Shisha Embroidery

This is one of the pieces I've been working on. I still need to put a border around it and maybe some more beading and a design on the border. I'm thinking of also mounting it on a canvas. I showed this background in the post that I did on Indian Inspiration. I haven't named it yet, I'll wait till its finished.

I love the look of Shisha Embroidery. There is a good tutorial on the Joyful Abode blog.

These are some books on Shisha Embroidery that I have.

This is a great book. It is quite detailed. It shows 10 different methods of doing Shisha as well as lots of design ideas. It is packed full of photos - the only disappointment is that they aren't all in colour.

Nearly half of this book is made up of Transfer patterns to be used for Shisha Embroidery. This initially put me off this book as I don't really like using patterns but these are good as a starting point and useful to inspire your own designs. In the introduction it links Shisha Embroidery to Mumtaz Mahal, whose husband the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan, built the Taj Mahal. It states that she, "Is credited by some with having originated the idea and techniques for Shisha embroidery." There is an interesting section on Regional Styles of Shisha Embroidery. It also has diagrams on how to do Shisha and other stitches. This book doesn't have alot of photos. Once again most of the photos are in black and white. This is a shame as the patterns and embroideries are so colourful, it would be good to see them in their full splendour.

I love the picture on the front of this book. Surjeet Husain, who wrote this book, was born in India and intially learnt embroidery from her Aunt. She is now a Lecturer in Textiles in London and teaches the art of Indian and English embroidery. The book has sections on General Information, Stitches, A Project - a Bushkiri Bag and Design inspiration. It has some good designs at the back and shows how you can develop a pattern. Surjeet has two other workbooks on Indian styles of Embroidery.

Some links that show Shisha Embroidery are:

Shisha Embroidery Flickr Group

Stitch Magazine Article

Shisha Google Images

Banjara Patch

This Banjara Patch came in the post this week. The two main shisha mirrors are quite big. I love the beads, bells and coins along the bottom. I bought it from Rayela's Art Etsy Store. I love it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. I will probably put it up on my studio wall. Check out all the other interesting things Rachel has in her shop.

You can read about the Banjara and Roma people in Rachel's post on her blog Rayela's Fibre Focus. It's sad how these people have been treated throughout the years.

I only came across Rachel's blog recently but I've been enjoying going back through all her previous posts - I still have lots more of her posts to explore.

I also found this website called Surya's Garden which is a trust set up to revive the ancient Banjara - Lambhani embroidery skills and motifs. I love how colourful their traditional dress is. This site also has an interesting section on their History - Go here to find out more.

August TIF - Finished

August TIF Challenge - Balance

So here is my finished August TIF piece. I was thinking of adding more to the background but I think I like it the way it is. I like how the Shisha embroidery turned out, but I think I should have totally filled the paisley shapes in with embroidery and then did the Shisha embroidery over the top of that. I don't think the blue background behind the Shisha's works very well. Anyway, we live and learn. The gold thread that I used in this looks really dull in the scan but its actually a sparkly gold thread. I really enjoyed doing this so it might lead me onto doing some more at some stage.