Sarah Waterworth — Embroidery

The thing I knew of Kalymnos before coming was its sponge diving history, a now lost industry, plus its associated loss of men at sea and their disability due to the ‘bends’. It is not a Greek island that I had seen in pictures of white-cubed houses and swimming beaches. 

 On our first day we visited the museum which is set up as an old Kalymnian House — a raised bed where all the family would sleep, the cabinet containing crockery the men had collected from their travels, wedding night dresses, diving paraphernalia and many sad-faced ancient black-and-white family photos. The museum was small, with a low ceiling, a lack of light; with the excessive number of historical items, it felt very heavy. Looking out the window to sea, imagining you were a wife waiting for her husband to return after nine months at sea (dead or alive?) would have felt like a life sentence. 

 The little blue wooden stools around the low-to-the-ground eating table doubled up as a birthing stool that women would carry into the hills when they were heavily pregnant but were still expected to head out every morning to collect herbs that could be burned in the fire place. The jobs still needed to be done every day when the men were not around, even if you were nearly at term. 

We also visited the Church of Saint Savvas that day — the patron saint of the island. It is a new church with wall-to-wall colourful frescos. The frescos were not what caught my eye, but the embroidered table runner.

An example of ‘hardanger’ embroidery, done on white cloth with drawn threads, seen by Sarah on Kalymnos,

I also later discovered a lot of embroidery in the Folk Museum — on the wedding night dresses, a sampling stitch piece — and a basket with a half-finished piece plus the threads and tools. 

The embroidery found me on Kalymnos because it was my Nana (who is no longer with us) who introduced me to such work like needlework, crochet and hardanger. I have many pieces of her beautiful work in my home. 

 I often think of her and the hardship she suffered when she was a young woman when in the same week both her mother and husband died. That grief, along with the need to continue with the chores to keep the house running and children supported, resonates with this island. 

This exquisite piece of crochet was made by Sarah’s Nana.