Phulkari, an art of decorating
shawls, dupattas with embroidered
floral motifs developed in the
15th century in Punjab. Phulkari,
is a skillful manipulation of
single stitch that provides
interesting pattern on the cloth.
The smaller the stitch, finer
is the quality of the embroidery.
The silk threads in golden yellow,
red, crimson, orange, green,
blue, and pink are usually employed
for the embroidery. The notable
aspect of this technique is
that single strand was used
at a time, each part worked
in one color and the varied
color effect is obtained by
clever use of horizontal, vertical
or diagonal stitches. The base cloth that was used
for Phulkari in olden times
was usually homespun cloth.
In Phulkari when the design
is worked very closely that
even a square inch of the base
cloth is not visible then it
is called 'Bagh'.
Besides floral motifs, birds,
animals, human figures, vegetables,
pots, buildings, rivers, the
sun and the moon, scenes of
village life, and other imagery
were embroidered. Mention must
be made of dhaniya bagh (coriander
garden), motia bagh (jasmine
garden), satranga bagh (garden
of rainbow), leheria bagh (garden
of waves) and many other depictions.
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