forces. For embroidery they used flax, hemp, wool, dyed with decoctions of herbs and roots, in addition, multi-colored silks, gold and silver threads. Ancient seams: painting, casting, satin stitch, half cross determined the nature of the embroidery pattern and its connection with the structure of the fabric. The ornaments reflected phenomena closely related to the life of peasants: the change of seasons, bountiful harvests, flowering trees and plants, figures of a woman - the progenitor of all living things, horses, birds, heavenly bodies - the sun and stars. From generation to generation, under the hands of skilled craftswomen, ancient simple patterns were enriched with new technical techniques, and at the same time they conveyed a range of patterns used only in a given area. To decorate shirts, pieces of various fabrics were also used, especially red, which were also filled with embroidery, like the main fabric. This ancient method of decorating clothes was used in boyar costume, when pieces of precious overseas fabrics, left over from cutting large clothes, or already worn out, were sewn as decoration onto a newly sewn dress. In addition to woven and embroidered patterns and fabric inlays, multi-colored “grass” ribbons, bindweed, lace, sequins, gold and silver braids and braids were used. All this decorative wealth was transformed into a precious work of art by the hands of talented embroiderers.

Even “miserable” shirts were decorated, and here, too, the canons in the use of patterns and colors were observed. So, when mourning for parents, they wore white shirts with white embroidery, and for children - with black ones, made with a cross and a set. Only widow women had shirts without any “decoration”, which they wore when performing the “plowing” ritual. Widow women were collected from all over the village, and barefoot, bare-haired, dressed only in linen shirts, they had to plow the land around the village with a plow to prevent it from cholera and livestock deaths.

The shirt was used on all occasions in the life of a Russian woman and, having stood the test of time, passing through centuries, freely entered our wardrobe in the form of a variety of one-piece dresses and blouses.

But in the ancient costume, the shirt was rarely worn separately; most often in the northern and central regions of Russia a sundress was worn on top, and in the southern regions - a poneva. Poneva is a type of skirt consisting of three panels of woolen or half-woolen fabric, tied at the waist with a woven narrow belt - gashnik: it was worn only by married women. Poneva was round, that is, sewn, or swinging, consisting of separate canvases. Mostly ponevs were dark blue, dark red, and less often black. Its dark field was divided by squares, and their color and size depended on the traditions of the province, village or hamlet in which the ponevs were woven. Ponevas, like shirts, were divided into festive and everyday. Everyday ones were trimmed along the bottom with a narrow homespun strip of braid or strips of red tape. In the festive ponevs, much attention was paid to the “cludge” - the so-called patch along the hem, in which all the richness of decoration was used to the maximum: multi-color embroidery, braid, tinsel lace made of gilded and silver threads, grass ribbons, bindweed, sequins, glass beads and beads. In round ponies, the seams served not only to connect individual parts, but also as an additional finish. The belt - the "edge" - was woven on a loom from multi-colored woolen threads, its ends fluffed up and threads of beads were woven among the threads.

Over the shirt and blanket they put on an apron - a “curtain”, tied at the back with ribbons - “mutozki”. The intensity of color and decorativeness of the ornament gradually intensified from top to bottom, it was created through inserts of bright chintz, stripes of patterned weaving and embroidery, ribbons, lace, fringe and sequin.

The ensemble was completed with a shushpan made of wool, half-woolen or canvas fabric with very delicate decoration: mainly connecting seams and edging with embroidery in a red pattern. The costume was complemented by a complex headdress. The entire territory of Russia is characterized by two sharply different categories of hats. Girls' dresses, leaving the hair and crown of the head open, had the shape of a wreath-hoop or headband. Women's headdresses were varied, but they all completely hid their hair, which, according to popular belief, had witchcraft powers and could bring misfortune.

