Suf Embroidery (India)

A detail from a piece of Suf embroidery. It is worked in floss silk thread on a magenta red cotton ground (India; mid-20th century). A detail from a piece of Suf embroidery. It is worked in floss silk thread on a magenta red cotton ground (India; mid-20th century). Courtesy Textile Research Centre, acc. no. TRC 2014.0464.

Suf embroidery is a form of counted thread embroidery practiced nowadays in the Kutch region of Gujarat, western India, and beyond. It is characterized by a type of economy stitch worked from the back. The patterns are generally based on a triangle or ‘suf’, and are geometric, symmetrical and very detailed.

The desired pattern of Suf embroidery is not normally drawn onto the ground cloth, but built up around a series of triangles and diamonds. Often small pieces of glass or mirror (shisha) are included in the designs. 

This form of embroidery was traditionally used to decorate a bride’s collection of clothing and part of her family’s gifts to the fiancé’s family. Suf embroidery was also known from neighbouring Sindh, in modern Pakistan. In 1972, and as a direct result of the India-Pakistan War (1971), many Hindu communities, including embroiderers, migrated from Sindh in (Muslim) Pakistan to neighbouring (Indian) Kutch, thus introducing new elements to Suf embroidery in Kutch.

See also: Kala Raksha Trust; Khaarek.

Sources:

  • FRATER, Judy (1995). Threads of Identity: Embroidery and Adornment of the Nomadic Rabaris, Ahmedabad: Mapin.
  • LITTRELL, Mary A. and Judy FRATER (2013). 'Artisan Enterprise, Cultural Property, and the Global Market', in (eds.) Sandy Black, Amy de la Haye, Joanne Entwistle, Agnès Rocamora, Regina Root and Helen Thomas. The Handbook of Fashion Studies, London: Bloomsbury, pp. 371-390.

Digital sources: 

  • SABNANI, Nina and Judy FRATER (2012). Art as identity: Social mobility through textiles in Kutch, Industrial Design Centre, Bombay, India, pp. 1-8.
  • www.kala-raksha.org (retrieved 14 March 2017)

TRC online catalogue (retrieved 14 March 2017).

GVE

Last modified on Tuesday, 14 March 2017 20:28
Published in Indian subcontinent
More in this category: « Kashmir Work Rabari Embroidery (India) »
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