Hand Embroidered

Hand Embroidered

Exclusive hand embroidered paintings

Reviving Petit Point - Puja Bhakoo
An avid embroiderer since the age of thirteen, Puja Bhakoo, an ad person by profession, has revived the art of Petit Point embroidery in India, lending it a whole new ethnic dimension.

Drawing inspiration from paintings by world famous Indian artists , Puja Bhakoo sketches, paints and then embroiders human figures on canvas using wool. Earthy hues are ambitiously incorporated in most compositions. The figures' solemn expressions and the compositions' bold lines give her creations a hauntingly realistic look with a three dimensional quality that is far easier to achieve in paintings than it is in petit point. The degree to which the artist is able to create an illusion of depth, reflects her richness of experience and an innate understanding of the medium.

Owing to the intricacy of the designs and the fact that there is no trained help available (unlike standard hand embroideries), Puja Bhakoo creates one piece in 3-12 months, depending on the size of the work. Ofcourse the end product is one of its kind...a labour of love and painstaking effort, that is impossible to duplicate since there are no graphs or stencils.

While this lends an aura of exclusivity to each creation, it also makes the supply curve, vertical. This in turn makeseach piece, a rare  acquisition.

Sizes of framed panels vary from 1ft x1ft to 4ft x 6ft.

contact : pb@responsetoday.com

Petit Point : A Brief History.
Petit Point is a form of needle point embroidery that closely resembles a tapestry on completion. Its history can be traced back to the 16th Century, although it reached its most refined and sophisticated expression in Europe from the late Middle Ages through the 18th century.
A very expensive art form, Petit Point embroideries came to be closely connected with the ruling classes and the clergy of yore.
Historical textiles have often been the result of collaborative relationships between designers (trained as painters), weavers, embroiderers and sculptors. From the 16th Century on, leading artists like Raphael, Rubens, Boucher and Goya provided weavers with cartoons for single tapestries or complete sets.are to locate a needle point sample that reflects laborious workmanship.
...And now
As with all applied arts, increased mechanization led to slipping standards, inferior training and workmanship and a paucity of visual ideas.
In this age of instant gratification and perhaps due to shrinking attention spans, it has become extremely rare to locate a needle point sample that reflects laborious workmanship.
The Indian Scenario
Over the years, Cross stitch, Needle Point and Petit Point compositions got over-simplified and reduced to painted canvas floated in India by Madura Coats. These canvases carry simple floral motifs, the occasional horse or sceneries, etc.

contact : pb@responsetoday.com

About the Author

 

How do you embroider by hand?

I have seen websites that show how to do stitches, but how do I make an entire design? For example, my cousin used a machine to embroider initials and it was beautiful, but my grandmother insisted she could do better "in her day" by hand...however she has arthritis and can no longer do it, let alone teach me. Also, I live in a small area, there aren't classes to take so that isn't reasonable. Any basic suggestions or instructions would be lovely

Begin with small things with larger stitches.

The major forms of hand-embroidery can be grouped into free-style and counted-thread.

Counted thread is done on relatively coarse fabric (ideally with the equal warp & woof counts). It can be done from charts or designs may be applied directly to the fabric and counted-stitching used for the design. One very simple method of beginning to learn this is to use a pale gingham check for an easy-to-see grid (no smaller than 5 squares/inch for learning). Shirt to other fabrics and finer counts with experience. I done counted work on handkerchief linen when I need to do so.

Ask for the assistance of the Reference Librarian at your library. There may be helpful instructional manuals there for free-style embroidery. If ILL (Inter-Library Loan) is available, the world's at your fingertips. There's also the Internet. Search [embroidery how-to] or [embroidery instructions stitches] etc.

Hand embroidery - Beadwork Fashion