Textiles in Northern Romania: Part Two

Hung in doorways, spread on tables, adorning walls and beds. Dropped over icon paintings and layered across church floors.  Folded, rolled, wrapped and layered.

Worn for dancing, for ceremonies, for everyday. Bringing warmth to a bed, colour to the floors, hope to a home. 

Wool is being spun, cotton being woven.  Cloth waiting to be washed, folded, worn or hung.

Old wooden blankets are stitched and patched, table cloths are covered in plastic for preservation.

Some are old, passed between generations. Others have only just left the loom. All are valued, presented with care, as is the tradition of their craft.

These humble homes are organised and neat. Less than inches between patterns and objects. Rooms of ones most treasured items on display, cushions piled high, layers shown-off. The rooms are boasting, brimming with pride.

Their decor is a ritual. The abundance is unforced and instinctive. Nothing is empty and everything belongs.

These rooms and its edges are soft.  So is the light peering in through sheer covered windows. Patterns on woven wall hangings blend with the printed wall paper, colour is high and low with textures changing. 

At the market they hang from trees and sit in rolls, waiting to be cut. Old and new, treasured and ordinary. Traded with weathered hands for all purposes. Trimmings, cloth, curtains, rugs and cuffs.

In every space and place, hand-woven heirlooms sit beside bright plastic, synthetic lace and kitsch runners. The clash is compelling — the old and the new have harmony. Modern life is another layer, without disrupting tradition.

Fibres are practical and patterns are more than decoration.

The sun, the comb, the horns, the shepherd’s crook, the eye, the rose. Motifs carried through generations, once understood as a language. Symbols of protection, strength, health, hope, life and light woven into cloth.

These threads have memory, these textiles are functional embedded with belief. Passed through generations, through hands and through homes.

They are all beautiful in their own way, and will tell you so much of this place.