„Konavle has for centuries been renowned for the production of silk yarn, where it was used for the decoration of male and notably female national costumes. The production occurred in the rooms of the women every spring. Every woman of Konavle had to rear enough silkworms to produce her own yarn for her individual embroidery. Until marriage, she would produce enough embroidery for various occasions and circumstances, for a long time it would be her only accessory and identity card.
Every embroidery has a unique language that describes its tailor, her cunning, wealth or hardship, and when she makes it a part of her costume it becomes part of her personality. The Konavle embroidery is worn around the chest and the sleeves, where jewelry is worn today, and on the part of our body where we point with our finger when a person says „I”. The Konavle embroidery is an important part of the national costume of a small region and it has developed its own artistic language transforming into something more than simple decoration.“
Source: https://www.antoniaruskovic.com/en/silk-embroidery-of-konavle
The embroidery exhibited in our cabinet is an original piece made by the academic painter Antonia Rusković Radonić, who collects historic pieces of Konavle national costumes and studies the production techniques of historic Konavle. She lives and works in Konavle.