Beautiful Handwork of Sindh Pakistan

Resting in the Afternoon (Sindh)

by Carole Keller

Oil on Canvas

The Sindh province of Pakistan is known for its beautiful needlework. Here are some wonderful examples!

A young girl's hand embroidered dress front. The back is open to keep her cool. This area of Southern Pakistan is very warm!

Below, a woman's vest of cotton with fine silk embroidery and metal wrapped thread. Mid twentieth century in beautiful condition!

This next piece is probably about 70 years old, as well. The tunic is embroidered with metal wrapped silk and is absolutely gorgeous. The color palette, embroidery, and application of mirrored mica is a wonderful example of the handwork from this area. 

A heart shaped man's hat worn throughout Sindh is delicately embroidered in a soft turquoise blue-grey.

This next piece is a wonderful tasseled bag to be used as a purse or Koran cover. 

Look below at how fine the embroidery is! The color palette and designs are fantastic. I wonder if Missoni had taken note of this work ...

This is a pillow cover or wedding cloth. It has gold and silver wrapped embroidery thread with mica mirrors.

Hope you've enjoyed this sampling of Sindh pieces from the collection. There is so much beauty and artistry to appreciate from this area of Pakistan. Please feel free to visit my other posts. You'll see more from the other provinces and cultures within Central Asia.

Between Pakistan and Afghanistan

As I mentioned in my previous post, Journey of Traditions is my new book of short stories. It was created, along with my paintings and illustrations, to accompany a future exhibition of artifacts from South Central Asia.

My story Maleeha's Dream is about a girl from eastern Afghanistan.  She is rescued by a family of Nomads, including Bashir and his grandfather (pictured below.) 

Within my illustrations you see artifacts from the collection. Below you see the gold ceremonial hat Bashir wears in the painting.

In the story, Bashir and his family set up camp at dusk.  

An Afghan Rubaab is a stringed instrument used often used by traveling musicians. It also features in the story.

The following are just a sampling of the articles from the exhibition collection. 

A camel seat made of Sheesham wood and inlaid brass.

Below, a hand stitched Ralli camel cover from Pakistan. The blue and red fabrics are intricately appliqued onto the white background!

Afghan ceremonial hat covered with hand strung beads and tassels formed over the cap.

Women's Afghan sleeve cuffs embroidered with gold wrapped thread.

Hand tooled copper milk bucket from Afghanistan

Womens Kuchi nomad dress.  (Cotton, silk and embroidery)

Koran cover or purse and pillow cover
(Embroidered silk thread on cotton)

Afghan child's dress front. Silver wrapped thread embroidery on cotton with hand beading.

(detail)

If you are interested in my fully color illustrated book of short stories go to my store "kikistrunk" on Etsy!

Click here!

Thanks for visiting and checking out my new blog!

More to come!