Bagh And Phulkari – Exquisite Flowery Arrangements On Fabrics
by parineeti lal content writerIndia has many locations
of heirloom excellence where unique and exquisite craftsmanship has flourished
over the ages and continue to enthrall as traditional art that has seamlessly
fused with trending tastes to appear on fashion fabrics. A fine example of such
would be the Phulkari and Bagh; an ethnic offering from Punjab.
Bagh meaning garden or
place filled with flowers is dense embroidery work on Punjabi women’s fabrics
worn on special occasions. Bagh is an extension of Phulkari or “flower work”
embroidery that rural women in Punjab engage in, in their spare time.
Fabrics like odhni, the
head cloth or shawl that forms part of a routine Punjabi woman’s attire apart
from the salwar and kameez, are generally the canvas for Phulkari. Bagh is
embroidery on dresses worn on special occasions like weddings, religious rites
and traditional festivals.
Bagh is heavy embroidery
spread densely on the whole fabric body so that the base fabric is barely
visible while Phulkari has evenly distributed motifs and exquisite panel borders
embroidered on the fabric. In Bagh the border would be a part of the main
theme, while in Phulkari it would be different.
The embroidery is
generally done on a heavy plain cotton fabric called Khaddar. It is done on the
wrong side of it using costly floss silk called Pat. The patterns are never
drawn beforehand and the threads have to be counted to get the design
accurately. The densely packed floral design and other themes of everyday life
hand embroidered by the womenfolk who engage in it, sometimes takes upto a year
to complete.
The colours of the
Khaddar are generally white, red, black and blue. Darning is the most commonly
used technique to make the pattern. The width of a stitch would determine the
quality of the phulkari or bagh work - narrower the stitch finer the work. For
more complicated or unusual designs or for the borders, the herringbone stitch,
the running stitch, Holbein stitch or buttonhole stitch are used.
The colour of the Pat is
generally gold and silvery white symbolizing the harvest and wild flowers. Some
Bagh types are Vari-da-bagh, Meenakari Bagh, Bawan Bagh, Kaudi Bagh,
Pancharanga Bagh.
Nowadays embroidery is mostly
done on the right side of the cloth only owing to the cost of silk, which has
become a necessity, and has to be saved and used sparingly. The economic status
of the family is roughly gauged from the amount of Pat that is used.
But weddings and
traditional festivals are the two occasions when such considerations are pushed
aside and the silk Pat finds its way to its customary place to make the fabrics
on display stun onlookers with the resplendent finery.
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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.