Zardozi of Agra

The city of Taj famous all over the world for its skilled crafstmen who have mastered the splendid skill of zardosi works. Zardosi is a superb work of embroidery which is done in a done in a 3-dimensional pattern. The process of Zardosi is quite complex. This form of embroidery involves a lot of hard work and finesse. The process begins with the artist making free hand sketches in the first place. The embroidery is done in in cotton threads over and over to attain the required thickness. In the last stage, fiber from the silk threads are taken by the artists who twist them together in the shades and finally it is weaved by the artist.

The heavy and more elaborate embroidery work of Zardozi comes in various varieties. Some of the varieties that are used are Gold Threads, Spangles, Beads, Seed Pearls, and Gota. These are mainly used to decorate wedding outfits,heavy coats, cushions, curtains, canopies, animal trappings,purses and shoes. Zardori embroidery is usually done on heavy silk, velvet and satin. The kinds of stitches that are employed are Salma-sitara, Gijai, Badla, Katori and seed pearls etc.