Zardosi Embroidery

Today I wanted to tell you about Zardosi Embroidery. I participated in this two day workshop at Koregaon Park. An expert in the technique tought us about it. Zardosi is a form or embroidery that involves something like a crochet needle. The fabric is laid flat on a wooded frame and held with threads. Then the expert takes the needle and pierces through the fabric on top to take out the thread that he holds underneath the fabric and makes pattern. It is so fast and small that you can make intricate designs. But what I loved the most was that you could easily use beads, sequins, mirrors with that technique. And the result is that you obtain a professional sequin design that lays flat on the fabric just like machine work. I love sequins and had been killing myself adding them to tees without having the desired effect. After the workshop I realized that I would get a better result for my DIY if I used the Zardosi technique.

 However there is a small problem: it is hard. In all two days I barely managed to make a small pattern. And you should have seen my fabric, it was covered with holes. The speaker told us that we needed to practice to become good. After all he has been doing it for 12 years so we should not expect to be at his level in just 2 days. 

I am not sure I will keep on practicing Zardosi embroidery. I just started normal embroidery and it is hard already. But I kept the contact of the speaker. Who knows? I may hire him for another workshop or to do some work on a dress.

Some pictures of the workshop. (Sorry for the low quality as they were taken with my phone) 


The instructor and some of his work