ARTICLE
Til Patra Phulkari
A type of phulkari featuring sparse embroidery on a red base, til patra phulkari derives its name from the til, or sesame seed, motifs embroidered on the cloth. The fabric is typically a coarser variety of khaddar than the kind generally used in other phulkari garments.
Til patra embroidery is usually made by hired workers rather than the women of a household. They are traditionally gifted to the domestic help in a bride’s household at the time of her wedding and to the domestic help at her in-laws’ house after the birth of her first child.
Bibliography
Beste, Michael. “Hopes & Dreams: Phulkari and Bagh from Punjab.” HALI Magazine, November/December 2000, 87–93.
Lal, Krishna. Phulkari: From the Realm of Women’s Creativity: A Tradition of Handmade Embroidery of Punjab and Haryana: Selected Pieces from the Archives of IGNCA. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 2013.