JOIN USKutch embroidery: A celebration of colours
But the lack of colours and vibrancy of the place is richly balanced by its skilled womenfolk who create magic on fabrics with their imagination and artistry. All they need are just needles and colourful threads to come up with stunning pieces of embroidery which are simply a celebration of varied contrasting colours like indigo, red, pink, yellow and violet.
While men slog in the fields, women embroider on brightly coloured fabrics and flaunt their talent by donning richly embroidered attire like ghagras, cholis and odhnis which appear as colourful specks on the sandy canvas. Their abodes speak for their love and fascination for colours and designs; from traditional door hangings to cushion covers and bed spreads, everything is decked up with embroidery. Their menfolk too take pride in sporting embroidered turbans, shawls, footwear and other accessories. In fact, the entire region, camels included, is soaked up in the splashing beauty of embroidery.
What may have started as a casual activity for womenfolk to embellish their own costumes, using an ingenious sense of design, has advanced to a greater level over the years, where it is now thriving as an art, widely appreciated for its beauty and richness.
The exposure has provided artisans an inspiration to experiment with new design and fabrics; however, they have firmly retained the traditional ethos of their region in their art.
Numerous tribes of Gujarat make it the hub of handmade embroidery, which boasts of over a dozen intricate designs. The variety in patterns is not just to satiate the artistic craving of the craftsmen, but an indication of the tribe they belong to. Some well-known patterns are paako, ahir, suf, khaarek, rabari, garasia jat, mutava, zardozi and bhanusali.
A timeless tradition, Kutch embroidery is believed to have caught the fancy of people from Patan, a town in Gujarat, in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Some theories credit the travellers from the adjoining region of Sindh as the carriers of this art, which was later picked up by the locals. This may perhaps be the reason for close similarities between the patterns commonly made by Sindhi and Gujarati craftsmen.
Among the many tribes dwelling in Kutch, Rabaris are recognised for their immense contribution to the richness of Kutch embroidery in terms of designs and the use of silk threads. They are said to have taken the art beyond the limits of their land and brought accolades to their fellow artisans .
Although the practitioners of Kutch embroidery are not formally trained in this art form, they come up with stunning pieces of fabric in unconventional colour combinations. They even use mirrors to adorn their embroidery. The use of mirror has become so popular that a local town, Kapadvanj, manufactures mirrors primarily for use in embroidery.
The trend and craze for embroidery may have started in the sandy terrains of Gujarat, centuries ago by nomads, but it has now surely transcended boundaries to charm people from across the world.