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The moving finger embroiders dreams in stitches and sheen
The fine art of embroidery continues to charm artists, academics and willy-nilly find its ways into books, museums and contemporary art
One of my early memories of my childhood is that of an elaborately pale green Tea Cosey with a bright green parrot amid flora and fauna with the caption “Tea Sweeeeping Tea”. My elder sister had spent long hours completing this work of art which was the pride of the tea tray. Needlework defined accomplishment of young women and soon an addition came of yet another embroiderer, the pretty wife of my elder brother who went a step forward by following elaborate patterns, got from women and home, and embroidered a bunch of bright poppies in a round frame. Next, she spent nearly a year with the needle and thread diving in and out of the fabric on long afternoons, creating a beautiful mill. This “Mill on the Floss”, reminiscent of George Eliot’s memorable novel, which she made with the finesse of stitches in her 20s, hung in her drawing room till she passed away in her early 80s.
Folk art and British influence
Embroidery is a word that owes it’s origin to the French word borderie and stands for embellishment or decorating an object with motifs. It is said to have originated in the middle-east and spread all over the world evolving as per the culture of the place. India has a highly developed tradition of the art with each region exploring this form ornamentation with needle and thread in its unique cultural expression. It is believed that embroidery came to India with the advent of muslims as the original tradition here was of unstitched garments. However, the art entrenched itself firmly in the Indian soil. An interesting folk song from Chamba in Himachal Pradesh plants the art in plants the art in mythical times in a song which goes thus: “Ram te Lakshman Chopar khedan, Sita Rani kadhadi kasida ho!” (Ram and Lakshman play dice and Sita embroiders cloth).
In colonial India, embellishment of garments was greatly influenced by the this fine art. Jasvinder Kaur, a textile expert based in the city, who has brought out a delightful coffee-table book on the theme, says, “From mid 18th century onwards, western influences played in all aspects of the life of elite Indians, including their clothes and European embroidery was adopted by Indian women and artisans.” She goes onto say that with westernisation, European furniture entered Indian homes and Indian women started embroidering cloth to embellish the artifacts with covers and thus embroidery on bedsheets, table cloths, pillow covers, napkins and more became a way of life in Indian homes.
Harking back to school days in convent schools, one recalls learning stitches like lazy daizy, French knots, queen stitch, back stitch, chain stitch and so on. These we embroidered in straight rows on handerkerchifs as a pre-exercise to learning the fine art of embroidery. Not just this, the needlework historian adds, “Even words like “goodnight” and “sweet dreams” came to be embroidered on pillows.
Keeping the art alive
This week, the city was witness to a lovely exhibition at the Alliance France which brought alive the journey of the needle and its long companion the thread with a difference. Textile design expert Vishu Arora experimented with embroidery in a show called “Yet Again” which celebrated the creative journey of the needle. Arora says her fascination with her association with painter RP Verma’s book on the vanishing wall paintings of his hometown Bhiwani. She says, “Inspired by the imagery of the wall paintings, I decided to develop the abstract forms and embroider them on handmade paper which I made by recycling waste cotton fibre, newspaper, yarn and fabric.” The results are eloquent indeed and Arora is bound to take this experiment forward to more perfection. It is indeed a tribute to artisans and needle craft. Noting the journey of the long journey of the needle and thread, one is reminded of a quote that says, “Embroidery is away to stitch your love into every thread”.
