On the Silk Road

Yesterday was Lincolnshire Embroiderers' Guild monthly meeting and the guest speaker was Jane Davies who I mentioned in my last post. Jane is a very relaxed and interesting speaker and had brought a selection of her slides from travels in Uzbekistan which focussed on the inspiration for the distinctive textiles from that area. In addition Jane had bought various examples of Uzbek textiles reflecting the traditional styles and techniques of the area.

~


~

The square piece which you can see in the photograph above is typical of suzani embroidery. The motifs are entirely stitched. In many cases the stitch is a couching stitch but instead of couching a thick thread with a thinner one only one thread is used throughout. The patterns are traditional and have symbolic meanings, often relating to hospitality, prosperity and joy. Many formed part of a girl's dowry and would be started by members of the family when a daughter was born to be continued by the girl as soon as she was old enough to learn to sew.

~

~

Some of the designs, like the vine-like edging above, were adopted from influences from further afield brought by travellers along the Silk Route. Chain stitch and buttonhole stitch were often used but couching was the most popular.

~


~

As you can see from the sample above the couching involved a lot of stitching and a design also built up on the reverse. Often these suzani were split into several pieces and worked on by various members of the family to be reunited and sewn together on completion. If discrepancies in colour or slight variations in the design arose so much the better as the final suzani should not be perfect.
~

~

Today I went back to Lincoln for a workshop with Jane and she again showed us her suzani sample and works which had come out of her study of suzani designs and the architecture and images that inspired it.