Sirali Santal Khatwa Embroidery

Isn't this wonderful? It's an Indian embroidery I've just added to my collection of ethnic textiles. It's done on a piece of natural silk, and the workmanship is excellent. I purchased it from Fiona Wright, at her Pukka Place site. She and her partner also run a hotel in Puskar, Rajastan, and book safaris. Poking around her sites gave me a serious case of wanderlust, which I partially allayed with the acquisition of this great piece of folk art. Fiona provided a translation of the story that Puskpar, the maker, wrote about the piece:

"Women wake up early in the morning, work starts.
First work is the water,
Then cleaning the house and make chapati, subji (vegetables) and all things.
When home is all finished then start on the outside work.
Husband's work is to do the outside work then sleep 1 or 2 hours.
Husband has only one job while a woman is busy from morning until evening
and jobs never finished."

All that, and I don't doubt that it's true, and yet look at the beauty and the joy that comes through in the work. Amazing.

As if all that weren't enough of a treat, take a look at the packaging. It came wrapped in fabric that was stitched together to close it:

Here's a closeup, where you can see how the ends of the stitching were sealed with wax:

Makes me long for a return to India......