Kordun

"Gradja" is a type of needlework characteristic for Dinaric regions. It is a needlework in a cloth used for decorating garments made of fabric, wooly footwear, bags and sashes. It is done in silk, in a technique of chain stitch, on smaller pieces of cloth that are later fitted on larger pieces and sewn onto the borderes of zubun, dresses or on the upper border of the socks. Ornaments are geometric: circles, spirals, hooks... It is designed as a group of various shapes of embroidered cloth, symetrically arranged with the motives and colours of national or religious unwritten rules. Embroidered pieces of cloth are mutually joined with white, orange or yellow bands and long, narrow strips of cloth. The needlework formed in this way is braided with a green, knitted woolen band which is dark blue or violet in some areas. Apart from this, this needlework as a whole is also braided with narrow strips of cloth, decorated with intricately embroidered ornamentation. For this type of needlework it can also be said that it is "mobile" jewellry, since it can be undone and sewn again onto a new woven or knitted item.

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