The basis of all varieties of South Russian headdresses of the “Magpie” type was a hard forehead piece sewn from quilted canvas, compacted with hemp or birch bark, and worn directly on the hair. Depending on its shape, flat or imitating horns extending back, it was called a kichka or a horned kichka. It was this detail that gave its entire structure one form or another, which was completed with the help of the upper part - a kind of cover made of calico, calico or velvet - Soroka; the back of the head was covered with a rectangular strip of fabric - the back of the head. A complex and multi-layered headdress was created around these three elements. Sometimes it included up to twelve parts, and its weight reached up to five kilograms.

Numerous buttons, metal openwork and with a pattern, glass and simple, were used not only for fastening, but were also included in the decorative row of decorations.

Colored wide belts were also a necessary part of the costume. The girls hung elegant handbags “for gifts” sewn from various scraps to their belts.

The legs were wrapped in onuchas made of white “Svei” cloth or canvas and put on bast shoes woven from elm or linden bast, or white wool stockings “knitted in one knitting needle” and leather shoes - cats, which were figuratively punched with copper wire in front and back for decoration. The last place in the costume was occupied by various decorations: necklaces made of pearls, garnets and gaitans were worn on the neck in large quantities - stringed beads, amber beads, which, according to legend, brought health and happiness, necklaces made of chains were very popular. and smaller, graceful ones. Delicate, easily movable “guns” - balls woven from goose down, which were worn along with earrings, were also a kind of decoration.

Despite the picturesque multicolor, the integrity of the entire ensemble was achieved mainly by finding color combinations and relationships.

Color, ornament, and symbolism acquired a special meaning in ritual and wedding costumes. This includes a passion for red and white colors, and ornaments: flowers, birds, the tree of life, diamonds. White and red colors are a symbol of purity and joy. Russians saw many meanings in the color red. On the spring holidays, girls wore red sundresses. Red color was included in the costumes of brides of the southern Russian lands. Since the times of Ancient Rus', “red” has been beautiful, cheerful, and therefore festive and elegant. In Russian folklore we come across expressions: spring is red, the maiden is beautiful, beauty is red (about the beauty of a girl). The red color was associated with the color of dawn, fire, all this was associated with life, growth, the sun-world.

A sense of proportion is one of the most valuable properties of folk art.

Walking through the museum halls past the paintings of famous Russian artists Argunov, Venetsianov, Kramskoy, Malyavin, Serebryakova, you involuntarily stop your gaze at those paintings or portraits in which the painter’s brush captured characters in folk costumes. A bright, colorful range of shirts, sundresses, ponyas, fur coats, hats... They reflect the people's idea of ​​the beauty and harmony of the world around them.

In the paintings depicting women and girls in the clearings, in the forest, in the stubble, the inextricable connection between folk clothing and native nature is clearly visible.

Pagan, pre-Christian Rus' (until 988) lived in ideas about man as a particle of the common world Body, attributing to him the same qualities and capabilities as to all other parts of the Cosmos. According to pagan ideas, the body is a person, as well as everything that surrounds him: rivers, mountains, forests, fields... And people believed that people could easily turn into a stone, a haystack or some other that other "body". Therefore, the most important thing in life was considered to be the protection of one’s bodily boundaries from the invasion of alien and hostile corporeality, and the ancient Russians took special care to protect all and every “hole” in their body, as well as in their home, settlement, and district. Before the wedding, the bride must have her teeth blackened so that the white color does not attract evil spirits. In order not to “shine their hair,” women had to wear a complex headdress and, in any case, cover their heads with a scarf when leaving the house.

In protecting himself, his clothes were supposed to help a person. The protection of bodily boundaries from the invasion of “evil spirits” latently created a kind of pagan fashion, dictated primarily by fear. If a person consciously sought to violate the boundaries of the pure and unclean world, he turned his clothes and headdress inside out or dressed up as an old man (dead man), put on a mask (muggy), as if thereby crossing an invisible line.

