Kashida embroidery of Kashmir

Kashmir is lad of many beautiful crafts. The crafts of Kashmiri are colorful and uses scenes from the nature. May be because the land is surrounded by enchanting beauty of nature. Kashida embroidery is one such craft- rich in colors and beautiful motifs of birds, flowers , animals and vine designs. Visiting Kashmiri, to meet the local artisans is in my wishlist. It is a wonderful experience to see how the local craftsmen work. 

Kashida is a form of Ari embroidery, which uses sharp hooks and strong threads. Some opine these embroidery was used to decorate, the world famous Kashmiri Shawls. Slowly the manufacturing of Kashmiri shawls declined, the artisans who were dependent on the Kashida embroidery started using it to decorate clothes.

Nowadays, there are many home decorating things like -cushions, bed sheets, purses, bags are available with Kashida embroidery. In a craft exhibition , I found bags and purses decorated with Kashida:

Kashidakari ebroidery on purses and bags

Kashidakari embroidey

Beautiful motifs filled with colorful threads

Will be sharing some more information and designs of different kinds of embroideries soon.

Until then-

Love, laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana