Chikankari~ Traditional Embroidery from Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh (India), is the centre of chikankari , a skill of more than 200 years old. It literally means “embroidery”. It was originally done with a white thread on a white cloth, hence the name “white embroidery”. Now, it is done on a variety of fabrics and in a spectrum of colours.
Chikankari with pearls
The many Begums of the Lucknow nawabs, practiced fine chikankari in a bid to vie for the Nawab’s attention. They developed the art and took it to its favoured position amongst the royalty. The British (during their rule on India) influenced chikankari to evolve beyond the ethnice designs onto formal clothing and other items which helped in developing the export markets.The bollywood has been significant in popularizing the contemporary chikankari with its opulent costumes.
Process
The design to be embroidered is block printed on the fabric using washable dyes. Depending on the final product to be this is either done on unstitched cloth or pre-stitched cloth so the design for the necklines, sleeves etc can be marked out.
Stitches
Chikankari is unique in the sense that it uses about 40 stitches and each stitch is used for a specific purpose. For example, the zanjeera stitch (or the chain stitch) is used to embroider the outlines for the floral motifs and it will not be used for filling stitches.
Also, the embroiders are specialized in a certain stitch (either outline stitches or filling stitches) and they work together to complete the final product. The outline embroiderers will finish their part and pass it on to the filling embroiderers to complete.
Some common stitches
Tepchi ~a long running or darning stitch. It is used mainly as a basis for further embroidery and sometimes to form a simple shape.
Bakhiya~ double back or shadow stitch. It is done from the wrong side of the fabric and the design is rendered in the herringbone style. The shadow of the thread is seen through the cloth on the right side.
Rahet ~ a stem stitch worked on the wrong side of the fabric which forms a line of back stitch on the right side of the fabric. It is commonly used in the double form of dohra bakhiya as an outlining stitch.
Khatau ~ similar to bakhia but finer. It is a form of appliqué.
Zanjeera ~ a small chain stitch worked with one thread on the right side of the fabric. It is used to finally outline the leaf or petal shapes after one or more outlines have already been worked.
Phanda & Murri ~ French knots. They are forms of stitches used to embroider the centre of the flower. Murri is rice-shaped and phanda is millet-shaped.
Hool ~ a fine detached eyelet stitch. For this stitch, a hole is punched in the fabric and the yarns are teased apart. It is then held by small straight stitches worked all round. It often forms the center of a flower.
Jaali ~ the thread is never drawn through the fabric, making certain that the back portion of the garment looks as neat as the front. The warp and weft threads are carefully drawn apart and minute buttonhole stitches are inserted into the cloth.
Turpai & Darzdari ~ Turpai has the effect of a thin thread. Darzdari has several varieties, the commonly used ones are Kohidarz, Kamal darz, and Singbhada darz.
Some other chikankari stitches are: Pechani, Bijli, Ghaspatti, Makra, Kauri, Hathkadi, Sazi, Kapkapi, Madrazi, Kangan, Dhania- patti, Rozan, Meharki, Chanapatti, Badla, Jora, Keel kangan and Bulbul.
Motifs
The motifs have been picked up from the nature and mostly include flowers, foliages, creepers, fruits like mango (integrated into design as paisleys), birds like peacock and parrot etc.
Image Courtesy: http://www.soulquest-lifestyle.com