Peasant woman's wedding clothes. Vologda province. Con. XIX century

Women's holiday clothing. Tambov province. II half. XIX century

What did the ancient Russian pagans wear? Like all other Slavic peoples, during the pagan period, Russians considered the shirt (shirt) their second skin, endowing it with an important protective function. They cut it from one piece of cloth, made it as long as possible, and expanded it at the hem and under the arms with the help of special inserts. The front slit in the center or side was fastened with two or three buttons made of bronze, bone, wood - whoever preferred what based on price. The long sleeves of a woman's chemise, which sometimes reached the soles of her feet, were gathered into an accordion with the help of bronze and glass bracelets. There were sometimes 10-12 bracelets on each sleeve. During pagan holidays, such as Rusalia, designed to protect against diseases caused by mermaids - drowned girls, hoop bracelets were removed and women danced with their sleeves down to the floor. Such mermaid dances are depicted, for example, in the miniatures of the Radzivilov Chronicle of the 15th century. Archaeologists still find women's glass bracelets and their fragments in large quantities.

Embroidery on the collar, sleeves and hem of a shirt was perceived more as a pagan amulet than as decoration. They did not embroider just anything, but meaningful signs and symbols designed to protect open areas of the body: neck, hands, legs. The main embroidery designs were solar signs, stylized images of animals and birds, some protective geometric designs, etc. Embroidery, along with other amulets, such as bear and wolf fangs worn around the neck, hanging bells, various figures of animals and birds, beads, lunas and much more, was supposed to scare away evil spirits.

Over the shirt, women wore two large pieces of unstitched checkered woolen or half-woolen fabric, like an open skirt, which in the 16th century was called “poneva”. For men, the shirt was complemented by pants - “ports” or “gachas”. Various types of outer dress were worn over the shirt. The most common of them was a cloak (“votola”, “myatl”, “korzno”), which differed only in the quality of the material and fasteners on it: the nobility preferred metal brooch clasps, often made in the form of lunar amulets, the poor people fastened their cloaks on the shoulder with simple laces-ribbons. Particular importance was attached to the belt that covered the shirt at the waist. The circle is an ideal protective form, devoid of breaks, which means it provides the most reliable protection.

When building cities and settlements, the allocated space was first outlined with a circular furrow. This was done not only by the ancient Slavs, but also by the ancient Greeks, Romans and other peoples. And the belt, like a bodily talisman, shackled the owner’s body from birth. Removing the belt was equated with exposure and readiness to come into contact with evil spirits. The ancient Russian aristocracy passed on gold belts from generation to generation as family heirlooms. The belt was used in various rituals. At weddings they tied the bride and groom together.

Other accessories of the pagan costume were also significant, in particular, temple rings, which were attached to the headdress on special ribbons. Different tribes of the Eastern Slavs, long before the formation of the Old Russian state, differed in the types of temporal rings. For example, the Vyatichi tribes that inhabited the territory of present-day Moscow had very complex seven-lobed temporal rings, and the Novgorod Slovenes had diamond-shaped ones. Women's temple rings were perhaps the most widespread and valuable female jewelry (all discovered treasures buried before the Mongol-Tatar invasion in the 13th century necessarily contained temple rings).

In addition to temple rings, women decorated themselves with beads, earrings, bracelets, fur, etc. The beads that covered the neck, like the embroidery on the collar of a shirt, were primarily intended to protect, so they were, as a rule, made up of items that were very useful in this regard : metal bells that scare away evil spirits with their ringing, figurines of poultry (ducks) and animals for fertility, a tiny spoon made of wood or metal - a symbol of prosperity in the house, various stones and glass, fangs of killed bears and wolves and other amulets. After the adoption of Christianity, such beads began to include a Christian cross, placing it in the center of the composition. Earrings made of different metals were put into the ears of girls from an early age, and this was a sign of their difference from the boys who ran around the yard in the same shirts. Later, under Mongol-Tatar influence, men began to wear a gold earring in their left ear, and sometimes hung it on their high turtleneck hat.

