Kashida Kashida is the general term used for embroidery in Kashmir. The two most important embroideries are suzani and zalakdozi . Kashmir being the land of wool, the embroidery is done on woollen fabrics – from the finest of shawls to medium thickness cloaks like ‘ pherans ’, to thick namdas used as floor coverings. On shawls and fine woollens, perhaps the embroidery had its origin in repairing the defects that occurred during weaving.
Later the multi- coloured weaving patterns were copied, to which were added the styles of Chinese embroideries like satin stitch and long and short stitch. The T ie and D ye F abrics P hulkari E mbrodery suzni embroidery includes all the stitches that lie flat on the surface and also show uniformity on both sides of the material. This embroidery is done with silk threads, in a multitude of colours, and shades to make the designs look natural. The twill tapestry technique that was used for weaving often required small corrections and alterations.
This was done like embroidery repeating the pattern of the weave, thus was called darning. The embroiderers in Kashmir are still referred to as rafugars, i.e., darners. Zalakdozi is the chain stitch embroidery done with ‘ari’ – a hook like the cobblers use. Originally it was done mainly on namdas , but now it is done on all kinds of materials, including shawls .
Unlike the other embroideries discussed so far, Kashmir embroidery is a commercial activity, done by men folk and thus caters to the demand of the buyers.