Embroideries: India's
Distinct Ethnic Art Heritage & Luxury
For Ages India was known as the "LAND OF GOLDEN BIRD" for its natural and manufactured riches. Today is the modern revival
of that golden era thru its distinct and luxe art forms.
EMBROIDERY:
HAND EMBROIDERY: The art or handicraft of decorating fabrics, leathers or other materials with embellishments like sequins , pearls, beads, quills, metal strips, Swarovski's knotted by threads and yarns through the needle is known as hand embroidery. This imperial heritage turns out masterpieces of workmanship in fabrics by the amalgamation of figures, patterns, drapes and knots. Embroidery is also an expression of self, rendered with patience and dedicated hard work and rightly described as a painting by the needle which adds grace and elegance to articles of everyday use. The traditional Indian techniques of hand embroidery are nakshi, saadi, chikhan, aari, zardozi, wasli, gota, and kohra. Through the centuries embroiderers have experimented with the materials available to them, adopting and refining their techniques, drawing inspiration from their surroundings or from the art and ornament of other times and cultures and some new embroidery forms emerged like kantha, kasuti, phulkari, appliqué, banjara, kashmiri, abla ,kamal kadai, negi patch work and kutch. But the striking fact remains that in the development of embroidery there are no major changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later more refined stage. On the other hand we often find in the early works better technical accomplishment and high standard of intricate craftsmanship which is rarely attained nowadays.
Zardozi remains
the most popular form of traditional Indian embroidery and is immensely
appreciated worldwide. Zar means gold and dozi is embroidery in Persian, so it
means sewing with a gold or silver string. Intricate patterns traced in
gold and silver, studded with seed pearls and precious stones enhance the
shimmering beauty of silk, velvet and brocade. Emperor Akbar greatly patronized
the art and it reached its zenith under his rule but later Aurangzeb
discouraged the art form. The art of zardozi was revived along with many
traditional methods in the middle of this century. Zari work was mainly done in
madras and zardozi in Hyderabad until a few decades ago; today Lucknow is home
to the finest work of gold and silver embroidery. The non availability of
gold on a large scale also became a hurdle in making of zari threads, this
problem was finally overcome by combing copper wire with a golden sheen and
gold coloured silk thread. Zardozi embroidery is hand stitched
predominantly by skilled muslim men, fashioned with a needle that resembles a
small crochet hook used to run up and down through the cloth while the fabric
is pulled tightly on a large wooden frame. With one hand the craftsman holds a
retaining thread below the fabric, in the other he holds a hook or a needle
with which he picks up the appliqué materials. Then he passes the needle or the
hook through the fabric and after painstaking labour produces an exquisite gold
veined work of art. This form of embroidery allows the craftsman to use both
hands as he works, the hand above the fabric works the needle while the hand
below ties each stitch making zardozi products not only beautiful but durable
too.
MACHINE
EMBROIDERY: The embroidery
process where a sewing or embroidery machine is used to create design patterns
on textiles through threads, yarns and even sequences.
The two types of machine embroidery are Free-motion
sewing machine embroidery and Computerized machine embroidery.
In Free Motion Embroidery a basic zigzag sewing machine is skillfully used by the
operator to create a design by moving the tightly hooped fabric under the
needle. Since the standard machine has only one needle the threads have to be
manually changed subsequently for multi color designs along with trimming and
cleaning up loose and connecting threads after the design completion. Hence
each design is unique and cannot be reproduced exactly.
Whereas in a Computerized Embroidery the computer digitally controls and engineers the machine through user inputs to read and sew pre programmed design patterns .These multi needle machines are generally threaded prior and do not require re-threading while running the design. Correct color change sequence input is also provided before the embroidery, some can also automatically trim and change the colors. Multi needle machines may consist of multiple sewing heads where each can sew the same design on a separate garment concurrently. A machine might have 20 or more heads, each consisting of 15 of more needles. The head is usually capable of producing many special fabric effects including chain stitch & satin stitch, sequins, appliqué and cutwork.
DIFFERENCE
IN HAND AND MACHINE EMBROIDERY: Both hand and machine
embroidery can at times look quite similar and complex to differentiate, but
you actually can lookout for the minute differences.
Material: Hand embroidery mainly uses silk threads on silk fabrics
and since it’s delicate it becomes difficult to use them on machines as they
get broken often. Machine embroideries generally use artificial fibers
& artificial silk threads that are stronger in nature.
Size of threads: Silk embroideries use split silk threads which are actually split from one full silk strand, whereas machine embroidery uses full threads. When making one silk embroidery design the embroiderer will use different sizes of silk threads as the thinner silk threads are more smooth and can have more colors mixed to make them look more realistic and exquisite. In machine embroidery all the threads are in the same size and not split.
Stitches: Handmade silk embroidery can never be identical replication even if design is the same due to the inconsistency of stitches, whereas in machine embroidery stitches have a regular pattern and are almost same.
Colors: The hand embroideries look more colorful and exquisite since they use bright silk colors while the machine embroideries look a bit dull when compared together. Also hand embroideries look neater and machine embroidery rough.
Hence
Embroideries will always standout for their Uniqueness and Exquisite Layouts,
be it any Era.
Manjul Thapliyal
Principal Consultant
Visions Ahead
Web: www.visionsahead.com
This article can also be viewed at http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/embroideries-indias-distinct-ethnic-art-heritage-luxury-6414864.html
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