I am totally in love with....

SUZANI EMBROIDERY

You want to know what Suzani Embroidery is?
In short it is gorgeous tribal textiles hand embroidered in Central Asia. It's amazing decorative motifs are bold, vibrant and beautiful. Suzani is known for it’s amazing organic shapes and incredible vibrant colors. The color palette consists of vegetable dyed marvelous vibrant tones.

It has a long tradition in the arts of central Asia, and in Islamic art in general. Traditionally, the skill passed from mother to daughter and certain families became renowned within their communities for their patterns and symbols. So each country and region in Central Asia has its own patterns.

Traditionally, suzanis were made entirely by hand and could take around 18 months to complete. Cotton was the most common ground cloth, woven into long strips about 12” wide. Anywhere from three to six strips were tacked together to create a large piece of cloth. Using black ink, a designer would draw, often freehand, a pattern on the cloth. Once the color scheme was agreed upon, the stripes were separated so that different women could work on the embroidery simultaneously. When the embroidery was complete, the strips were sewn together again. Sometimes the embroidered motifs and colors did not align precisely when the strips were rejoined. Such inconsistencies were not flaws, but simply by-products of the process.

Original Suzani’s can get pretty pricey, but they are a definite works of art, not to mention the fact that they are very labor intensive. However many current versions of Suzani are machine made and are depicted in pillows, throws, upholstery fabric and more.

The most I am enjoying are the new color palettes—particularly the hot pink and purples or bright greens with turquoise, so the traditional art but then with a modern twist! And using new more bold colored fabrics.

See below and dazzle with me!!




























See how versatile it is? You can use it for bags, dresses, blankets, furniture... they even use the pattern on tins. How cute is that? I am just totally in LOVE with this art and patterns!!

You want to try this embroidery stitch yourself, see here how to do it!


Well... I am probably NOT going to try this myself, too much work, but what I can do is ask my good friend Tehmina who comes from Central Asia if she can buy me some nice pieces of fabric!! :-) Or maybe and even BETTER go together on a shopping spree!! What do you think Tehmina??

So what do you think of this embroidered art? You like it?? Or is it too ethnic for you?? Tell me... do you own a piece of Suzani Embroidery??

Enjoy your day!
Mireille