Romanian village women traditionally devoted the dark, winter months to weaving. They used the wool which they had cleaned and spun during the summer. If they had daughters they would teach them to weave as well, and those of marriageable age wove their own dowries to be shown off in the family’s ‘clean room’ or guest room.
Toarcerea şi ţesătură (Spinning and weaving)
Above and left: Woman spinning wool by the roadside, and one of her
home-made rugs, near Putna, Bucovina, 1999
Below: Farmer spinning on the Moldavian plateau while looking after her cows, 1999
Left and above left: details of Moldavian weaving in the Suceava Open Air Ethnography Museum and from an embroidered towel in Voronet village
Above right: Rug from the Botiza
Cooperative showing traditional Maramures motifs
Right: Oarţa de Sus junior school pupil
learning to weave as part of a crafts initiative established by the IUGA Foundation, 2001
The woman in Călineşti is making a superb floor carpet in sumptuous colours, using geometrical designs which are typical of the Maramureş.
Sturdy wooden looms or război such as hers are still found in many homes but the skill to use them is dying out, partly because it’s cheaper to buy Chinese imports. Weaving is very time-consuming. But the quality of these rugs, which are thick, soft and rich in oil, is superb.
Since the 1960s, many women in this area have favoured wool dyed with chemical colours, such as psychedelic oranges, purples and pinks but others still use natural dyes including onion skins, madder and walnuts. Walnuts contain a natural moth repellent.
Georgeta Iuga knows that these skills are precious not only in maintaining regional and personal identity, but in enabling villagers to make money for themselves. She is keen to encourage experienced weavers to value and sell their own work and to pass their skills on to others. She has arranged exhibitions of their work at home and abroad and she has organised weaving classes in schools. Georgeta’s daughter, Anamaria, is also a keen ethnographer and has made a special study of traditional Maramureş textiles.
In the early 1990s, Victoria Berbecăru took a similar initiative by establishing a cottage weaving industry in Botiza, another Maramureş village. Mrs Berbecăru researched traditional Maramureş designs and encouraged her fellow village women to use them. She turned her own house into a gallery for members of the cooperative to show their work and she began catering for paying guests. Mrs Berbecăru started weaving and dyeing courses for visitors. Spurred on by her success, many of Botiza’s housewives have also converted their homes into guesthouses and the village is now well-known on the tourist circuit.
