A popular pastime of older times, embroidery is experiencing a revival as it makes its way for bold designs and colors with contemporary needs.
22 years old embroidery artist, Soliha Bashir of district Baramulla is one among the artists who are taking interest in this ancient art.
While growing up, she used to see her cousins practicing the art which drew her towards it. Being good at painting and calligraphy, she came up with the idea of doing the same with the help of needle and started her needle art.
“With the help of my sister who is also an artist, I got in touch with various professional artists of the valley like Waseem Jagroo which helped me after seeing my work and gave me an idea of showcasing my work to people,” said Soliha.
She started her page on Instagram by the name, Sonzal meaning rainbow and kept on exploring her potential for creative self-expression. With her hoop embroidery, she makes car hangings, key chains, jewelry, wall hangings and any customized hoop crafts for special purposes.
For the craft, a wooden hoop is required to make the intricate designs and fill them with different colors.
“I used to post my work on social media initially and suddenly I received texts from many people who wanted me to make the same for them and at that time I realized I can make SONZAL a brand and started taking orders,” she said. She said that people really love her art and in a span of 2 years, she has received orders in thousands.
She pursues studies in Humanities and working on the orders consumes most of her free time. “Handwork is always pure hardwork. It is time consuming but being a creative person, I don’t rush with it and take a good time to flow my creativity,” she said.
She further said, “At first I used to get orders from Kashmir only but now I get orders from all over India even from countries like Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Canada and Dubai.”
