What does Brokarivska Embroidery Mean?
Liudmila Bilous, deputy director in scientific work of the Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art Museum answers this question. In Western Europe the technique of cross embroidery is known from the XVIII-th century. In Ukraine it appeared in the middle of the XIX-th century at first in the landlords’ workshops in the form of compositions with flowers, wreathes, garlands, vases, decorations on table clothes, napkins etc. Such ornaments came to us not from the original sources but from Russian publications that copied Dutch, German, Italian patterns. Pocket books, supplements to magazines, advertisements even soap of “Brokar and K.” brand brought to public those ornaments. From the towns the cross embroidery technique expanded to villages. According to literary and archive sources Brokar embroidery played its own role in Ukrainian art as a phenomenon of folk art. There dominated the combination of red and black colors – symbols of grief and happiness. More widely this technique was common in Kyiv region, less in Western ones.