Tiniest Kasuti Work I Have Seen

Uploading some pics of the Kasuti samples that Vrinda aunty has treasured, in fact rescued.


Gavanti Designs

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This is the basic work done in about a square feet of cloth.

This has a border too

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To give an idea of how detailed the border is, check the close up

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And here's a close up of the basic motif

Please Note - Each stitch is about 1mm apart and the back part of the work looks exactly like the front... we wondered where they hid the start & end thread.

A little bit of background on this -
Vrinda aunty visited one of her acquaintances, who was probably the principal/teacher of Women's Training College. She had this sampler at her place and had probably been worked by some students. Aunty treasured it as that's the best and tiniest piece of Kasuti we've ever seen.

Beadwork on Skirt

This is my first work using beads, pipes and Zardosi. Think this was done in 2001. It was a frilled skirt and the entire border was worked. Think I completed it in 2 days (I was too excited to see the finished effect).

My First Post - For the Grannies

Whenever I think about embroidery, I picture sweet looking grannies, sitting outside their homes, in the mild evening sun with a needle, threads and a cloth to work on. Personally, I have never seen my granny embroider (she was old and eyes were weak to embroider), but I have seen my granny's works - though few with a moderate number of colors - she was very neat.

But I have come across other grannies too - Sharvari's granny (that's my sis's friend's granny). She was a perfectionist. I'll get some snaps sometime to post. I literally adore her. I can't imagine in just one lifetime she created boxes full of crochet, embroidery, tatting, knitting..... and many more beautiful works. She made me realize how little I know and there's so much to learn. And you never know it till you do it yourself. Also that things look too time consuming.... but the results are worth it. I often hear people say "You have a lot of patience" when I say "I embroider". But this granny's work, she worked stitches that were 2 or 3 millimeters long and completed works with more than a foot of embroidery work. Shravari's granny inspired me to quit being lazy & to use whatever time I can spare to work on my hobbies and also to take up everything that looks complicated!

I thought my first post should be for The Grannies Who Embroider because I came across the snap at the start of this blog. I've seen this granny just a couple of times - but I didn't know she embroiders. This work is by Dr Jayant Antani's mother. During my last visit to Dr Antani's home in Dharwad, I saw this pillow cover. That's machine embroidery and those stitches were so tiny - this granny must have been the one for minute details too!