Hand embroidered Silk Fabric from Artisans in India

The expert artisans who do the stunning embroidery are the rural women of eastern India. The art originated as a household craft mainly practiced by rural housewives who create these exquisite pieces.

The fabric is a soft and lightweight hand-woven silk fabric. In order to enhance the colorful embroidery often a contrast base fabric is used and the entire cloth is covered with running stitches and usually has beautiful folk motifs, floral motifs, geometrical shapes, animal and bird figures. Themes from day-to-day activities are also a common subject for embroidery.

The needle is passed in and out of the fabric in a manner that creates stitches of varying lengths. Though the process may sound simple it is, in fact, quite time-consuming and complex, requiring the utmost attention to detail. The heavy use of the running stitch, and the artisans’ ability to manipulate the stitches in a complex manner, give this embroidery its characteristic wrinkly and wavy effect.