Suvastra

A passion of mine other than food blogging, that I am pursuing is embroidery. I had done quite a bit of hand embroidery during my growing years as a hobby. Once I started working, work constraints never allowed me to pursue it seriously enough. It was after Nehal’s birth when I chose to be a full-time mother, that I had time to think about pursuing it other than food blogging, of course.:) But I never got around to doing any hand embroidery, though I have been lucky to be an integral part of the embroidery process.

Sometime during early 2006, I helped a close friend source fabrics for her commercial venture and during that period I chanced upon an excellent karigar and its a year now since he has been working on my designs, at home. Basically my family and a few close friends get our clothes hand embroidered by him. I work on the design, set the pattern on fabric, hunt and source the required materials & threads (a tough job), supervise the work closely (now you know what keeps me away from food blogging):) and the hard work is done by Riyaz.:)

Here are a few pictures of Riyaz working on Nehal’s silk kurta material (work at progress) and the tailored kurta.

I learn each day by trial and error, from choosing patterns and motifs, the color scheme, setting, using sequins, pearls, kundan stones, swarovski crystals, beads, gold, silver, copper threads etc. Below are a few photos of hand embroidered saris made in 2006 and 2007. [1. pink & purple silk (pattu) sari (2007) 2. orange & green silk sari (pallu with large peacock motif) (2006) 3. mirror work on a shaded blue gorgette (2007)]. I will share more images of the hand embroidered kurtis/salwars and saris made by Riyaz in future posts.

Suvastra has seen the light of the day due to the subtle coaxing of my blogger friend and talented artist, Shilpa, to share my creative pursuits online. Thank you, Shilpa.:)

Few of my blogger friends who have shared their artistic interests online:

Kajal - Henna
Pooja (Creative Pooja) - Mehendi
Indira (Mahanandi) - Hand Embroidery
Shammi (Food, in the Main) - Hand Embroidery
Kajal - Embroidery
Latha’s (Masala Magic) mother, Indira garu - Kasuti Embroidery
Manisha (Indian Food Rocks) - Knitting & Crochet
Shilpa (Aayis Recipes) - Oil Painting, Metal Embossing, Crochet
Shn (Kitchenmishmash)- Glass Painting
Lakshmiammal - Tanjore and Glass Painting
Nupur’s (One Hot Stove) family - Hand crafted gifts
Sree (Sree’s Canvas) - Colored Pencil Sketching
Jacob (The Painted Chef) - Sketching
Annita (My Treasure, My Pleasure) - Dry Flower Arrangement
Easy Crafts

If I have missed anyone or if you are aware of other bloggers who have shared their creative expressions online, please mention in the comments (links to the post would be appreciated) and I will update the above list. I am sure there are many of you, pursuing your creative passions and if you haven’t yet blogged about it yet, do share them.