Illustration: Albanian silk embroidery.
Albania was part of the Turkish Empire for over five hundred years. Therefore, it would be understandable if certain Turkish cultural and creative aspects were entwined with the craft skills and system of Albania.
Embroidery has always played a large part in Albanian life and was used extensively in costume. Traditionally both men and women were involved in the embroiderers craft, however, women were usually classed as amateurs and limited to that of a domestic base, while men organised themselves on a much more defined and professional base.
Albanian embroidery came in a number of guises and styles, but there were two main groups usually divided by language, with the Gheg to the north and the Tosk to the south. Work was often produced on linen, cotton and wool backgrounds. There was a strong emphasis on the use of gold and silver metal threads, which is said to have originated in Turkey itself. However, hand dyed yarns were also widely used although cotton for example, had to be imported as did silk, although there was a small amount of indigenous silk production.
Illustration: Satellite map of Albania.
Costume embroidery was produced for both men and women and was often produced in bands in order to attach them to different areas of jackets, bodices, shirts, trousers, skirts and aprons. Bands were also used to embellish various styles of hat.
As in many areas of the Balkans, embroidery design work, if not unique to specific local areas, at least gave a certain distinctive flavour of that particular area to a national style.
Albanian embroidery work and craft skills in general are much under-appreciated outside of the country. Admittedly this is partly due to the fact that Albania had self-imposed an isolationist attitude to the rest of the world for over half a century, but another reason is the general lack of detailed information and data concerning the traditional craft skills base of the country.
Illustration: Albanian embroidery using metal thread.
With the collapse of the communist system, many rural Albanians, particularly in the north of the country, found themselves without employment and so moved to the south and the main cities of the country, leaving their traditional craft skills behind them. The Albanian Traditional Embroidery Association (ATEA) was set up with the help of sympathetic groups in southern Italy, in order to maintain the unique embroidery skills and traditions of those northern Albanian migrants, but also of the embroidery skills of the country as a whole. It was hoped that this would be achieved by encouraging embroiderers, mostly women, into producing embroidery work for the international market, thus hopefully giving them some much-needed financial and economic help. Some of the work produced by embroiderers involved with ATEA can be seen here, while the ATEA site itself can be found in the Further reading links section below.
Further reading links:
Albanian Traditional Embroidery Association (ATEA)
Embroidery: Traditional Designs, Techniques, and Patterns from All over the World
Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide to Traditional Patterns
Albania 3rd (Bradt Travel Guide Albania)
Albania (Cultures of the World)
The Albanians: A Modern History
The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present- 2 Vol. Set
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edward Lear in Albania: Journals of a Landscape Painter in the Balkans
Tribes and Brigands in the Balkans: A History of Northern Albania
Travels in European Turkey, in 1850: Through Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thrace, Albania, and Epirus; with a Visit to Greece and the Ionian ... of Austria on the Lower Danube. Volume 2
George Castriot, Surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albania
Travels in Greece and Turkey: Comprehending a Particular Account of the Morea, Albania, Etc.; a Comparison Between the Ancient and Present State of ... Geograhical Description of the Ancient Epirus
