The Vienna family handicraft shop "Petit Point" (Petit Puin) is already about 100 years old. But he became famous in the 60s of the last century, when his mistress, Annegrit Kovacec, offered her customers unique embroidered reticulums, purses and accessories. Each of them is a small work of art. Embroidered in miniature semi-cross technique (often under magnifier), ancient landscapes, pastoral sketches, flowers and ornaments in rococo style - this is a collection of ancient drawings transferred to the finest silk net, which the third generation of the Kovacheč family has carefully preserved. But the secret of the success of the company Petit Point Kovacec lies not only and not so much in skilfully selected drawings, as in the stunning, straightforward, jewelry technique of Petit Point embroidery, which involves 11 to 22 stitches (points) in one linear centimeter or 121 to 484 stitches (points) in one square centimeter. Completes every little masterpiece of gilded handmade fittings.
Hand embroidery over the centuries was considered one of the noble arts, some specimens of which (for example, embroidery by an ordinary large cross or semicircle) date back to the early Middle Ages. Only a little later - in the subtle era of rococo - embroidery also changed: instead of large semi-crosses, tiny "points" appeared - or Petit Point. In the era of the Empress Maria Theresa, this art was developed at the court, but soon the love for Petit Point spread to the people.
The fact that motifs for Petit Point embroidery are often based on the magnificent paintings of old masters of the Dutch or French school of Rococo painting or the times of Romanticism is already an essential prerequisite for success. The picture is transferred with the finest brush and paints to the paper that is lined up in a cage so that each shaded box represents one Petit Point stitch of a certain color. The mere production of such a sample is a painstaking work requiring a good sense of color and form.
A suitable shade of thread is selected from about 400 colors that are at the disposal of embroiderers. At the same time, special attention is paid to the fact that when matching the next
stitches, a harmony of color and relief is achieved, which is especially true for authentic Petit Point embroideries.
As a basis, only the finest silk net (and not the cotton canvas or stamina) is used, on which no pattern or trace (guide) thread is applied. When making each stitch, the embroiderer must count the boxes on the hand-painted paper original to accurately transfer the pattern to the mesh. The smallest stitches are performed in the semicircular technique and often with the help of a magnifying glass. The Petit Point embroidery has 11 to 22 stitches per linear centimeter, so that 121 to 484 stitches (or 780 to 3122 stitches per square inch) are contained in one square centimeter.
Exclusive fasteners for handbags. The most important element of our handbags is clasps. They are made by skilled Viennese craftsmen manually and are selected depending on the cost of embroidery. Particular attention is paid to the locks themselves. They are cut by the finest jig saw and are engraved. The clasp itself is made of silver and covered with gilding, then this surface is manually engraved. These high-quality works also radically distinguish our products from low-quality copies.
I hope that with this description we were able to at least to some extent acquaint you with the magnificent ancient handmade work that miraculously survived to our time and ended up in our bustling world, but it is its uniqueness and uniqueness that again and again causes special admiration.
Source : http://www.petitpoint.eu/