Hand Puppets

           Puppets puppets Hand puppets , i love puppets. I feel age doesn't matter to have some puppets.
Hand puppets can be made following some theme, like animal, cartoon characters, cartoon super heroes, birds etc. Puppets are best to gift , especially for kids. Also puppets are used to narrate stories and of course we see lot of puppets show.


                      Variety of felt cloth is available . I like this below picture felt cloth for two reasons, as front and back of this felt cloth has same texture and also because its edges doesn't fray out. This felt cloth is multipurpose, can serve many purpose like padding for stump-work,  gold-work ,craft purpose.....so on.

Felt cloth

           
                     So i tried some hand puppets for my son's birthday return gift. When i was thinking of some return gift thought of hand puppets , goggled a bit to get some ideas , how to work on.

Hand Puppets

 

                  For toddlers, i feel they are able to recognize animal characters . So why not some loin roar ,frog leap, tweety tweet!!!

Rabbit Hand Puppet

           
                         Everything is hand stitched. For edges and all over i have used buttonhole stitch. And i am lucky enough to get helping hand, my Hubby dear helped me to do finishing.

Final Packed Gifts

Kantha Work

              Kantha Embroidery from West Bengal is very famous for its quilts, embroidery on sarees and  household articles. Main stitch used in kantha work is running  and kantha filling stitch looks like satin stitch.
Simple running stitch , stitched so beautifully and with lovely colour combination.

                Kantha embroidery is best shown by " Surayia Rahman".   And a documentary film in the making.

                 To know more about her check this link Surayia Rahman.  Her work narrates household activity through embroidery and its beyond imagination.

           

Kantha Work 

             
                 
                   I would say Surayia Rahman inspires and motivates me, surely no one can match her work. Above work is just trial to learn more, more........

Kutch work Lesson 1

         Let me start with very basic step in kutch work, my very first kutch tutorial, using open cretan as base stitch (interlaced open cretan). Firstly, basic 'single diamond'  using  'open cretan' stitch. So first lets learn 'open cretan' stitch.
                         
                                   

Open Cretan stitch

                            As you can see, start from A, pick 4-5 threads of cloth at point B and come out at C, again pick 4-5 threads of cloth at D and come out at E. Observe while coming out at C and E, needle should be above the thread.
                         
          Now draw a diamond like below picture

Draw diamond

             

               I usually take two strands of thread for base stitch and filling . Here i have taken 3 strands. Needle used is crewel 9 or 10.  Bring the needle out at point 1

Kutch work diamond

              Pick 4-5 threads of cloth, above point 2 as shown in below picture.

Base stitch done using open cretan

            Same way pick 4-5 threads of cloth as shown below at point 3

Base stitch open cretan

                 While ending at point 1, take needle below the thread as shown in picture and end above point 1.

                       Now here comes the golden rule of  kutch work, which followed correctly you can never go wrong.

                                                     

Golden Rule

Consider the above line, point A and B. While doing kutch work
 " if point A is above the thread then point B should be below the thread and vice verse"

complete base stitch using open cretan

                     
                                  Now apply golden rule to above diamond. Observe point 2 and 3. At point 2 , one end is above thread and at point 3, the other end is below the thread. Same way point 3 and 4. At point 3, one end is above the thread and at point 4, the other end is below the thread. So observe each point in a diamond 1,2,3,4. If one point is above the thread , the other point will be below the thread, which means base stitch is correctly done.

      Now start with filling step. Bring needle out , just below point 1 and close to base stitch as in above picture. Next bring needle below the base stitch as shown in below picture.

Filling stitch

   
 Bring needle below base stitch at point 2 as shown in below picture

 
                 Bring needle below base stitch (purple thread) and above filling stitch (orange thread)

             Repeat same step for entire diamond to get finished single diamond kutch

                 
                    Important note , while ending observe needle in below picture, one thread(orange) is below needle and another thread(orange) is above the needle.

                 To end bring needle below the base stitch at point 1 and end exactly at starting point as shown in above picture.

Finished single diamond kutch

                             
                   Observe inside of filling stitch , here also apply golden rule of kutch work, " if one end is above the thread then other end should be below the thread ".

                        While doing filling stitch, right tension of thread is important, whenever interlacing is done , don't pull thread too tight, it will spoil the shape and also stitch will not look good. Let the filling stitch (interlacing) be done bit freely , not too loose also.


        Same way try pentagon,

Pentagon

               
        Just following above steps in diamond work pentagon.

kutch pentagon      

                   
                     For this tutorial purpose i used big diamond and pentagon, and less number of strands. Usually while doing kutch no gap should be seen in between filling. Below is the example

Kutch single diamond and pentagon

     
                  So all the best, hope you all enjoyed this basic first lesson kutch work tutorial.

Chikankari

             Chikankari embroidery also know as lucknowi embroidery / shadow work / Indian white work. There is so much ... much to talk about " Chikankari ". According to history chikankari was in boom in 18th , 19th century. Authentic chikankari done on muslin cloth is so delicate and its richness of work is unbeatable.


         

amateur chikankari work

               

  Chikankari means, not just herringbone stitch done from back side, its much more than that. Initially , long back when i started to learn chikankari i too thought its just herringbone stitch.

                Spreading some light on this , chikankari is combination of,  lots of basic stitches. Apart from this authentic chikankari has minute applique work, mukaish/ badla work , jali work and little bit of  kamdani .  When all these combined together , i would say its perfect "Lucknowi" embroidery.

                

Not pakka chikankari

                          

                         As my search for authentic chikankari began, i was kind of  sad, i couldn't find most of the information through net. This was one of  the reason to start this blog and share my knowledge and to gain some from you all.  In my upcoming post , will talk in detail and some samples of chikankari embroidery. 

Kutch work using Herringbone stitch

               In my first post we talked about  kutch work using open cretan . As promised, in this post , will share my work, kutch work using "herringbone stitch" as base stitch.

kutch work using herringbone stitch

                When we use herringbone stitch as base stitch in kutch  work outcome is blunt finish. This method i personally like for bigger projects like cusion set, wall hanging, even for sarees.

kutch work using herringbone stitch

                      In this method i usually use six strands of thread, and even the design (diamonds) is big which suits for bigger project, which finishes the project soon enough.

kutch work using herringbone stitch

                        For a beginner, who just started to learn kutch work, i suggest to learn kutch work using open cretan as it is less confusing. Both method have its own richness.