Artigianati.com

by Hardeep Dugal

Phulkari is the skillful handling of a single stitch, which when positioned in a sequence forms striking designs. Attractively, all designs are made within a geometric grid, yet come across as curvilinear.

With the roots of phulkari lying in the rural Punjab, motifs within these grids are inspired from village life and nature. They could represent birds, animals, vegetables, rivers, sun, moon, fields and other everyday imagery. Based on these, the patterns get their classification; like dhaniya (coriander), motia (jasmine), leheria bagh (garden of waves), surajmukhi (sunflower), mor (peacock), kukad (cock) etc. Composition of ornaments such as hansali, tika, kada, singhar-patti and guluband can also be seen.

The embroidery derives its richness from the adroit use of long and short ‘darn’ or ‘straight’ stitch, which when placed in different directions – horizontal, vertical or diagonal – give the threadwork many hues and thus its opulence. The smaller the stitch, finer is the quality of embroidery. The other stitches used in tandem to extenuate the design are: stem, herringbone, satin, back, blanket, split and cross-stitch.

Another unique aspect is that it is worked entirely on the wrong side of the cloth with the pattern taking shape on the front. The design is made such that it does not have an upward or lower end. The skill of the untrained artists doesn’t stop here. It draws further appreciation owing to the fact that it is neither drawn nor traced.