Pagan footwear consisted of leather boots, pistons (shoes) and bast shoes. Archaeological finds often include leather boots made for one-year-old children. Usually leather shoes were painted black, but it is also known that the nobility wore bright (yellow, red, green) boots decorated with carved patterns.

The fashionistas of pre-Christian Rus', thus, followed not so much fashion as such, but rather the observance of their own and others’ bodily boundaries. But at the same time, the innate sense of beauty could not help but be reflected in their clothes, jewelry, and shoes. As excavations in Veliky Novgorod show, the townspeople did not have practically a single undecorated item: all household items and costumes were decorated in one way or another - either with embroidery, or carving, or embossing, or with jewelry and fur. The beauty of the object world and clothes of the ancient Russian man amazes the imagination, it’s only a pity that too little of this motley, elegant world is accessible to our eyes today...

It arose back in the Stone Age. Judging by the results of archaeological research, weaving products were originally woven objects made from grass, strips of animal skin and their veins. The first device for the production of primitive types of fabric appeared about five thousand years BC. Then its appearance became a real evolutionary leap in the production of clothing and household items. What is weaving today? How has the technological process and quality of manufactured products changed?

From the history of the development of craft

It is believed that the first weaving machine appeared in Asia. It was there that archaeologists discovered its primitive model. The craftsmen of that time used the wool of various animals, plant fibers and natural silk as the main raw materials. By the way, the secret of making silk fabric remained in China for a long time. Despite the fact that with the advent of the Silk Road the material spread widely throughout the world, for many centuries this country maintained a monopoly in silk production - the secret of its production was strictly guarded.

Nevertheless, weaving looms began to appear everywhere in Asia, Europe and Japan. By that time, people had already learned to use the juice of various plants as dyes for fabric. At the same time, weaving masters quickly mastered the technique of decorating fabric with various patterns woven from multi-colored threads. This is how it turned into art and became an integral part of the life of different peoples.

It is known for certain that the ancient Incas had a good knowledge of weaving. From time immemorial, the works of Eastern and Persian craftswomen have been famous throughout the world, and weaving in Ancient Rus' was the most important element of handicraft production.

For a long time, hand weaving technology involved a certain interweaving of threads. The frame of a primitive weaving device was threaded in a special way - along the loom. These threads are called warp. The warp threads had to be pulled tight enough, but they had to remain parallel to each other. Other threads transverse to the main one, which we still call weft, must be intertwined with the warp threads to form a woven fabric.

To ensure that the warp threads remained evenly stretched, they were wound on a special roller, the so-called beam. As the finished fabric appeared, it was wound onto another roller located on the opposite side of the beam.

First loom

The primitive models of the first machines used to create cloth consisted of a simple vertical frame. Threads were pulled onto it, and the weaver, holding a larger shuttle in his hands, passed it through the warp. This process was quite lengthy and complex: the threads had to be sorted by hand, which often caused them to break, and the fabric itself turned out to be too thick. Nevertheless, hand weaving occupied one of the primary places in the life of ancient people, and similar devices were used in almost every home. Thanks to the primitive mechanisms of weaving machines, new items of clothing, carpets and bedding began to appear.

Innovative technologies

By the middle of the 11th century, a horizontal type loom appeared. Similar devices with minor modifications have survived to this day. They were used until the 17th century and can even now be found in some homes.

The name “horizontal loom” comes from the way the warp threads are tensioned. The modified mechanisms of the weaving device, in contrast to the first models of machines, had already acquired improvements in the form of additional parts by this time. Rollers, foot pedals, vertical combs and a shuttle were attached to the main working element (wooden frame). By this time, people had learned to produce higher quality and more uniform threads from plant fibers and animal wool. Therefore, more interesting types of weaving began to appear, using new techniques, colors and methods of weaving threads.

