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About myself
Hardanger Embroidery has accompanied me since such a long time, it has
become my life.
I was born in North of Germany. It was there where I learned
Hardanger Embroidery at the Adult Education Centre. At this time
my children were still very small, and we needed children's
clothing, and a lot of it.
So I have done a lot of knitting. But Hardanger never left me, and when
I finally got the time I have spent a lot of it learning and enhancing this
fascinating embroidery style.
I moved to Bavaria in 1982 and realised quickly that Hardanger was pretty much
an unknown embroidery style there. So I started giving courses. From a small
idea this developed into 20 years of teaching, first as course teacher for the
Adult Education Centre and then as teacher for the Bavarian Union of Adult
Education Centres. Within my work I was also permitted to teach manual work
teachers. I have expanded my courses into Austria, and when I decided to
finish my teaching time I had about 100 students per year.
I have participated in fairs and have done embroidery demonstrations. This
gave me the go and the ideas to start my own designs. My student have been the
trying them out with great fun. They loved them.
Back then it was all a manual labour of love, because I had to draw all my
charts by hand. It was much easier to use my hand embroidered tablecloths as
template for my courses.
At this time I was employed full time, and was also voluntary manager of the
Adult Education Centre in Simbach am Inn near Munich. So there was little time
left to do my own designs.
In 2004 I moved to Switzerland and was looking for something new to keep me
occupied. I'd heard of the Design Software EasyCross from the UK and started
to work with it. You can admire the results on my Website.
I have now chosen a dual path for my work:
- I work as a free textile artist and had the opportunity to show my pictures in several exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland.
- I design Hardanger Charts for sale and home textiles for all seasons in my special style. I also design for my shop, embroidery magazines and textile companies.
I still design the traditional white on white or ecru on ecru, but colour is
my special style for my designs. I also try to design with modern geometrical
shapes and motifs as much as this is possible with Hardanger.
Imagine you'll have to draw with cubes. This of course limits the creativity
in Hardanger, because Hardanger technique consists of satin stitches,
speciality stitches, cut work and needleweaving. This requires accurate
work for the designer and the stitcher.
I wish you lots of fun with my Hardanger Fireworks.
Vera Stoll
Hausen am Albis, 2007/09/09
