One of the greatest embroideries to have ‘walked’ this planet has to be Chikankari, which I have now learnt includes thirty-six different stitches, though most of us are aware of just a few! Can you imagine our joy when we crossed paths with Tanzeb, a
Indian traditional apparel and costumes, specially the ones made for festive occasions tend to be heavily embellished. Some like it extra ‘heavy’ and some like it ‘light’, but very few people can steer clear of the golden lure! As a little girl, my sister was
Phulkari from the wonderful land of Punjab shouts out joy, happiness, laughter, colour, togetherness and endless love….People of Punjab have been weaving the most magical craft stories for centuries . A colourful Phulkari scarf worn across a Parisian white top never fails to brighten up my
Flashback…Delhi: 1990s; summer; early morning rush on the roads; women rushing to work and colleges; some in ‘chartered buses’ while others in auto-rickshaws; some driving to work…and amongst all this was noticeable an ocean of whites…most of those whites belonged to the much loved ‘Lucknawi Chikankari‘ family.
Last week was quite busy, in a social sort-of-way with pre-wedding functions and then the wedding over the weekend. Phew! While the bride and the bridegroom were the cynosure of all eyes, the bride’s mother stood out, an epitome of grace and elegance. Dressed in
Last week, I visited the grand IHGF, which was tucked away, far away in Greater Noida, but every worth of that long journey was so worth it. I was spellbound by the magnificent products, that displayed excellent craftsmanship combined with unique designs. Gosh! how much talent is
A quick weekend getaway to Jaipur tops one of my ‘favourite-things-to-do’ list, and I managed to sneak that in last weekend! While waiting to check-in (the hotel was busy), I began flipping through the pages of an old magazine. Little did I know that my
I realized this morning that I had not written about a specific craft of India in a long time! How terrible of me and I apologize profusely for this. I make up for this mistake in this very post, with one of the best kind
Embroidery of a region often tells a tale about the history, culture and day-to-day lives of a group of people. The same is the story for Toda Embroidery, with essentially just the use of two colours – red and black. The Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu are the
Most of us living in Delhi and parts of Northern India would recall the ‘kashmiri-shawl wallah‘ setting up a stall in the neighbourhood or visiting our homes selling exquisite hand embroidered shawls, ‘phirans’, ‘namdaas’ and sometimes cushion covers too. This trend still continues in some
