PHULKARI EMBROIDERY
Phulkari meant the shape/direction of flowers which symbolized life. The mother and grandmothers would start embroidering Phulkari dupattas upon her birth because they believed that she would be the creator for future generations. Originally Phulkari was done with real flowersIts motifs were expressive of her emotions and the number of phulkari pieces defined the status of the family. The Phulkari has faced difficult times. Traditional phulkari embroidery is done on coarse cotton fabric called 'khaddar' which is manually spun and naturally dyed. The coarse weave makes it easy to run the thread to it in order to make the intricate designs. The main characteristics of Phulkari embroidery are use of darn stitch on the wrong side of coarse cotton cloth with colour silken thread. The thread that is used for the embroidery is called 'pat' in Punjabi.
