BY Catherine Bayar | September 1, 2010

 Silk, cotton and whimsy combine in this landscape of finely stitched art

 

About 100 years ago, near Bukhara in Uzbekistan, a daughter was born to a family. We don’t know her name, or any particulars of her birth. But we can surmise that her mother, and probably an entire village of mothers, aunts and sisters, began what the traditions of their culture taught them to do. They started to embroider this suzani.

Suzani is a Persian word meaning ‘needle’. The word is used to describe the embroidered textiles women of Central Asian cultures, particularly in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, create by hand. Though there are many suzanis for sale in Istanbul, still brought here by traders along the Silk Road, I’ve not seen many this old, or this finely wrought.

First, someone carded, combed and wove natural cotton into narrow strips to make a soft textured background for the art to come. Then, the woman with the best drawing skills drafted a fanciful pattern of whirls and vines, flowers and scrolls, in a heavy lead. Other women chose fine silk in numerous colors, some in several shades. These threads were applied in the tiniest of stitches, no more than 2mm in most cases.

The dense larger circles take on a watercolor effect when seen from a distance, spinning forms that blend and shimmer against a garden of simple leaves and spirals. The four cotton strips worked separately are then sewn together, the entire work trimmed in a floral trade cotton, silk fringe, and backed with a vibrant simple paisley, the symbol of fertility and abundance, to further underscore the women’s wish for this daughter’s long and fruitful life.

Of all the handmade textiles of Asia, suzanis are the works I love most – for their free-wheeling expression of color, their masterful skill of technique, and for their graphic displays of whimsical pattern. That the women who made such cloths were average women, illustrating their passion for life and family into tangible form, inspires me to document and share their work and to celebrate its joy in work of my own.