I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the rich traditional of Mexican embroidered design. A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Frida Kahlo’s house in Mexico City, something I’d always wanted to do. As well as the expression of beauty and pain through her art, Frida also incorporated the origins of her amazing visual heritage.
The traditional art of Mexico is incredible when it comes to the use of colour, symbols, art history, and pattern. In pre Hispanic times, the people had their own indigenous culture, but the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors brought Christian symbols such as the cross, the Virgin Mary, saints, angels and such like which went on to influence everything.
The symbols represented by knitting and embroidery are fundamentally simple: triangles, rectangles, rhombuses, zigzag lines, stepped borders, helical patterns, crosses, etc.
Nature and the human figure are the main inspiration emblems in most of the Mexican embroidery and knits. So here are some gorgeous Mexican embroidered flowers for Sunday 11th August 2013.
I’ve always had a deep appreciation
