Blog #6 - ‘Suzani Embroidery - Stitch by Stitch’

In the photo: my girlfriend from the college Shohista Hamrayeva and I (1990, Samarkand)

 I remember a time when I was visiting my Tajik friend - we had been friends since our time together at the institute. Once I saw how her grandmother embroidered a tablecloth with a style of Tajik embroidery called suzani - the main type of traditional festive embroidery. With the help of the tiniest stitches, compositions filled with symmetrical rosettes are created, but It could be anything - a flowering bush, fruits, flowers, images of birds and peacocks, or magical symbols. I was captivated by her benevolence, her smile, her voice, the way she laid out her speech in a calm devoid of any fuss tone making stitch after stitch, creating a pattern of unknown beauty, with devotion to the process, demanding quality. This modest, kind woman with great willpower won my heart. In order to depict even a tiny element of the pattern, for example, a petal, dozens of tiny stitches made with a thin hook are required. As a result, it takes 10-15 days to embroider one small pillowcase.