Contemporary Outpost Original Marigold Paisley Suzani Pillow

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Description

This beautiful hand embroidered suzani fabric is sourced from Uzbekistan. We cut and sew the pillow by hand in our … Read more This beautiful hand embroidered suzani fabric is sourced from Uzbekistan. We cut and sew the pillow by hand in our Houston workshop. A marigold ground carries large boteh paisleys in crimson, slate blue, sage and blush, set among scrolling leaves. The reverse is green and yellow ikat with magenta dots, and a feather down insert is included.

Suzani takes its name from suzan, the Persian word for needle. The tradition belongs to Uzbekistan and the old Silk Road towns: Bukhara, Samarkand, Shakhrisabz, Nurata and Tashkent each worked their own motifs and palettes, and a trained eye can still place a panel by them. A suzani was embroidered by hand by a bride and the women of her family, often begun years before a wedding and carried into the new household as part of her dowry. It served as a bed cover, a wall hanging or a wrapping cloth, and it was not made for sale. The ground cloth came off a narrow hand loom, so a panel was embroidered in strips and then joined, which is why the motifs on a suzani often do not line up exactly across a seam. Most of the work is basma, a couched satin stitch, and yurma, a chain stitch worked with a hook. Every panel is different, so each pillow is a single piece and cannot be repeated.

The pillow measures 19 inches square and weighs about one pound. The embroidered face is cotton and silk.

Newly made and unused. Hand embroidery carries small irregularities in stitch and color that belong to the work. No damage, no repairs, no fading. One of a kind: this panel makes one pillow and cannot be repeated. In stock and ready to ship from Houston, Texas. See less