Phulkari

PHULKARI

Phulkaris were originally made by Punjabi women for their own personal use. They used to design embroideries on their garments as a means of passing time. Nevertheless, this art form gradually became a significant craft of Punjab, with a huge market both within and outside the country.
'Phulkari’, literally meaning the flower working, is designed to enhance the beauty of attire. It is an art form, in which exquisite embroidery is done over shawls, dupattas and headscarves, in a simple and sparse design. In some cases, the entire cloth is covered with dense designs, so that the ground cloth becomes invisible. This is called as the 'bagh’ design, which literally means 'garden’. Bagh is generally considered as a symbol of marriage and is widely used during special occasions.
Phulkari for Different Occasions
There is an extensive pattern of designs used in phulkari. Every possible representation of life and nature find expression therein. Though it began with geometrical patterns, flowers and leaves, today, the designs have been enlarged to encompass birds, animals, human figures, the sun, moon, the objects of everyday use and everything found on the earth. Then, there is a special bagh design called dhoop-chhaon (sun-shade), which is extremely popular in the state. However, no religious subjects or darbar scenes are embroidered. Some of the most famous varieties of phulkaris and baghs have been listed below.
Chope

 This is a red colored cloth that has Phulkari on the borders and edges and is presented to a bride by her grandmother, just before the wedding.
Vari-da-bagh

This is essentially a red colored cloth that has embroidery in small patterns all over in yellow, denoting fertility and happiness. Along the border, the patterns are smaller and beautifully designed in different colored threads.
Ghunghat Bagh

Ghunghat Bagh, also known as sari-pallau, is essentially used to cover the head as a symbol of respect for elders. There is embroidery on the small border in four sides. A large triangular motif is embroidered at the center of each side, making it look beautiful.
Darshan Dwar

The Darshan Dwar is basically a gate at a religious place of worship that offers a clear view to the deity. The embroidery used on the fabric is for the purpose of presentation at temples or adorn the walls at home when the holy book of Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib, is brought inside a house. It follows the theme of a decorative gate.
Suber

The Suber is a Phulkari that is worn by the bride during the rites of the marriage ceremony. There are five motifs, one at center and four at the corners. It is decorated heavily and comprises of delicate designs.
Chamba

Chamba is a fusion work of Phulkari and is characterized by an intricate design of wavy creepers, stylized leaves and flowers. Also, it may contain designs inspired from daily life and fauna like chilies, peacocks, diamonds, sunflowers, etc.

FABRIC

The cloth primarily used and preferred by the women, was the home-spun, locally woven and dyed khadi. It was strong, long-lasting, and cheap and served the purpose of keeping the wearer warm during winters. Another reason was that the embroidery involved the counting of threads while doing the straight darn stitch. The coarse weave made this task easier. In addition, the thick cloth did not pucker and pull and could be worked upon without a frame. Usually, pieces of small width, about 45 to 60 centimeters, were worked on separately and the two or three strips were joined together to form the required size.

COLORS

Bright colors were always preferred and among these, golden yellow, red, crimson, orange, green, blue, pink etc, were the popular ones.For the embroidery, only a single strand was used at a time, each part worked in one color. Shading and variation were not done by using various colors of thread. Instead, the effect was obtained by the dexterous use of horizontal, vertical or diagonal stitches. This resulted in giving an illusion of more than one shade when light fell on it and when it was viewed from different angles.
To keep the embroidered part clean while working on the cloth, the finished portion was rolled and covered with a muslin cloth. Specially created designs varied from village to village or region to region in Punjab and were given suitable names descriptive of their form. While phulkari was used to ornament cloth, the bagh ensured that not even a square inch of the base cloth was visible.

DESIGNS

Beginning with geometrical patterns, flowers and leaves, the repertoire of motifs was constantly enlarged. Birds, animals and human figures and objects of everyday use were inducted, along with vegetables, pots, buildings, rivers, the sun and the moon, scenes of village life, and other imagery. Phulkaris and baghs came to be embroidered in a stunning range of exquisite designs. In dhoop chaon, which literally means "sun and shade", an amazing interactive display of light and shade was created. The designs remained earthy and true to life. There was dhaniya bagh (coriander garden), motia bagh (jasmine garden), satranga bagh (garden of rainbow), leheria bagh (garden of waves) and many other depictions.
Today the most intricate and sought after phulkaris are the sainchi phulkaris, which bring scenes from rural Punjab to life. An incredible wealth of detail is embroidered onto cloth.

STITCH USED

The stitch craft of Phulkari consists long short darning stitches. It is a unique method of embroidery in that it is worked entirely on the wrong side of the cloth and the pattern takes shape on the right side. The design is neither drawn nor traced.
Reflecting Emotions
With time, the phulkaris became closely interwoven with the lives of the women of Punjab. The joys, sorrows, hopes, dreams and yearnings of the young girls and women who embroidered the phulkaris were often transferred onto cloth. Many folk songs grew out of this expressive combination of skills and intense feelings. So, it is that one hears a young woman, whose betrothed has not sent a promised message to her, murmuring sadly, softly, as she embroiders peacocks on a phulkari. It was not long before phulkari folk songs became a part of the famous, pulsating folk dances of Punjab - the gidda and the bhangra.
A Symbol Of Familial Ties
The women of Punjab created phulkari mostly for personal use. The cycle began with the young girl who followed her mother's chores and learned household work including this embroidery. When the girl got married, phulkari formed a part of her bridal trousseau. If a son was born to her, her mother would start preparing a vari da bagh, a gift she would present to her grand daughter-in- law.
The bagh was considered a symbol of marriage and among the wealthy families, sometimes up to fifty-one pieces of various designs were given to the bride. She, in turn, wore them for auspicious and ceremonial occasions. In some parts of Punjab, it was customary to drape the new mother with a bagh on the eleventh day after the birth of the child, when she left the maternity room for the first time.
Phulkari For Different Occasions
Phulkaris were also made for religious ceremonies or to be used at other festive times.A phulkari is sanctified to be used as the canopy over the holy book of the Sikhs, the 'Guru Granth Sahib'.For each different occasion, for each different setting, the versatile fingers and fertile imagination of the women of Punjab designed an impressive selection of phulkaris.