A Stitch in Time
Whether you like its vibrant design or colourful expanse, phulkari is making its presence felt on decor pieces. Kiran Singh decodes the mystery of the embroidered beauty.
Art and craft are blurring boundaries. A good example is phulkari. The bright and beautiful embroidered pieces from Punjab have gone beyond dupattas and suits. From cushions and tablecloths to canopies, wall hangings and bedcovers, phulkari decor items are a good way to jazz up your living spaces.
TRACING ITS PAST
The word phulkari, can be broken in to two words, phul meaning flower and kari meaning work. Many historians have traced the origin of phulkari to Central Asia from where this craft was brought by the Gujar nomads to Punjab. Traditionally, phulkari was done on thick cotton fabric, which was home spun called khaddar. There were four basic colours used for the base, white, red, blue and black. White was used by older women or
widows, red by the young girls and blue and black for daily use. The khaddar fabric was then painstakingly embroidered upon with silk floss called pat in bright and vibrant colours. The distinctive feature of phulkari is the embroidery stitch, which a simple darning stitch is done entirely from the back of the cloth. In western Punjab (now Pakistan), khaddar is stitched after completing the embroidery and one can see a slight distortion in design, where as in east Punjab (part of India) the embroidery was done after the khaddar pieces were stitched together.
TYPES OF PHULKARI
Essentially, there are three kinds of phulkari embroidery—phulkari, bagh and chope. Phulkari embroidery does not cover the entire cloth and the patterns are embroidered at intervals on the cloth. One such style is called sainchi phulkari, which has figures embroidered. This is the only style where the outline of the figures are done in black and filled in with darning stitch. This style was popular in Faridkot and Bhatinda districts and usually scenes from the village life were depicted. In other phulkari styles there are no patterns drawn and the embroidery is done by counting the threads from the back. The literal translation of bagh is garden, in this style of embroidery the entire surface was embroidered using the darning stitch where numerous designs were made by use of horizontal, vertical and diagonal stitches. There are a number of styles of bagh; vari da bagh
and ghungat bagh, which were named depending upon their usage. Some more patterns like velanian da bagh,
bawan da bagh, nazzar buti, bhool bhulaiyan, dabbi and parantha bagh, are a showcase of designs that are inspired by what the embroiderer saw around him. Chope was embroidered on red with yellow; two fabric panels were joined that had similar patterns embroidered on both ends. The only motifs embroidered on both selvages were a series of triangles, while the design was worked with small squares in a step-ladder fashion.
A STYLE FOR EVERY ONE
The hallmark of a good phulkari is making innumerable patterns by using long and short darn stitches. The designs were not traced. Techniques and patterns were not documented but transmitted from word of mouth and each regional group was identified with the style of embroidery or design. An interesting phulkari style is darshan dwar, which was made as an offering. It had panelled architectural design. The pillars and the top of the gate were filled with latticed geometrical patterns. Sometimes human beings were also shown standing at the gate. Phulkaris from Hazara were mostly done on white cotton with purple and green silk and had different types of stitches. Sheeshadar phulkari had inserts of circular pieces of mirrors embroidered with buttonhole stitch to keep them in place.
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