Zari Zardozi - Kolkata, West Bengal
Firstly, the craftsman sits cross-legged and arranges all the raw materials and tools beside him/her for easy accessibility to start with the Zardozi embroidery. They sit around the wooden framework locally called Adda. Here the tools include curved hooks, needles, gold wires, metal stars, round sequins, glass, plastic beads, and threads. Once ready, they start drawing the indented design to a tracing sheet, and holes are made along with them with a needle. Mostly the patterns are geometrical and contemporary in nature, forming complex motifs. Secondly, the design is traced out to silk, satin, or velvet fabric, which is stretched tightly over the wooden frame, using bamboo or wooden spars to achieve uniform tension. Now to perform the embroidery work, the craftsman pushes different types of needles into the fabric along the pattern traced. Once stitched and knots are made under the fabric to firm the stitch, golden beads and strips are also incorporated into the design using needles and threads for added beauty. Depending on the expected detailing and number of artisans working on a piece, the time taken for its completion ranges from a day to 4 days.
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