Berlin woolwork embroidery originated in Germany and had its height of popularity in the early to mid 1800's, it was traditionally worked in tent stitch with wool, on canvas.

The earliest patterns were delicately hand-painted on a printed grid, each little square representing one stitch. Later on the quality dropped significantly with patterns being mass produced, and printed in household magazines of the time.

The popularity for Berlin woolwork ended around the time of the Arts and crafts movement.

Naturally the patterns can be stitched in cross stitch on aida, or linen even weave, and if you feel adventurous why not add a little variety and texture to your stitching by adding seed beads, details in silk floss, or work some highlights in petit point just like ladies did in the Victorian era.

At Roland-designs we do quality reproductions of those antique patterns, the charts are re-charted by hand one square at a time to ensure the most authentic result possible.

Some of the patterns are in very bad conditions (ripped, faded, missing corners, etc...), so we do sometime have to fix a little here-and-there (take artistic liberties), while staying as true as possible to the original design.