New attempts to mechanize looms in the textile industry were successfully implemented only at the end of the 18th century, when the English inventor E. Cartwright invented a mechanical loom with more modern design features. Nowadays, machine designs have changed dramatically and are now used on a production scale.

Modern production

Modern automatic fabric making machines are more sophisticated, run on electricity and can produce a wide variety of materials. However, hand weaving is a craft that is still alive. Although today it is found more as an applied art, homemade products are often exhibited at exhibitions and sell well in souvenir shops.

The folk traditions of ancient craftswomen are passed on from generation to generation, complemented by new rounds of more modern techniques and the use of improved materials.

Weaving in Rus'

Spinning and weaving in Rus' were a compulsory occupation for women. Regardless of social status, every girl was taught to weave, spin, knit and embroider from early childhood. The nickname “not a weaver” was considered the most offensive for a teenage girl, because each one had to prepare her own dowry - sheets, tablecloths, bedspreads, towels and other elements of everyday life and home decor.

During great holidays and special occasions, when there were many people in the house, each room was decorated with the best woven works: beautiful curtains were hung on the windows, the table was covered with the best tablecloth, and the walls were decorated with various towels. This spoke not only about the skills of the housewife, but also testified to the wealth of the family. Therefore, every woman, and especially an unmarried girl, trying to show herself as a skilled craftswoman, tried to weave the best work for such occasions. That is why family craftsmanship was carefully preserved, improved and passed on from generation to generation. The secrets of Russian weaving accumulated over centuries have survived to this day.

Of course, in Rus' there have always been many talented craftsmen and skilled craftswomen. Therefore, despite the complexity and labor intensity of the primitive process, weaving techniques were constantly improved.

Archaeological research by modern scientists indicates that many examples of clothing and household items dating back to the 10th-11th centuries have high artistic merit and are distinguished by a harmonious coloring with balanced proportions and a successful scale of ornamentation. This testifies to the high level of weaving skills in Rus' at that time.

Home weaving today

Today, patterned weaving has become more exotic than everyday household work: homespun carpets, curtains, tablecloths, napkins, sheets and clothing fabrics have long replaced industrial analogues. Today, not every housewife will take up woven needlework. However, the craft is still alive, and in some regions it is actively reviving and developing. Centers of traditional culture and many individual artists hold specialized master classes and exhibitions of the best works. Self-woven products are successfully sold in specialized stores.

Of course, new devices and modern materials greatly facilitate the work of weavers, while the products retain their bright, multi-colored range and complexity of patterns. Thanks to modern materials, craftswomen can achieve stunning effects of weaving threads. However, weaving is a complex and labor-intensive process that requires special attention, endurance and patience. But the finished products, created by skilled craftswomen, are pleasing to the eye.

Types of weaving

Until the beginning of the 20th century, weaving was considered one of the priority home occupations in the cultures of most peoples of Russia and neighboring countries. All main types of reproduction were carried out using a manual wooden machine. The main raw materials for the production of fabric at home were usually flax or hemp fibers, sheep or goat wool. Sometimes the fabric was made from cotton or silk threads, goods imported from Asian countries. By this time, Russian craftswomen had completely mastered various techniques of weaving threads, and many of them had mastered complex techniques for creating patterns.

What is patterned weaving in the understanding of ancient weavers? This is an image of simple geometric lines and shapes. However, to reproduce such an ornament on fabric required special skill. It is not for nothing that patterned weaving has always been considered the most complex and labor-intensive way to decorate fabric. Despite the fact that a loom was present in almost every home, not every housewife could create a product with a complex pattern.

Linen and mortgage technology

The simplest type of weaving was considered to be plain. It has been used throughout the history of weaving, creating fabric for underwear and towels.

The mortgage weaving technique is also one of the most ancient. This weaving method involves laying threads not across the entire width of the fabric, but only in some of its sections. “Mortgages” were usually an ornament of simple geometric shapes. They could be made by combining different threads. The patterns were created using multi-colored linen, wool or cotton threads. As a result of a complex, labor-intensive process, a smooth canvas was obtained, identical on both sides.

