Embroidery Work - Kalady, Kerala
The embroidery of the portrait begins with the tracing of the photo/poster whose portrait has to be embroidered. To transfer the outline sketch of the face on the cotton cloth, the sheet of graphite transfer paper / carbon paper is kept underneath the photo but on top of the fabric, ink side of the carbon paper faces down and the outline is drawn through the pen on the photo so that the sketch is transferred to the cotton cloth that is kept below. Then the cotton cloth is mounted in the ring / hoop wooden frame so that it remains clean and uncrumpled and the tension of the stitches will be even. Before mounting the cotton cloth, the fabric has to be neatly ironed and the care should be taken that the fabric is not distorted in any way. By mounting the cotton cloth in the ring frame, the design on the cotton cloth will get fit within the bounds of the frame. By binding the fabric to the ring frame it also provides a better grip for the machine embroidery. The screw of the ring wooden frame is then adjusted according to the requirements and the fabric is placed over the inner ring making sure that the area to be worked on is placed in the center of the ring. Then the embroidery is made on the sketch by stitching it in motorized sewing machine with the help of the needle and silk threads. Initially the lightest and the darkest shade of colors are stitched and then the middle tones of the color shades are filled in. The stitch size varies from a dot to a straight stitch according to the necessity. Thus once the embroidery of the portrait is completed then the cotton cloth is removed from the ring frame and kept for sales.
