Ganutell and allied crafts

In recent years there has been a revival and increased interest in popular, decorative crafts all over Europe, a trend which quickly reached our islands.

Apart from painting, sculpture, various techniques of embroidery, tapestry, cross stitch, lace, stained glass, poker, hansa, mosaic, dried pressed flowers, beadwork, decoupage, parchment, quilling and other crafts, ganutell has developed into a sort of fashionable craze.

This beautiful craft, associated with other allied crafts, has been with us for hundreds of years and has now developed into a prolific hobby for many.

But although quite a number of enthusiastic individuals have kept up the traditional style and standards, many others are following different, not so traditional trends.

Without the need for muscle or special machinery these "silent" decorative crafts have been sustained in homes and monasteries, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries when everything in the home of the well-to-do, palaces and churches was intricately decorated.

It was mainly the womenfolk of the household and the nuns in monasteries who kept alive many of these delicate crafts, but men at home or workshop, and priests and monks in convents are known to have been busily engaged in the same work.

These crafts in the home produced domestic decorative objects and cloister craft or monastic crafts catered for church furnishings, vestments, relics and devotional objects.

But although devotional, decorative craft works were made in convents, many lay persons worked in the home to satisfy the demand, a trend kept up especially till the 1950s.

Although ganutell (or ganutel), especially at present, is assumed to be a craft on its own, it is actually only one aspect of cloister craft or monastic craft, where it is rarely used alone.

The word ganutell (not with an "r" as in granutell!) is a corruption of the Italian cannotiglia or cannutiglia and Spanish cannotilla referring to spiral or expandable silver or goldwire forming a microscopic tube.

It is now obtained under the French term bouillon which, apart from having other meanings, refers to the wavy or undulating form of the wire.

When local users pronounce it as the English word "bullion" it is not the French pronunciation, but at the same time it is not far wrong, because in English, apart from other meanings, "bullion" refers also to a heavy, twisted cord fringe, especially that which has the cords covered with gold or silver wire.

Various styles and sizes of this spiral or wavy wire are available, meant to be slightly expanded, and a thin wire inserted in the tubular space to enable the worker to produce all sorts of decorative frameworks, mainly for flower motifs.

Although work involving this expandable wire is rightfully called ganutell in traditional work it is rarely used alone, as it incorporates also beadwork and other wire-work. But in modern work sometimes it is not used at all.

There are many who make leaves and petals consisting only of units made from straight wire around which coloured thread is spun on a free hand spindle or other contraption, and no expandable wire is used.

Such work is suitable for objects which are to be handled, worn or carried around, like wedding and First Holy Communion sprays, headgear or tiaras. But in traditional ganutell the spiral wire is dominant, forming the framework which supports the thread for the colourful flowers.

Ganutell is usually associated with beadwork of various types. In traditional standing mounts (groups of flowers which should not be termed flower arrangements) as those on the altars of the older churches, ganutell or spiral wires are dominant in association with other wire forms, with some chenille, various beads and imitation gemstones.

When no spiral wire (bouillon) is used the work is not technically ganutell, but still another aspect of cloisterwork.

The difficulty may arise as what to call this work. If bouillon is used it can be called ganutell, otherwise it may be purely wirework or beadwork depending on what the dominant material is.

What we call ganutell is really a whole mixture of bouillon, beads, wire, thread, silver, gold or otherwise, as in traditional style.

It all goes to show that it is an extension of cloister craft (or monastery craft) where all materials were, and are still used together as required.

In fact there is no English word to translate what we globally call ganutell, even though, especially in Victorian times quite a lot of work was done in Britain involving all these materials and mounted under a dome, because the whole thing forms part of what is known as a decorative mount.

Enquiries and investigations at the Victoria and Albert Museum have failed to produce a specific English term.

Delicate standing work which cannot be easily cleaned is mounted under glass (under a dome). The proper term used in Victorian times to refer to a flower mount under glass or dome is a "shade" of flowers.

But besides the standing mounts there are also those in glazed wall frames.

These include ganutell (bouillon work), beadwork, wirework, em-broidery, sequins and other craft materials all together under one frame, but in many cases include also beautiful accessory work of quilling (or paper curling or rolling) which cannot be incorporated in standing mounts, as it needs the support of a background.

Such frames used to be mounted since long ago, especially in mon-asteries in the 18th and 19th centuries to decorate numerous holy relics, small icons and other devotional images, and precious sentimental objects.

Traditional quilling (paper rolling or paper curling) has been used in conjunction with all other forms of craft work in these frames, as it lends itself excellently to flat ornamentation.

The craft consists mainly of rolling narrow lengths of steady paper in various ways to form closed or open spirals of different shapes and sizes.

It is called quilling because to start off curling a strip of paper often involved inserting it into the split end of a writing pen or quill.

Modern quilling is very different from the traditional style, and in general produces colourful, mainly ephemeral work, but the old framed masterpieces are a joy forever.

Traditional quilling was not colourful, using ochrish strips, edged in gold, excellently suited for cloister craft.

I believe those who teach ganutell should not only encourage the modern style, but must also insist on the traditional aspects of the craft. Many beginners will tell you that they are very familiar with ganutell, but they only show you the modern rendition; others call it traditional when it isn't.

Many follow courses in ganutell, and quite a number produce beautiful traditional work, but there are also as many who are not artistically inclined or do not have enough imagination, and their work is therefore not up to standard.

There may come a day when some sort of official standardisation of work will be introduced to protect the traditional craft.

Very recently, flat framed cloisterwork or monastic craft has been revived especially in Germany, Austria, Poland and some other European countries.

It has already caught the attention of many in Malta who love decorative handicrafts, especially those who have already tried traditional ganutell, and we have already seen fine examples of modern cloisterwork in several exhibitions.