It is interesting that mortgage weaving was used on both horizontal and vertical hand looms. A woven wool carpet made using this technique was sure to be present in every home.

Wrap weaving

This technique was known in Rus' even before the Tatar-Mongol invasion. It is distinguished from mortgage weaving by the relief texture of the fabric. When performing this technique, a special rod or board was used - a scoop. With its help, some threads were selected from the warp, creating an additional shed. The result was a pattern superimposed on top of the background, either on the front side or on the back. Therefore, the design applied to the surface of broken tablecloths and linens looks like a negative from the inside. Typically the main background of the woven pattern was horizontal and could be red or blue. However, in some regions, products of the same color were often found, where the pattern stood out due to the contrast in the thickness of the threads and the play of chiaroscuro.

Elective technique

The name of this method says that such weaving is very similar to sack weaving. To reproduce it, you also need the same special board or rod. One, unlike the bran technique, with the elective weft technique the weft was never thrown from edge to edge. The pattern was applied in separate sections, making the fabrics multi-colored and embossed. Nevertheless, the front and back sides, just like with the bran technique, look like a negative of each other.

Selected hand weaving

This technique of creating woven fabric has become widespread in Ukrainian and Belarusian art. The appearance of such products is very similar to products made using the selective weaving method, but the fabric manufacturing technology is significantly different from it. No taker is used here, but the number of heddles in the machine into which the warp threads fall increases. In folk art, to this day, two methods of “overkill” are distinguished. To obtain double-sided fabric, craftswomen, as before, use one patterned weft, but to obtain a multi-colored pattern, they have to use two or more wefts. Compared to hand-woven or hand-woven weaving, this technique is less labor-intensive. It is worth noting that the use of enumeration makes it possible to create brighter and more varied color motifs in the design and freedom of its location.

Openwork weaving

At the end of the 19th century, openwork weaving became especially popular. This method of creating an amazingly beautiful ornament was widespread in the regions of the Russian North. An openwork pattern with an interesting weave and leno was made in the form of through gaps and an alternating pattern. It is known for certain that such weaving was mainly used to create curtains and tablecloths.

Heald weaving

When making fabric using a horizontal loom, one of the most common techniques is considered to be the heald or multi-shaft technique. In this case, colored threads can be alternated in a certain order. Using this technique, all kinds of patterns were created with simple geometric lines, and the resulting ornament could be very diverse in color. Typically, this technique was used to decorate tablecloths, towels and women's petticoats. Some craftswomen made woven carpets using elements of this technique. Examples of fabrics made using this technique can be found in images of saints’ clothing and icons of the 14th-15th centuries in the works of Novgorod and Galician icon painters.

Variegated fabric or motley

One of the simplest types of heald technology is considered to be variegated fabric or variegated fabric. It consisted of checkered or striped patterns. Traditional red, blue and white were used as the main colors, with yellow and green shades sometimes added. Multi-colored fabrics were used to make shirts, sundresses, aprons and bedspreads.

Fiber and pawn pattern in weaving

A pattern formed by fine weft laid over a smooth cloth. This is a rather complex, more labor-intensive type of heald technology. Typically, the pattern of multi-colored fiber had a clear geometric shape. Nevertheless, the woven images could be very diverse. This conclusion can be drawn based on the surviving names: “lattices”, “circles”, “cucumbers”, “gingerbreads” or “money”.

The woven pattern, made in the form of so-called checkers, is called a “pawn pattern.” Convex patterns stood out with an unusual effect due to the play of chiaroscuro.

Combining weaving techniques

An interesting fact is that skilled craftswomen could combine several weaving techniques at once. Our contemporaries are unlikely to believe that it is possible to do this on primitive devices, having seen with their own eyes such a professionally made home-woven fabric. However, this is possible and many modern needlewomen repeat the skills of ancient weavers today.