Kutchwork embroidery- Embroidery from Gujarath(India)

Though all hand embroidery stitches fascinate me,  I’m extremely fond of Kutchwork. This is also known as interlacing embroidery in west. I love to the interlacing of threads in kutchwork, also while embroidering on any kutchwork, I like the way the thread moves up and down of the another thread, like our life-sometimes up and sometime down 🙂

I keep experimenting with this stitch.  I had designed a salwar with Kutchwork and mirror embroidery. And now working on two sarees, with kutchwork.

Here is the saree I’m working on with Kutchwork:

Small motifs of Kutchwork on a saree

History of Kutchwork in India:

This is practiced at  Kutch and Sindh of Gujarath. Also known as Sindhi Taropa, meaning interlacing. Some opine this was introduced by Germans to Indians , and some opine Indians have taught this to Germans. But Kutchwork is considered as a traditional Indian embroidery.

Kutchwork embroidery consists of two steps,one making the frame with thread and another interlacing the frame with thread. There are two ways of making the frame. I have shown the two ways of making the base frame, in the below picture:

Frames of threads for Kutchwork

One can make out, the first one has crossed ends at the corners and in the second one the cross is merged. These both methods are used in traditional Kutchwork. The outcome of embroidery also different depending on the type of the frame.

One can see the difference in the embroidery using different frames

We can make out the difference in both the frames. In picture , because it is for single frame, the difference is not prominent, but when big or continuous designs are used, the difference can be seen. The embroidery, made using both the frames are beautiful.

The designs used in Kutchwork are basically square , rectangle, triangle etc, nowadays people use variety of designs. Kutchwork looks very bright and beautiful when made in combination with mirror work.

I’m planning to share a video tutorial on Kutchwork, and share different designs of Kutchwork in coming posts.

Also read : Jewels made using Kutchwork

Until then,

Love, Laugh and Live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana