Horváth Attila – Solymos Ede szerk.: Cumania 2. Ethnographia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1974)
J. Vorák: Kolompár Kálmánné kiskunhalasi cigányasszony kézimunkái
the archetypes of the ones worn by the gipsies of that town. Unlike most of our gipsy women of Cserepes, Mrs. Kolompár can cut and sew such a bodice herself. The fact that in addition to applying the accessory adornments, she embroiders her bodices herself to her own taste, is unique. The simplest manifestation of this adorning activity, unparalleled with our Kiskunhalas gipsies, can be seen on the w T ell-worn, faded, ready-to-wear blouse which she supplemented with printed-pattern decorations on the sleeves, sewed with bright red and green blanket stitches round the wrists and across the bust. This very modest, primitive adornment in itself surpasses the decoration by patching or that of sewed on different material. None of the gipsy women of Cserepes in Kiskunhalas besides her did this so thus far. (Fig. 5.) In the manner of the traditional ones she cut and sewed the bodice of white linen herself, for which she used a bright yellow string as sewing thread. On the sleeves and shoulders she applied a piece of Kalocsa embroidery taken off a dress, on the middle of the bust she sewed a piece of factoryprinted „Dirndl" material, many-coloured against a black ground and of most lively effect. Similarly the middle of the bust she adorned with green wavy lines and primitively embroidered rows of red, green and yellow leaflike petals on both sides. The colourful effect she greatly enhanced by applying ribbons above the wrists on the sleeves and crosswise under the adornment of the bust. The cut of the bodice follows a Hungarian original type. Still, the bodice as a whole cannot be accepted as anything but a specifically gipsy garment. (Fig. 6—7.) The bodice first purchased from Mrs. Kolompár presents a summary of her individual and still specifically gipsy skill of adorning articles of clothing. The cut is indicative of a shoulder-pieced Hungarian bodice. As Mrs. Kolompár informed us, it was sewn by a Hungarian semstress at Mrs. Kolompár's request. As she could not name the seamstress, I am quite sure that the bodice (possibly made at an earlier time) was acquired by her from its one-time wearer, or even from the heir of the latter. She could have bought it in the second-hand market. Also with this bodice the main thing consists in the surplus Mrs. Kolompár added to it. The machine-embroidered eyelet lace of the short sleeves, further the frill round the neck of close, machine-made lace could have been on the bodice originally, just as also the hems and the shoulder pieces had been on it. But it was already Mrs. Kolompár who hemmed the shoulder patches with faded brocade. The quiet écru of the brocade ribbon, with its hardly noticeable metallic glitter presents a pleasant effect. The surfaces of the shoulder patches trimmed in this way the gipsy woman embroidered herself with roving fancy, with her „own ideas" as she put it. With all its primitive design and embroidery, the ensemble of flowers applied here is of fascinatingly fresh effect. Bizarrely amassed patches of petals tastefully alternate with tiny spotted flowers in the middle of which flare spots of contrasting colours. Among the flowers she also drew one single little bird resembling the ones on her cloths. No definite arrangement or symmetry whatsoever can come into question here. Filling space is a result of a freely playful ornamenting activity where, when embroidering the first ornament, the adorner had no idea what the next flower or leaf will be like. The end in view was to fill in the space as colourfully as possible. A preconceived planning cannot even be presumed. Still, the alternation of the colours, the propitious choice of the proportions in the arrangement of the forms emanate gaiety, a harmonic feeling of joy. All this is but increased by the embroidery consciously arranged in the middle of the bust, striving to rhythm, more temperate in form and still more vivid in colours. (Fig. 8—10.) Bearing this degree of perfection in mind, one can consider Mrs. Kolompár's needlework — an activity of a woman who cannot read or write, who did not attend school and never learned to draw — a unique phenomenon, where although the material is foreign and the cutting has been done by others, where the originals have been adopted from foreign sources: — still the bodice produced in this way is indisputably gipsy in character. The question may come up: how far the embroidery on these bodices can be considered gipsy folk-art? Examining the ways of development of Hungarian popular decorative art, Mária Kresz finds that „ ... it is common tradition and common taste expressed in it that can decide, after all, whether an artistic work passes for a popular product." 4 4 Mária KRESZ : The ways of the development of our decorative folk art. Ethn. LXII. 1952. pp.10— 43. 179
