As promised, here is the central motif on the embroidered shawl from Kashmir (first mentioned in the post Embroidery of Kashmir I). This is a woman’s shawl – you can tell the difference because men’s shawls have no central motif and less embroidery.
The quality and price of the shawls is determined by the complexity and size of the embroidered borders and motifs. Commercial embroidery to sell is generally done by men. Women do more embroidery for the home.
I’ll just finish with a series of detailed photos so you can see the stitching.
This is one of a special series of posts based on the embroidery collection of Dr. Faegheh Shirazi, from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research is on “textiles, dress, gender identity discourse, and material culture in the Middle East; the meanings of veiling; rituals and rites of passage as they relate to material culture.” Over the years she has collected a number of examples of embroidery from around the world, and has very kindly allowed me to photograph them for my blog.
embroidery for ducks 
Hi Hannah! This is just so cool! The men in Oman, no other region in the Middle East, uses these ‘shawl’ type pieces of fabric to formally cover their heads. You gave me the idea to post about, although, my Ramadan post has some examples of the stitching of two kinds of head coverings the Omani men wear. The formal one is made in Kashmir! My girlfriend is documenting all dress from Oman and I have been helping her over the years as well as learning myself. It’s all so cool! Come by and have a look. It is a long post but you will see the men. I can stitch the casual cap called the KUMA. It just kills and aggravates my Carpel Tunnel on my right arm!! =(
http://coffeebeansdailies.blogspot.com/2011/08/company-fatooriftar-this-past-saturday.html
awesome!
Hi Hannah!
I always feel happy when a blogger posts an article about Indian embroidery.
Rachael had asked about the stitches used in your Kashmiri embroidery post#1.The stitches used are stem,chain,satin,roman ,straight ,fly,couching,roman stitch variation-slightly curved like open& closed brackets -used to outline petals, slanting straight stitch is used to fill the petals.As far as I know traditionally primary color scheme was followed,but now it’s changed with the availability of variety of threads.In shawls wool (crewel wool,but manufactured locally),in dresses cotton embroidery skiens -1 strand mostly are used to do the embroidery.Hope this helps.
Hope you remember me from your chikankari post,I’d posted my comment using a different id then .Am a needle art teacher, I’ve started my blog a couple of days back, will try to post more about Indian embroidery,Pls do visit my blog when you have time.
Anita.
I am very much looking forward to your post!
Oh my, Oh my!! this is asombroso!! India must be a paradise of textiles, embroidery and dyers. I like your blog very much!! Thank you, mil gracias!
Monique
de nada!