Reviving the craft

Since handmade phulkaris have almost disappeared and so only industrially- made phulkaris can be seen in the market. The traditional way of how a phulkari looked has also been modified now. Many phulkaris seen in the market have now incorporated curvy patterns along with the geometrical ones.

Many designers can be seen drawing inspiration from this art to create a whole range at fashion weeks.

Jacqueline Fernandez at Manish Malhotra's fashion show

Not only designers, but even Bollywood has drawn inspiration from phulkari. Movies such as 'Jab we met', 'Tanu weds Manu' and 'Teri meri kahaani' where Kareena Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra were seen wearing Phulkari inspired garments.

Kareena Kapoor in Jab we met

Kangana Ranaut in Tanu weds Manu

Priyanka Chopra in Teri meri kahaani

References-
1.Sharma, Richa and Richa Sharma. "Phulkari: A Colourful Heritage Of Vibrant Punjab - Kalaahut Blog". Kalaahut Blog. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. https://www.kalaahut.com/blog/art/phulkari-a-colourful-heritage-of-vibrant-punjab/

Cultural importance

The embroidery took a backseat with the division of India and Pakistan. However, it soon sprang back up like an evergreen style statement. Even though there is an inimitable demand for phulkari work till date, there are limited credible sources left from where one can purchase a hand-woven phulkari fabric.
Phulkari embroidery was a home craft and made for personal use. A pride of every punjabi village maiden, phulkari formed a part of her wedding trousseau. If a son was born in the family, the grandmother would make vari-da-bagh and presented it to her grand daughter-in-law as a gift.

The bagh was considered a symbol of marriage and among wealthy families, sometimes upto 51 pieces of various designs were given to the bride. She, in turn, wore them for auspicious occasions and ceremonies.
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, "Guru Granth Sahib".



References-
1.Sharma, Richa and Richa Sharma. "Phulkari: A Colourful Heritage Of Vibrant Punjab - Kalaahut Blog". Kalaahut Blog. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. https://www.kalaahut.com/blog/art/phulkari-a-colourful-heritage-of-vibrant-punjab/

Stitches used in Phulkari

The darning stitch is the basic unit of phulkari and the workmanship of phulkari is graded according to the length and density of its stitches. Every thread is picked up from the obverse side and is done so finely that hardly any background material would be visible. The needle craft consists of mainly long and short darning stitches. It is done on the wrong side of the khaddar.

Though the work is simple in appearance, it requires a long time and good eye sight to master this technique. For outlining the borders and marking the areas, stem, chain and herring stitches are used. Double running and satin stitches were also used but the edging is done by buttonhole.

Earlier, khaddar was woven in narrow width and hence two or three such widths used to be joined from wrong sides to get a size of two and a half yards long and one and three quarter yards of width. The joints of the base fabrics were expertly covered with the herringbone stitch. The color of the base khaddar is red, blue, black, rust, brown and white.





References-
1. Naik, Shailaja D. Traditional Embroideries Of India. 1st ed. Print.

Materials used...

Hand spun and Hand woven khaddar is the base material for phulkari. Women, specially young unmarried girls, after completing their household chores, used to get together and engaged themselves in group spinning, knitting, crocheting and embroidering.

There are three types of hand woven fabrics. Khaddar, being a loosely spun and coarsely woven fabric, Chaunsa khaddar, woven with fine yarn, on which baghs were embroidered and Halwan is the light weight finely woven fabric, popular in Hazara and Rawalpindi, used to make Phulkari.

Soft, glossy, untwisted silk thread is used for the embroidery, which is basically supplied from Kashmir, Afghanistan and Bengal, However, the best quality pat comes from China. To complete a phulkari work, it requires around 50 to 100 grams of silk thread, whereas Baghs require double the amount of thread. Apart from silk, cotton thread (Baudi) is also sometimes used in white cotton material.

pat (silk thread)

The colors predominantly used are red, orange, green, golden yellow and deep blue.




References-
1.Kaur, Ramandeep and Ramandeep Kaur. "Phulkari – A Rich Heritage Of Punjab". My India. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.  http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/history/phulkari-a-rich-heritage-of-punjab
2. Kaur, Jasvinder. "The Past And Present Of Phulkari". Trinuneindia News Service. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/the-past-and-present-of-phulkari/50112.html

The one with the motifs: Part 2

Varieties of both domestic and royal animals such as cow, buffalo, goat, cat, camel, horse and elephant were made as motifs on phulkari.
They also made birds like hen, chicken, sparrow, pigeon, crow and owl.

sainchi phulkari

With the roots of phulkari lying in rural Punjab, motif within these grids are inspired from village life and nature. They could represent birds, animals, vegetables, sun, moon, and other everyday imagery.

The beauty of phulkari lies in its intricate and balanced composition with pleasing and harmonious colors which make it a real work of art. 

    

     

  The basic motifs used in phulkari are well balanced and in complete symmetry. They are always in proportion and the motifs tend to repeat.

Bagh phulkari

There are many motifs in certain types of phulkaris that may not always be symmetrical. However, they do repeat themselves and there are a lot of similar patterns visible in the phulkari.

darshan dwar

The most intricate and sought after phulkaris are the sainchi phulkaris, which bring out the scenes or rural Punjab to life.

sainchi phulkari

References- 

1.  Naik, Shailaja D. Traditional Embroideries Of India. 1st ed. Print.

2. Sharma, Richa and Richa Sharma. "Phulkari: A Colourful Heritage Of Vibrant Punjab - Kalaahut Blog". Kalaahut Blog. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. https://www.kalaahut.com/blog/art/phulkari-a-colourful-heritage-of-vibrant-punjab/

   

The one with the motifs: Part 1

The punjabi women are genius in creating motifs though there is limitation of using darning stitch.
The newly created intricate and complicated designs were highly stylized, but were never copied, referred or traced from any books. they are the creation of the versatile punjabi ladies.

The  motifs comprised of the things used in day today life, articles precious to them, which are valued and considered sacred and had a geometric base.

  

 Geometrical designs all over are commonly used for Baghs. Basic geometrical shapes like triangle, square, rectangle, vertical and horizontal lines are intelligently incorporated to produce complicated patterns. Further appropriate application of colors help to produce highly stylized motifs.

  

 

As the word phulkari itself suggests, a large variety of flowers such as lotus, cotton and sunflower were used in making motif for the phulkari dupattas. these motifs were stylized and used.     

References- 

1. Suri, Guneet. "PHULKARI-Do It In Treditional Way". Guneetsuri92.blogspot.in. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. http://guneetsuri92.blogspot.in/2012/09/phulkari-do-it-in-treditional-way.html

2.  Naik, Shailaja D. Traditional Embroideries Of India. 1st ed. Print.

Visual diary

As I researched more and more about phulkari, I maintained a visual diary as it is impossible to just memorize everything. This visual diary, basically, records the research findings, notes, brainstorming, sketches etc. It is imperative to record everything in the visual diary so that its easier to locate and refer to any information whenever required.
 I divided my topic into different sub headings which makes it easier to categorize my work. It includes images of phulkari as well as sketches of the same.

"Phulkari" written in punjabi

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A young punjabi woman wearing a phulkari dupatta

Following are the motifs that are used in different types of phulkaris:-

                                                         

bagh phulkari

motif from sainchi phulkari 

Maintaining this diary helps me keep every little piece of information in one place and is therefore, an essential thing whenever doing detailed research on a particular topic.