Decoding Kantha embroidery - a couple more stitches

Like in the last post on rediscovering Kantha ,today I'll show you two more stitches commonly used in Kantha. Last time we talked about four stitches/techniques - Jod,bejod,Dhaner Sheesh and Tara Butti. In this post ,we'll get introduced to Paichano and Kantha Butti.

Shown below is Kantha Butti - a completed one and an incomplete one. As I had written in the last post,butti is a repeated motif through out the fabric .So if you see an Indian fabric with tiny gold or silver motif ( may be a square,a diamond or a circle) repeated throughout , you can say that the fabric has buttis all over .By the way you have to pronounce b-u-ttie , NOT batti, or beauty ;)

Usually Kantha butti has five petals and is stitched from the outside to inside as running stitches.The centre is optional. See the incomplete one - I started long running stitches from the outside and gradually decreased as I move towards the center.

Paichano is nothing but laced running stitch.See the picture below.


Kantha embroidery is usually done with 2 or 3 strands of cotton threads.Earlier the thread used to be pulled out from the cloth itself and used for embroidery.

There are a few more terminologies to be understood and documented. A kind friend has agreed to share some documents she has about Kantha. Once I get them, I'll try to share some more information about this exquisite art and may be show a worked piece.

Meanwhile,you can see a lot of Kantha terminologies and borders in this article about Nakshi Kantha . You can also read about Surayia Rahman ,an extraordinary artist and see her works in the links provided in this page . Thanks to Anil Advani for pointing out this link.

That's all for now,
Love to you,
Deepa